The Sun Will Come Out

Chapter 23

Jess's POV
"Maya, I'm nervous," I whispered, standing behind Carina like a little kid.

"You'll be okay, lovebug," she reassured me, running her fingers through my hair. She crouched next to me, holding my face in her hands. "It's only a 30 minutes in a public place with mama and me right here, okay? We've got you."

I nodded, still wary of the entire situation. She stopped holding my face and moved to hold my hand, standing as she did so. "Are you okay, bambines?" Carina asked Iris and I.

We both gave her a nervous look, telling her exactly how 'okay' we were. An older couple approached us, their hands linked together. They both gave us warm smiles.

"Hi Lonny, great to finally meet you," Maya said, holding her hand out to the man. "I'm Maya. You've already met before, but this is Jess," she pointed to me, "and this little one is Iris," gesturing to Iris as well.

"Lovely to meet you as well, Maya," he replied kindly. "And it's so nice to see you two. We haven't seen each other since the two of you were little."

"Jess, do you remember us?" the woman asked. I looked up at her nervously, shrugging. I recognized her, but I couldn't remember anything else about her. "I figured, but that's ok."

"'Kay," was all I could say, hating how my voice shook. I gripped Maya's hand tighter, feeling her stroke her thumb over the back of mine.

"You don't have to be nervous, J," Lonny said. I smiled slightly at the nickname, remembering that my mom called me that a lot when I was younger. I smiled even wider when I remembered a day I had spent with the couple.

-flashback-

"J, are you ok?" Lonny asked, running up to me. I sat on the ground under the monkey bars, holding my knee close to my body. Iris - or then, Irene - was off to the side, playing in the mud with some random kid that they always played with when we came to the park.

My crying didn't distract them from their heated argument between their dump truck and their friend's barbie doll, the two supposedly going through a breakup. "Jess? Hey, baby, what hurts?" Lonny questioned when he was finally by my side.

He kneeled down next to me, gently shooing my hands out of the way so he could see my skin on my knee. He looked it over, lightly brushing the dirt from around my wound. My crying subsided when he didn't seem worried, knowing I was more upset by falling and embarrassing myself in front of the other kids than from the actual pain.

"Now, look here," he said, pointing at my knee. "That's a nasty little scrape you have, kid. How about we go back to the picnic table and put a piece of magic tape on this, hmm?"

I tearfully smiled; magic tape fixed everything. Scrapes, cuts, invisible ouchies, even stuffed animal imaginary injuries. Especially the ones with Toy Story characters on them.

I nodded, holding my arms up for him to scoop me up. He did so with ease, hauling me onto his shoulders.

He started towards our picnic table, loudly saying, "Mary-Anne! Our brave little adventurer is coming back from her travels! She's hurt; I need some TS2 Magic Tape for this injury, STAT!"

"Oh, Dr. Lonny, of course!" Mary-Anne, my grandmother, said as she picked through her bag in search of the box of Toy Story 2 bandaids. My mother sat next to her, holding her arms out for me to fall into when Lonny sat me in her lap.

"Thanks, Grandpa Lonny," I said when I was safely in her arms.

"Anytime kid. Now let's get this ouchie covered up so you can get back to your adventure," he said with a grin. "Where were you this time?"