Slipping Through My Fingers | John B Little Sister

Chapter 6

"One more thing," Ward's fatherly concern slipped easily from his face as a calculated casualness took its place. What ever he was about to say John B could tell it was what he had wanted to say from the moment he sent Sarah out of the room. "Last night Sarah was in my office, and she was getting a map and she said it was for you and..."

Shit.

He was onto him. 

"I'm sorry but I just have to ask," Ward pressed, John B stared with interest at the perfectly varnished floorboards beneath him. Completely unsuspiciously.

Please don't. 

"You're not chasin' after pots of gold like your old man, are you John B?" 

Here John B was counting this man as one of his blessings. A gift from God. And with one sentence any ounce of trust or reliance he had once placed on Ward Cameron faded in an instant.

For a moment all that was screaming throughout John B's head was, 'He's after my fucking gold.'

And then out of the depths of his stomach, the heart of his gut, that organ lodged deep inside of him the one that produced his instinct, came his second thought.

Lie.

And so he lied. 

"Look, Mr.C uhh..." Though he didn't do it very well, "Sarah just told me you guys had some cool old maps? I'm kind of a history buff myself, and uhh."

God, he felt sick. He was lost out at sea. He could taste saltwater at the back of his throat. 

"That I guess I got from my dad so.."

They both allowed another uncomfortable pause. John B's thoughts tracked back to his gold.

"That makes sense." Ward broke the silence, his paternal facade melting back onto his face as he made his way out of the room, "Anyway, take it easy the next couple days all right?"

"Absolutely, yeah." John B lied again. 

"You've been through a lot." Well at least that was true. 

***

There were three toys in her mothers house.

A yellow post van the length of Lu's palm. It was missing two wheels and a door. 

A pink cat that played 'You Are My Sunshine' whenever Lu pulled its tail. 

And a Rubix cube.

Her mama had bought them for her at a second hand store on their way home from the hospital that morning. She put them in a cardboard box in the corner of her living area and told Lu to sit down.   

So Lu sat.

She rolled the yellow van across the floor the wooden board loose and creaky. While her mother and the police man she didn't like talked in hushed voices in the other room. 

She wondered, as she flicked row after row of the Rubix cube experimentally, if Johnny was okay. If he had woken up yet. If the blonde girl from last night was still with him. If he was coming to get her soon.