Part III
Nancy Parker POV
I'm in the Crashdown, the restaurant my family owns. My husband is in the back office, settling accounts. My daughter Elizabeth is standing on a step stool behind the cash register, smiling sweetly at all the customers as they come to pay for their food.
I know it's horribly mercenary of me to use a ten-year-old to garner extra tips…but I'm doing it. Besides, helping out in the restaurant is still a game to her. Later on, when she is a waitress here it will not be play time. But for now it is.
Two new customers have just walked in. It is a man, and his daughter. She looks to be about my Lizzie's age. But she is smaller, and thinner. Her hair is blond and her eyes are blue. They are huge, dominating her entire face. Her face is dirty, and she looks tired. I wonder if the man is a trucker. He doesn't look like it, but they do have the look of the road, of travelers. And they do not seem like tourists.
They sit at a booth and I wave at Agnes, indicating that I will take this order myself. Agnes is never sorry to get to sit a little longer, so she only nods. I approach the table, and I smile. "Hi, welcome to the Crashdown. I'm Nancy, I'll be your server for today. What can I get for you?"
The little girl looks up at me, shyly. "Where's the bathroom?" She nearly whispers.
I point, and she vacates the booth.
Her father watches her go. He asks for two waters, eggs, an extra bottle of Tabasco sauce. I write it down, but I don't need to. The little girl comes back. Her face is glowing. All the dirt has been washed away from her face, hands, neck, and arms.
Her hair seems brighter somehow. The previously tangled curls are neatly brushed and in two pigtails. I promise to have the food right out, and I walk behind the counter. Liz has gone back to the kitchen. She is sitting on the dishwasher, listening to Jose, our Mexican cook, tell her a colorful story about pirates and aliens.
I tell Jose the order, asking him to put extra in. I promise to pay for it. I don't know why, but somehow I sense that the little girl sitting out there is starving, not only for food but for a mother. I see the way she looked at me when I kissed Liz's forehead and sent her upstairs to do homework.
I give the man and the little girl the food. She looks at him out of the corner of her eye when I deliver plate after plate, but she cleans every one. From the look of her she shouldn't be able to eat more than a bird… but then birds do eat four times their body weight just to survive. Lizzie told me that. Amazing the things that girl picks up. I love my daughter, I do, but sometimes she can make me feel ignorant, and trapped. I know she's outgrowing me, and the only one who can keep up with her is Claudia. Jeff's mother. My daughter idolizes Claudia, but…
The little girl has asked me a question, the first I've heard her speak since she asked for the rest room. She's either very shy, or no that must be it, she's very shy. I tell her to speak up. She asks if she could have some juice please.
The man glares, like it's an unreasonable request, and I bite back the urge to give him a piece of my mind. I give her the juice, and I watch as she drinks it. The man grabs her arm and tells her it's time to move on. The little thing flinches, and tries to take her arm away from him. I'm about to step in, when Jim Valenti is there. Jim is a good man, a strong man. He asks if there's a problem.
The Crashdown is all but empty now. Just me, Jose, Jim, the man and the little girl. I thank God that I sent Lizzie upstairs. The little girl is trembling. The man's gripping her arm so tightly I wonder why she isn't crying. He let's go and says, "No, no problem. Child, it's time to go."
"Child is not my name." The little girl finally stands up tall.
The man looks furious. "Do you defy me?" He snarls in her face.
The child stands taller, and suddenly I think I see a queen or a princess before me. The tilt of her head is something I have only seen in movies or on TV. "My name is not child, creature, it or you. Call me by my name. I have one."
Jim Jose and I are all frozen, watching the play between the two. What is it that the child has over the man? And he her? I no longer believe he is her father, so why are they together?
"All right, Ava." The man says. "It's time to go, your majesty."
"I am not Ava here. I am Tess." The little girl declares, setting her chin. Her face is the shape of a heart, and if she had any baby fat, it would be an angelic face, especially with that hair, and those eyes. But she is bone thin, and her eyes are haunted. "I don't want to go with you any more. You hurt people for no reason and you make us run and hide. I want to eat hot food and sleep in a real house and take real baths."
Jim breaks the spell. "Acting as Sheriff of Roswell New Mexico I am stepping in and turning this child over to human services on grounds of neglect." He motions to me, and I stumble over. "Nan, would you and Jeff take Tess here over night?"
"Of course." I look at the girl uncertainly, but she seems to sort of collapse. I catch her, and as I turn around Jose is there. He wraps her in a blanket and takes her from my arms, crooning to her in Spanish. She answers in his language, and I am slightly stunned that this child I do not know will be in my home overnight.
Jose carries her upstairs. He sets her down in the bathroom, and I tell her she may take a bath if she wants. She nods, and I retreat to gather some of Liz's old clothes for her to sleep in. Liz is asleep. I set up our couch, and transfer my daughter to it. Liz will not mind, and I think that for tonight the little girl without a home or family deserves a real bed.
I tuck her in, saving my questions about who she is and where on Earth she came from for tomorrow.