Our moment was cut short as Lea began to tug at my sleeve; it looked like she was starting to get bored just sitting on her bed. I did not want to wake the rest of the children still sleeping, so I carried the little girl out into the hallway and lifted her over my head to produce a flying effect for her. She began to squeal as I lifted her high off the ground, but still with a safe grip on her torso. I finally set Lea down after a couple of minutes in the air. She excitedly ran away from my ticklish fingers only to be caught once again. For a child her age, she could definitely run quite fast.
I was slightly surprised when I noticed Lea removing her pacifier. I was not sure why, but it seemed she was trying to make out a word or a phrase to tell me. A sound wouldn’t come out, but from my poor lip reading skills, I would’ve assumed she was trying to say something that started with a “Bah, or Duh”. After countless attempts, she began to whimper and show signs of crying. I took the pacifier that was in her hand and placed it back in her mouth, to which her eyes beamed a smile at me. I hugged her tightly in hopes of it being enough for her to comprehend that it was okay and that I was not upset with her at all.
A few tears streaked down Lea’s still-rosy cheeks but were quickly wiped off. The both of us headed back inside the cramped room where a number of children had awoken from their afternoon naps and were now playing and laughing amongst themselves.
Out of nowhere, my phone’s vibration catches me completely off guard because I thought it had been off all day. Frank had just sent me a text message saying: “Yo M! nice job there cashin all dat xtra mony from george! heard everythin bout it! hope ya dont mind Star magazine sed there gunna put ur story on the front page! they willin 2 pay a sum good mony for it. Good stuff buddy ttyl!” And unfortunately, he was not kidding.
“Damnit, Frank…” I quietly muttered to myself. Frank’s naïve actions were to be complained and taken care of elsewhere; passing worry to someone else on this problem would not solve anything so I decided to not mention anything to either girls.
This newly attained publicity could very well lengthen the remaining five days I need to wait before Lea, Amber and I could all finally head up to New York. But with such a small time span before the big day; what’s the worst that could happen?