mommy’s a mummy,” Kyle continued to tease.
Impulsively, Jamie pushed her way through the band of children and managed to succeed in getting away from them. They began to chant once more.
JAMIE’S AN ORPHAN! JAMIE’S AN ORPHAN!!!!!
An orphan!
As the little girl stumbled her way through the remainder of the playground, her self-control gone wild as she sobbed and cried, she barely heard the rest of what they were saying, and didn’t care who said it.
GO LIVE WITH YOUR BOOGEYMAN UNCLE, JAMIE. WHEN YOU GROW UP, YOU CAN BE JUST LIKE HIM!!
And, between her sobbing, Jamie cried back, unaware that they could not hear her, “Stop it. Please, please stop it.”
She continued to run. She ran out the gate, to the walkway and down a narrow asphalt driveway past a few parked cars, a parked stationwagon and out onto the neighborhood sidewalk, out of the sight of her tormentors. Had they followed? She turned, but could see no one. She hurried towards a patch of grass in front of a large home, and leaned against the maple tree there, exhausted and frightened. She tried to compose herself, as her mother taught her to do before she
Her real mother .
She tried to force those thoughts from her head, from her memory, and, very slowly, she managed to succeed as best as she could. She told herself to be calm. Just be calm. Everything will be all right .
There it went again, the voice of her mother. The voice of Laurie Strode. It was useless.
She wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffing, and as she did so she began walking again. It didn’t matter where she walked; all that truly mattered was the distance she put between her and those children somewhere behind her. Just to be sure, she glanced behind her again. No, they weren’t there. But they would eventually show if she remained.
She continued walking, past driveways and green lawns littered with deadened leaves, past other children engaged in eating some early Halloween candy and giggling to themselves about some inane joke.
Just then a dark brown sedan pulled up in front of her as she approached a remote intersection, the driver rolling down her window. Jamie thought she recognized this girl, and then Rachel leaned over the driver and began to wave.
“Hi, Jamie!”
Surprised, Jamie stepped over to the car. Rachel immediately sensed something immediately in the girl’s eyes and stepped out of the car, coming around the front and walking up to her. The closer she came, the more obvious were Jamie’s tear reddened eyes.
“Jamie,” she asked, concerned, “are you okay?” Jamie forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m…..”
For the moment, Rachel seemed to accept Jamie’s halting answer and took her hand. Together, they hopped inside the sedan, Jamie squeezed between the two teenagers. The girl at the steering wheel pulled the car away from the curb.
“Jamie,” Rachel said, referring to the other girl, “you remember Lyndsey, don’t you?”
Lyndsey glanced down at the little girl. “Hi, Jamie.”
“Hi,” Jamie said back, shyly.
“Well, kiddo,” Rachel asked her. “You ready for some ice cream?”
“I want to get a costume and go trick-ortreating like the other kids,” she replied.
Rachel was half—stunned; pleasantly surprised. “But I thought you didn’t want to go trickor-treating.”
Jamie said, nearly pleading, “Can’t a girl change her mind?”
Lyndsey let out a brief chuckle.
Rachel smiled and accompanied Lyndsey with giggles of her own, inching towards the little girl. “I guess she can if she’s as cute and ticklish as you are!”
And with that, Rachel’s fingers managed to catch her foster sister’s underarms and began to fiendishly tickle, while Jamie squealed and squirmed in her seat.
Among the childish uproar, and after a few final giggles from herself, Lyndsey spoke up casually as she made a left—hand turn at the following intersection, “You know, Rach, the discount Mart’s having a sale on Halloween costumes.”
Sly, Lynd,
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