Surviving The New World (Book Six in the Surviving The Walking Dead Series)

Important Decisions

"Harper?" I softly spoke.

"Yeah?"

"You're six years old now, you're gettin' to that age where ya can start makin' some decisions for yourself."

"I can?"

"Yeah. Like, what ya want for dinner, bein' one of 'em."

"I want fish sticks," Harper smiled.

"Alright," I chuckled. "Fish sticks it is." The cart fell silent. "Harper, where we're goin', there's a man there who is in jail. Ya remember what I told ya about 'em, right?"

"He—He did bad things?"

"That's right. Thing is, he's been dyin' to see ya, but I've been keepin' ya from 'em because, well, he's not your daddy. Plus, your daddy didn't want 'em to have anythin' to do with ya."

"But Daddy is gone."

"I know. See, I know the man in jail real well and I know he's gonna see ya at some point while we're livin' there. He's not as bad as people make 'em out to be, he just did bad things...but so have I."

"You have?"

"Everyone has."

"Even me?"

"Well, not at first, but the day ya let the chickens out to pet 'em was a bad thing, so that added ya to the list of people who've done bad things," I chuckled.

"I'm sorry,"

"Don't be. The point is that ya learned from it, didn't ya?" Harper nodded. "Good."

"Mommy?"

"Yeah?"

"Has the bad man learned?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm not the one who locked 'em up." I turned and looked at Harper. "The point I'm tryin' to get to is that that man is gonna see ya from his window and he's gonna bug the ever livin' shit outta me about seein' ya."

"Do I need to see him?"

"No, Harper, ya don't," I softly smiled. "That's what I'm tryin' to tell ya. You're old enough to make those decisions on your own and I want ya to tell me if ya wanna meet 'em or not." Harper fell silent. "Ya don't gotta decide now if ya don't want, but it's somethin' I want ya to think about, okay?"

"Okay," Harper nodded. "Mommy?"

"Yeah?"

"Will he hurt me?"

"No, baby," I gently wrapped my arm around her. "He would never hurt ya. He's known ya since ya were in Mommy's tummy with JoeJoe."

"He has?"

"That's right."

"Then why have I not seen him before?"

"Well...I agreed to let 'em meet ya and spend time with ya, but after JoeJoe died, I had a problem with copin' and I took back our agreement."

"But you said we should keep our promises."

"We should, but this is different, Harper. I thought long and hard about it over the years and decided that when you were old enough, I'd let ya make that decision for yourself."

"Why?"

"Because it ain't right to make important decisions like this without consultin—eh, talkin' to ya. It's your life, Harper, so the decision is yours."

"I wanna meet him." My stomach lurched with surprise and yet nervousness.

"Ya do?"

"You promised, Mommy. You told me I have to keep my promises, so do you."