Chapter Five

SHAWN

After we got Danica home, I settled into bed with Angela, feeling her arms around my waist as I pulled her close to me underneath the sheets.

"I told you not to be hard on her, Shawn." Angela whispered to me. I felt her hand on my cheek and I turned towards her.

"I wasn't." I said. "Really Angela."

"I could hear you guys screaming from the kitchen!" she whispered loudly. I felt her fingers tighten around my arm.

"Ow." I shook my hand free. "I know. Okay, look, I guess I was a little hard on her."

"You think Shawn?" she whispered. "You know how she gets when she gets upset. You knew that if you just attacked her, she wouldn't come quiet."

"I know." I kissed Angela's cheek. "Actually, I don't know…You do know, Angela…You know all there is to know about Danica. I don't. Does that mean I screwed up? I mean, now. Not when I was a kid. Cus you don't need to answer that."

"Shawn…" Angela whispered. She wrapped her arms around my stomach. "No…You haven't screwed up. Neither one of us has. Okay?" I felt her arms go up and down as she patted my chest.

"Okay." I told her. "I just wish…things would be a lot easier if Feeney was still alive."

"I know, Shawn, but no one lives forever. And Mr. Feeney was old, even when he was teaching us. At least he knew he was loved by everybody."

"I know. It's just Feeney would know what to do, you know? He would know exactly what to say, how to say it, and what to do with Danica."

"Shawn…" Angela's voice trailed off. I touched her arm.

"Yes?"

"Why are you so scared for Danica? Shawn, she's a smart girl…"

"Angela-" I rolled over on my side so I could look at her directly. "She ran away and she also cut school in one day. And she hangs out with people like Malcolm Jemero. I think I have a right to be scared."

"Shawn-"

"No, Angela! And look where we live! Not exactly Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood! There's drug-trafficking, and-and violence and crackwhores and all sorts of stuff Danica can get in to!"

"Shawn! Danica won't-"

"Angela, how do you know? Here's something I know. It's easy. It's so easy to get in to. But you cannot get yourself out. Getting in to that stuff is the easiest thing in the World."

"Shawn…"

"No. Don't 'Shawn' me. I said what I said. You can believe me if you want."

We didn't talk for the rest of the night. Angela fell asleep soon after everything happened, but I stayed awake – laying next to her, feeling her body in my arms, but my energy never faded.

I just stayed there in bed, watching the lines of moonlight grow and shrink with time across the ceiling, slow at first, then fast, then slow again. I watched every sliver of moonlight – just like a tangible heartbeat.

Two days later, Saturday came around. I made sure Danica had gone to school the day before and she wasn't talking to me. What ever questions she had she asked Angela. Angela talked to me, but not very much. Then I heard a car pull up through all the City's noises and then footsteps coming up the stairs.

"RACHEL!" Angela screamed. I looked around the corner. Angela had thrown her arms around Rachel and Danica was looking over the top of the living room couch. I could hear Chris Brown faintly, as if he was a ghost or something through her earphones, she didn't take off. While Rachel and Angela launched into a 90-mile-an-hour chat, walking into the living room, Jack walked into the doorway.

He still looked the same since I last saw him at his Wedding, but now he was holding the hand of a tall and skinny girl with long hair just like Angela's, but eyes as big as Jack's. She looked maybe a year or so younger than Danica.

"Hey bro." Jack said, clapping my shoulder. I nodded, offering him a small smile in return. I looked at the girl he was holding hands with. I tried to smile more.

"Hello." I said. "I'm your Uncle Shawn." She nodded at me, her fingers still laced with Jack's.

"Shawn, this is Eva. The girl I wrote to you about. Me and Rachel adopted her when she was just a baby."

"Oh." I nodded, like I was even vaguely interested and hadn't figured that out. "From Ethiopia?"

"Yeah." Jack nodded, then veered off from our awkward silences to say hello to Angela. Rachel came after me, hugging me, and kissing me on the cheek. Danica got up from the couch only to look at the scene for a moment, have Eva's eyes meet hers, then close the door to her bedroom.

I didn't take action. I didn't storm into her bedroom, demanding her to be social and not be a hermit. I just let her go. If Angela didn't believe what I told her, maybe if Danica actually did something I talked with Angela about Thursday night, maybe she would believe me.

After a few hours of the four of us, just talking and catching up, sipping the wine that Jack brought over, Corey and Topanga showed up, with Vanessa and a tall boy of about eighteen with short, spiked blonde hair, and stubble.

"Well now." Jack said slowly, looking at Vanessa and the boy, after Eva had been introduced by Rachel. "Who is this?"

"This is my boyfriend, Isaiah." Vanessa introduced. "Where's…Danica?"

"Uh…in her bedroom, I think, right Shawn?" Angela asked me as she took an empty chip bowl from the coffee table. I nodded, stuffing my hands into my jean pockets. Vanessa took Isaiah down the hall and knocked on the bedroom door. Eva looked at Jack and he let go. Surprisingly, Eva went with Vanessa and her boyfriend. Vanessa came back after a few minutes, swatting her hair out of her eyes as if they were flies.

"Uh, she's not there." Vanessa said uneasily.

"What?" the color drained from my face as all of us ran towards her bedroom. I looked into her bedroom and saw that her window was open. A cold December breeze cut through the room. I looked at Angela, then back at the window, then back at Angela again.

"There." I said. "Now you believe me, Angela?"