Something in the Way You Move [O'J]

Part 14

She lifts up the front of her top to show us the black and blue mess that is her stomach. "It's getting...better..." she mumbles after a minute.

"If this is better, then what did they look like before?" I ask quietly.

"You don't wanna know," she says, barely more than a whisper. She wraps her arms around herself and studies the floor intently. I kneel down and gently pull her into a hug, her head resting on my shoulder. After a moment or so, she pulls away and Jessie brings her into a hug. She pulls away from her, too, and says, "Well, that was touching, but right now I'm hungry. Let's go eat." She turns and walks away without another word. Jessie and I stand there for a minute.

"Well..." I state. "She's got her priorities...straight."

"Yup," Jessie replies, "Shall we?" I offer her my arm in reply, which she takes and we stroll into the kitchen. I notice Callie rolls her eyes but grins as she sees us. I hear her mutter something along the lines of "...hopeless romantics..." and wink at her. She waits until Jessie's back is turned before pretending to gag. Instead of replying, I go to help Jessie get food out of the fridge to make lunch. Since I don't have much, we end up making sandwiches. After we finish lunch, I notice I have absolutely no food left in my house. Clearly I'm not the only one, because Jessie says, "Well, then, Dan. You're completely out of food. So how's about this: I'll take Callie to get clothes and personal items and you go get food and stuff. Sound like a plan?"

"Yup. Callie, are you okay with that?"

She shrugs in response. "It's not safe for me to go out in public; not because I'm scared I'll run into them, but because I ran away. I'm a missing person. People are bound to have seen my picture before. They could recognize me and bring me to the police..."

"We could disguise you," Jessie offers. "I have a ton of make-up that could help with that, if that would work for you."

"Or you two could just let me go."

I study her for a minute or two. She doesn't break eye contact with me the whole time. "Are you saying you're unhappy here?"

"No, no, it's not that. It's that you're putting yourselves in harms way if they find out I'm here and you could potentially giving yourselves bad names if the press finds out. And besides, I've lived in that hell-hole for almost two years. The streets aren't that bad compared to that."

"We're not letting a child live on the streets, Callie. It's dangerous; what if they find you again?"

"That's the risk of playing the game." I shift uneasily in my chair. Can she really think this is all a game?

"What do you mean, the game?" Jessie asks, just as unnerved as I am.

"I meant what I said. This whole thing is a game. I ran away, I made my move. They got the police involved, that was their move. I left Ireland before I was considered missing, took the ferry to England: my move. If I'm lucky, they still think I'm in Ireland, but I know they would've alerted other countries nearby just in case. I saw it in a newspaper someone trashed a few days ago. I just have to figure out where to go from here."

"And if they catch you?"

"The stakes get higher the next time we play. They know I could find someone and tell them about them being abusive, someone that could help me, someone that could probably land them in jail."

"And if they find out you're here, with us?"

"Are you asking me to stay?"

"Of course."

"Then you put yourself in massive danger."

"That's the risk of playing the game. Consider us players."

She laughs dryly and shakes our hands. "Welcome to the game."

"So what's your next move?"

"Well, for now, blend in and avoid suspicion. There's a ton of people here in London; I should be able to hide well enough. Later, though, I want to go back to Ireland and bust those bloody bogmonsters..." Jessie stares at her blankly when she says "bogmonsters", but I understood exactly what she was saying and ask, "So what's the plan for when you do go back?"

"Well, the eejits have this memory stick with...well, with pictures of my beatings, essentially, to send to the other guys if they weren't there...so I just have to borrow that and I'm set, home-free." She laughs suddenly, before crying, "The bloody eejits are sending themselves to jail!" She starts laughing again, and I can't help but join her: how stupid could you be; I mean, really!

After a few minutes, Jessie tries to get us to calm down. Callie manages to do so, but it's not happening for me. Nope. Just not happening. I hear Callie yell, "Oi, babes would you cop on?!" After I still don't get a grip, she turns to Jessie and mutters, "He's a right pain in the arse, the bloody jackeen..."

Immediately I stop laughing and demand, "What did you call me?"

"A bloody jackeen!" she says casually. I'm about to snap at her when she continues, "But, hey, I'm one too, so can you really take offense?"

"Okay, hold up guys, what is a 'jackeen', first off?" Jessie demands.

"Well, a jackeen is just another name for a person from Dublin. Some people," Callie says, nodding at me, "can take offense to it. I'm one, too, though, since I'm originally from the south side of Dublin." She nods and before we can continue the subject, Callie asks, "So how are we going to disguise me?"

"Just come with me and we can work on that," Jessie answers. Callie gets up and follows Jessie out of the room.