Sitting in the shade provided a bit of respite from the sun, which clocked at high noon, glaring at everyone who dared to venture out without sunscreen.
Sweat slithered down Rani's face and neck and she fanned herself with the hat while looking around for Charlie and Matt. They still hadn't returned from the stuffed animal booth games.
The food court had filled up; people were squeezed against each other so badly it would've given a heart attack to a claustrophobic person. Every burger, taco, funnel cake, and salad bar brimmed with persons of all ages, genders and races.
At the end of the table she sat at, a family sat across from her at an opposite table.
The child at the end of the table sat with his mouth wide open, like he wanted to scrape the table with it.
The stares.
Several people who walked by her gave her a weird glance, as if she were a pulsating alien waiting to eat them. Every time she'd look at them, they'd scramble away.
What if Matt and Charlie think like that? They may just be tolerating your presence.
The negative thoughts swirled around her like a malicious snake, one that sank it's fangs into her heart with every nasty word.
She could see the disgust in other people's eyes. Wondering why she was there ruining their pleasant day. Like lasers in the middle of the night, slicing up every happy thought she had. She'd hoped the hat would cover her face well enough to hide the scars.
However, sitting in a shaded area with a hat made her stick out like a throbbing sore thumb.
The kid across from her still stared like a zonked-out puppy. A young couple, whom Rani assumed to be the kid's parents, sat on either side of him, and slowly split up the food they'd bought.
As soon as the chicken nuggets and fries landed on his plate, he was gulping them down.
However, it seemed that staring ran in the family because his mother looked at her.
The face.
Like they were looking down on her, like she was supposed to be locked up in a lab, not out in the wild at an amusement park. It was as if someone had taken a fat shit right underneath the young woman's nose; the sneer she gave rattled Rani's confidence.
When's Matt coming back?
People liked looking at him; everyone smiled when he was in the room, talking or joking.
Though in Ash's case, giving him an 'airplane' ride.
Despite the unease pooling in the lining of her stomach, she smiled softly at the thought of him zooming Ash around Lily's restaurant. How Matt's arm muscles seemed to bulge whenever they flexed his t-shirt sleeves.
She squirmed; these weren't the right thoughts when she was worried about the starer.
"Excuse me." Sneer Queen had gotten up from her table and came over to Rani's side.
"Yes?" Rani asked.
"Um, you're, like, disturbing the area. Please go away." Her sickly, fake girly tone reminded Rani of the condescending people in her life.
Equal parts rude and scary.
"I don't understand?" Rani asked. No one else looked disturbed.
Weirded out by her scars probably.
An older black woman, with whom seemed to be her grandchildren, sat at the table over, and looked at the two of them when Rani spoke.
"You're scaring my child, okay? Like seriously, please move." The young woman's face slowly lost the fake smile.
The kid in question happily munched at his chicken nuggets and fries, occasionally dipping them in the ranch that sat nearby. He looked very content.
A blistering wind slapped Rani's hat from the table to the floor and swirled around smells of fried foods and milkshakes.
As she reached down to pick it up, Rani made a point of looking behind the woman and said, "He looks pretty happy to me. Not scared at all."
Red blossomed on the woman's face and the sneer iced into a glare. "You need to get out of here. It's sickening to see someone like you. You're ruining our day out and freaks like you only deserve to be at home!"
Instantly, like a stink bomb had gone off, everyone within the radius was silenced. Some people looked like they wanted to intervene, but what could they do that could remedy the situation?
Rani knew the words were coming.
But what she didn't expect was the knife that sliced her heart, while a slow burn took out her cheeks and forehead. She'd heard the words before.
Why, after all this time, do they still affect her?
Her fingers slowly started rubbing the raised flesh on her neck and she lowered her face, so others wouldn't know that tears leaked out of her eyes. Her heart constricted her windpipe and she had to take deep, shallow breaths to clear her vision.
"Seriously," the woman said. "You should think about others before yourself."
"That's enough outta you," a voice chided.
The older black woman had stood up on her walker and had inched over to where they were. Behind her, her grandchildren hid, clutching onto her loose yoga pants. A fiery look burned within her eyes, but her derisive tone wasn't directed at Rani.
"This young lady wasn't doing anything wrong. What's the matter with you?" The older woman asked.
Sneer queen gnarled. "Everyone here thinks that! She's ruining all of our—"
"She's certainly not ruining mine and this woman is a beautiful human being. You're the one that's ruining everyone's day," the grandma said.
Hearing it from a stranger slowly removed the knives piercing Rani's emotions, but the tears still spilled down, and she shuddered a breath.
"Hmph!" So much for being a sneer queen; as soon as someone called her out, the lady ran away with her tail between her legs.
For a few moments, Rani couldn't hear anything except her own gasps as she struggled for air and the furious motions to swipe away at her eyes. The blistering heat gave birth to winds that dried the salty drips to her face.
"Baby? Would you like to sit with us? Or are you waiting for someone else?" The grandma had approached her. The little ones still hugged her, but they peeked out and gave Rani a toothy grin.
Rani wobbly smiled back at them. "I'm waiting for my friend and his daughter to come back. But I'd love to sit with you."
Maybe people wouldn't judge her as harshly as she assumed they would.
~~~
The security area for the park hadn't changed all that much in over two decades. There was that odd coffee stain behind the chief's desk, unchanged after all these years.
The woman who'd reported him stood smugly near the officer, whose words zoned in and out of Matt's ears.
The last time he'd been in here, the chief officer had been an old, bald, rounded man who looked older than the park. Matt had been in for goofing off on one of the dangerous rides and dropping his stuff.
The new one was more trim and younger. Probably would be harder to get along with.
Charlie's stricken face still gashed his heart; he knew he'd never forget the expression when he got dragged away by security.
The woman glared at him and broke Matt away from his thoughts. "You're sickening, you know that?"
Oh? Why was he?
"How dare you kidnap this—"
The younger officer stepped in and loudly warned her. "Ma'am, I told you to leave this to us. We will question him. Please step aside."
"I will not. Not until I know that young woman is safe." The lady grumbled, still smirking at Matt, like she'd just won the Lottery.
"Please leave it to us." The officer enunciated every word slowly. "We will contact you."
"Hmph."
The series of questioning that followed, with both Charlie and him, just him and then just Charlie turned his stomach inside out. Anything Matt had eaten that day had already puked up, leaving him to listen to the acid gurgle in his pouch.
They went repeatedly, asking them both how they were related, how long they'd known each other, had Matt ever done anything to her, etc. They took her away and started asking him different questions. The last time Matt had heard these questions, he'd been the one asking them to a vile bastard who'd kidnapped a young girl and done unspeakable things to her.
Now, he was on the other side. For wanting to have a fun day out with his daughter and friend. Matt eventually dropped that he was the chief of police in the town over.
The officer left Matt in the room with the lady that'd reported him. She was busily talking with an officer, explaining how heroic she'd been when she saw 'the young blonde lady being dragged around by a dirty Mexican'.
Officer Wheeler came back to him. "I'll need the number to the station you work for, to verify that you are indeed a policeman Mr. Flores. We may need to look into this more and your legal documents. Do you have your driver's license?"
Matt happily gave it, noting a satisfying drop in the smug look on the bitch's face.
After a few calls, the younger man came up to him with an ashamed expression, apologizing to Matt. "I'm so sorry, Chief Flores. It's just these days, we've been getting reports about traffickers and such, so we can't take any chances—"
Matt sighed. He'd had too many instances where someone reported him in a mall, or at a playground, just because his daughter didn't look like him or because he was a Latino man. "It's fine. And I understand, as a fellow officer, why you're doing this. It's just embarrassing."
"You are not letting him go!" the woman shrieked. "I'm not allowing it! He should be arrested and thrown in jail for brainwashing this young lady. Come here darling, I'll make sure you're taken care of."
She extended a hand towards Charlie, who ducked behind Matt and clutched his shirt. "He's my dad. Leave us alone, please," she whispered.
"No!" The woman ran at an officer, clawing at a handcuff, while screaming, "Citizen's arrest! Citizen's arrest!"
It took three men to come at her and take her down. Soon enough, in the dingy, small security room, it was she who was being arrested, not Matt. The officers took statements from Charlie and him.
Being let go into a crowd that had no idea what happened behind closed doors made Matt want to vomit up the acid building in his stomach. He swallowed away the sick feeling and smiled at Charlie. "You want to go home? Let's order some pizza to go and watch movies."
Tears poured from Charlie's eyes and her face was strawberry red. She wiped them away before asking softly, "Do I really not look like your daughter?"
The knife that tore apart his heart dug deeply, spitting acid into the wounds he'd long forgotten. He hugged her and placed a small kiss on her head. "You're my daughter, okay? You've got my eyes, my attitude and whatnot. Don't let what some random jackass said get to you alright?"
She nodded, sniffling a little more.
As they maneuvered through the crowds, Charlie asked, "About the pizza, can it be stuffed crust?"
"Yeah, we'll get everything we want. Maybe even two pizzas."
"Can we invite Ms. Rani? She hasn't seen the last few Ice Age movies and I want to watch them tonight," Charlie asked. "Please dad?"
He thought about her coming over to their house again and if he'd washed the guest bedroom sheets recently. "I mean, we haven't cleaned the house, but sure, I guess, if she wants to."
As they walked back to the food court, Charlie split off from him, stating that it'd be easier to find her by going different directions.
Matt caught sight of a familiar ginormous hat and neared her.
A big black grandmother sat next to her, patting Rani on the back. The two ladies seemed to be talking intensely. As he neared them, the grandmother asked, "So, the guy you came with is your ex?"
Matt slid near a wall that hid him well but could still allow him to clearly listen in on their conversation.
Her grandchildren braided Rani's hair, to the point that she looked like Medusa. Rani sighed. "No, he looks like my ex, like they could pass as twins. You wouldn't believe how similar they look. And after what that lady said, I was reminded of why people don't like being near me. I mean, he left me for someone; what if—I'm sorry for talking about all this, I think I overshare too much and also, you're easy to talk to."
Matt's heart stilled for two seconds. An icy claw sank into his chest, twisting and turning around until his insides had melted into a mush. Ram's odd gaze crossed his mind and that night at the restaurant now made more sense.
The old woman's voice came back. "Baby, just cause one person said that it doesn't mean everyone thinks that. My grandbabies thought you were some secret superhero. Right?"
She turned to the children who nodded their heads eagerly.
Rani mumbled, "I don't know...I just feel like people tolerate my presence. Some better than others."
She forced a laugh out.
The old lady shook her head. "Does this man make you feel like that?"
"No! Not at all, he's just—its complicated. He's so understanding and you can't help but be drawn to him but what if I'm thinking about—"
"Ms. Rani!"
Charlie hurried to her area and Matt walked away, not wanting to listen to the rest of their conversation.
No wonder why she didn't want to be near him. He felt sick to his stomach, to the man that'd hurt her and to the fact that Matt danced around, constantly trying to be the center of attention when she wanted a peaceful life.
Here he was, disrupting that.
Charlie called his phone, signaling that she'd found Rani.
~~~
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