Finding Kylie (8 page)

             
“I miss you too.  Two weeks with dad is long enough.  He’s driving me crazy,” Whitney complained.

             
Cheryl imagined what it would have been like, for the two of them, fending for their meals, coming and going, and getting on each other’s nerves.  With Dave’s shift, he’d probably never see Whitney unless he’d make the time, and even then he’d be too grouchy from lack of sleep.

             
“I am sure you’re driving him crazy too.”  Cheryl smiled, imagining keeping Whitney under curfew.

             
“Hey ma, how you doing?  Okay?”

             
“I’m making it.  For now, I am just worried about Chastity.  She’s got it a lot worse off than me. Thanks for asking though.  I love you.” She started to close her conversation down. 

             
“I love you too.  Call me before your flight takes off.  I’ll be praying for you.  See you soon.”

             
“See you soon, and say a few prayers for Chastity too.”

             
Cheryl smiled as she hung up.  She had the sweetest daughter in the world, and was blessed with a very understanding husband. 

             
Dave has always understood whenever she’d need to take off to where ever Kylie was, to help her in her moment of need. 

              At least once or twice a year, she’d visit Kylie for a weeks at a time, to either help her move or for emotional support.  Most men would resent Cheryl’s relationship with her friend, but not Dave.  He always encouraged her to fly out when Kylie needed her.  He felt protective of both Kylie and Chastity. 

             
It makes sense that he’d want them safe from the dangers of the Mikale family.  After all, he is a police officer.

             
Cheryl had attended University of Kansas, and majored in Psychology.  She met Dave in her criminal psych class during her sophomore year.  Both were prone to sit on the back row, and ended up study partners.  It didn’t take long before they fell head over heels and became inseparable.  She was either at his place, or he was at hers and Kylie’s apartment, twenty-four-seven.  However, she never let him stay the night out of respect to her roommate. 

             
At first, Dave didn’t ask about Kylie’s situation.  He knew she wasn’t attending college, but didn’t understand why someone would follow a friend to the University, especially with a child. 

It wasn’
t until Kylie felt secure with Dave that Cheryl let him in on the whole truth about why her friend followed her to Kansas, to give birth to her child.  By this point, he had become attached to Chastity, and took a protective brother role in Kylie’s life.  This made him someone Kylie could trust, which she didn’t take lightly.

             
After graduation, Cheryl married David Jenkins, and they moved back to Oklahoma.  She always planned to open a private practice, but was too caught up in supporting Dave’s career or traveling to see Kylie, where or whenever she needed. 

             
Cheryl never officially counseled Kylie since she didn’t have a license, but it went further than just friendly advice.  She wanted Kylie to learn to be happy, for herself and her daughter. 

              In retrospect, Kylie was probably the reason Cheryl chose psychology as her main focus in college.  She had always been a helper, but Kylie’s trauma had her Cheryl too.  Psychology gave her the tools to heal, and in the end she liked to think it helped Kylie deal with it better too … especially since her friend would never get any real professional help.

             
Cheryl heard the floor creaking upstairs, and knew that Chastity was starting her day.  She glanced to her watch, which read 10 a.m. 

             
Good, at least she slept in a little.
 

             
She started the water for her shower, and hurried to get ready.  She’d been cleaning all morning and wanted to meet Chastity in the kitchen by the time she made it downstairs for coffee.

             
Chastity reveled in sleeping in.  She heard Cheryl sneak in a few hours earlier, but couldn’t force her eyes open.  Her eyelids were too heavy, as if they needed to be peeled away. 

             
Maybe because of how swollen they are.
She patted the bags beneath her eyes, which had swelled up like grapes. 

             
She had stayed up crying through the early hours of the morning, until she had exhausted herself to the point, where sleep was the only thing left.  Finally, she rolled over, arranged her pillows, and fell into a deep slumber. 

             
This morning, after she finally awoke … she enjoyed laying there, amongst her multiple fluffy pillows.  Her legs were strewn across a long body pillow, and her arms were tightly wrapped around another.  The cool breeze made its way through her open windows, and gave her comfort through all the chaos surrounding her.

             
Last night’s conversation cut deep, but it gave her insight on her mother and her relationship with her confidante. 

             
As a kid, she adored her Auntie Cheryl.  After all, she was family … but as Chastity grew older she was jealous of the fact that Cheryl was the one, who was always there for her mother.  At least now, she could put her mixed emotions about Cheryl to rest. 

             
Starting this morning, all she would feel was gratitude that she was the one her mother could count on.  Chastity couldn’t be to her mother what Cheryl was, and that was okay.  She knew being her daughter was enough ... finally. 

             
It’s been a long two weeks,
she thought to herself. 
The only good thing that has come from this has been gaining more understanding about Cheryl. 

             
She looked out her window and said aloud,
“I finally get why she was so protective of you, mom.  You were lucky to have her
.
”

             
Chastity didn’t know the half of it.

Chapter 10

              Chastity pulled up to the passenger drop-off area.  It was time to say her goodbyes, and there weren’t enough words to express what she felt. 

             
“Call me tomorrow and let me know you made it in okay,” Cheryl insisted, as she exited the car. 

             
Chastity teared up, and jumped from her car, to grab her in a bear hug. 

             
“I love you auntie Cheryl.”  She hesitated slightly; using a name she hadn’t called her since she was a kid.  “Thank you for everything.” 

             
Cheryl lifted her hands to Chastity’s face. “Love you too.  Your mom would be real proud of you, and so am I.” 

             
Chastity dropped her arms and watched Cheryl step inside the airport.  She continued waving from the curb, until her friend was out of sight, and hopped back into her Ford Explorer for the long drive home. 

             
She glanced to her backseat, which was packed full of her mom’s belongings.  Earlier, she had wrapped her mom’s journals within a sack and placed them at the top of her suitcase.  She still had another entire journal to read, but wasn’t ready to read anymore just yet.  After discovering about the night of her mother’s rape, she hadn’t even opened them.  She couldn’t.

             
Before pulling away from the curb, she popped in a few CD’s and set it to shuffle. She had an array of Pharrell Williams, Gwen Stephani, some 80’s pop, and some Christian music that would be enough to keep her from getting bored.

             
She turned up the volume, hoping it would infuse her with enough positive energy to ignore the dread, which still set in the pit of her stomach.  She smiled when one of her favorite Christian artists, Toby Mac, started pumping loudly through the sound system.  His funk sound was exactly what she needed to keep her traveling in solace for now.

             
Chastity and her mom started attending church, while in Friendswood, Alabama.  Miss Clara, who was like a second mother to Chastity, encouraged Kylie to come only after a few weeks of residing above her garage in the small apartment. 

             
Hard wooden pews lined either side of the narrow aisle.  As Chastity stepped in the small church, the floorboards creaked underneath her feet. 

             
“Go on sweetie,” Kylie urged, nudging her daughter inside. 

             
Although they were on time, it was obvious that most church patrons got there early on Sundays, as there wasn’t much room left.  Kylie would have preferred to sit in the back row.  As it was, there was enough talk around town as to why she and her daughter were in town.  The last thing she wanted was to draw more attention to them than necessary, especially since they were the only white people in that small little church.  She saw a few spaces up on the second row and nodded for her daughter to take the lead toward their seats.

             
“Aw, mom,” Chastity whispered.  “Why couldn’t I sleep in this morning?”

             
“Because I told Ms. Clara we’d be here.  It’s been a while since we’ve been, and it’s where we should be.  We’ll be coming from now on, so get used to it.”

             
Chastity begrudgingly sat down, as her mom took her place at her side. She even had on her best dress, although she wasn’t the dress wearing type.  She’d much rather be in a pair of blue jeans, but it was church … so her mom convinced her to don it regardless of her objections. 

             
She looked up to see Ms. Clara smiling down at them, from the choir.  She winked at Chastity, which made her feel a little better.  Chastity thought she had the most beautiful face of anyone she’d ever seen. 

             
Kylie motioned her daughter to lean back, as someone moved toward them.  Since there wasn’t much room, everyone scrunched in as close as possible. Chastity looked up just in time to watch the largest woman she’d ever seen push her way through the pew, and make her way next to her. Little Chastity barely had enough time to scoot over before being sat on. 

             
Unfortunately her dress and her leg became pinned under the excess body fat that fell over to either side of her new pew mate.  She desperately tugged at her dress, trying to free herself from the added weight, but it was of no use.  Horrified that she was stuck under someone, who had no clue that she was flat out sitting on her, she did the only thing she could. 

             
“Momma, help me!  She’s sitting on me and I can’t move!”  She complained just loud enough for the whole congregation to hear. 

             
Kylie looked down into her daughter’s frantic eyes, as she tried wiggling free.  Caught between two responses, she wasn’t sure if she should laugh at her child’s predicament, or cringe as now all eyes were on them.  Luckily, she didn’t have time to react, as Clara came to their rescue.

             
“Nora!” Clara put her hand on her hip, while pointing her finger at her friend.  “Get off that child at once! Don’t you know your parts are pinning her down?” 

             
Kylie thought she’d fall through the floor from embarrassment, but was extremely grateful that the task of asking this woman to kindly remove herself from her daughter wasn’t left up to her.

             
Once big Nora pried her side from the skinny little girl beneath her, she watched her scamper into her mother’s lap, where she sat for the duration of the service.

             
Although Chastity had many fond memories of her time with her mom in Alabama, that first Sunday in church wasn’t one of them.  To this day, if she attends church she picks the back row and makes sure there’s plenty of room.

             
Church wasn’t a place they regularly stayed as they moved from place to place, but it was still somewhere that gave them a sense of belonging when they attended.  It always provided peace during the many storms of their life.  Toward the end of her mother’s sickness, she saw her reading her Bible quite often.