Mamie breathed a sigh of relief and set Katie back on the ground. She took a firm grip on her hand and led her toward Bally’s parking garage.

“Where are we going?” Katie said.

“To get the car.”

“And then we’re gonna see Daddy?”

“No. Then we’re going to the airport. We’re flying back home.” I’ve got a lawyer and a judge who’ll be very interested in seeing you just as you are. And then they’ll change their exalted opinion of Dr. John Vanduyne.

Katie pulled her hand free. “No! I want to see Daddy!”

“You will. I promise you.” When he has to appear in court.

“I want to see him now!” Mamie grabbed Katie’s upper arm and yanked her to ward the garage’s glass-enclosed elevator area.

“No arguing now. Come along.”

“No!” Mamie felt her anger rising. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed people standing nearby on the sidewalk. She didn’t want a scene here. As she pulled Katie inside the glass enclosure, she raised her voice, yet kept it cloyingly sweet for the benefit of anyone within earshot.

“Come on, baby,” she said. “You can press the button when we get into the elevator. It’s three. You know three, don’t you?” An elevator stood open and Mamie gave Katie the bum’s rush through the doors.

“No!” Katie cried. “I don’t want to be with you! I want to be with Daddy!”

That did it. Before she knew what she was doing, Mamie jabbed the“3” button herself, then gave Katie a well-deserved slap across her whiny little face. The sound echoing harshly in the tiny elevator cab as the doors slid closed.

“That’s just about enough,” she said. She glanced down at Katie who was holding her face with her free hand and sobbing softly. “One thing you’re going to learn and learn well is to do as you’re told and keep a civil tongue in your head.”

The car stopped on the third level, the door slid open; and Mamie stepped out, pulling the still-sobbing Katie after her. Another glass enclosure. She stepped through the doors into the parking area and looked around. Now where had she left her car?

Suddenly a noise to her left as the exit door slammed open; a slim young woman in jeans and a plaid shirt was moving toward her, breathing hard as if she’d been running.

She had short, jet-black hair, and red-rimmed eyes.

She looked as if she’d been crying. Those eyes blazed as they found Katie. She never stopped moving as she spoke through clenched teeth, bared in a snarl.

“You bitch!” And then Mamie’s face exploded with pain as the woman smashed a fist into her nose.

Mommy dearest staggered back as blood began pouring from her nose. She let go of Katie and raised her hands to her face. She began to scream and so Poppy hit her again, right in the bread basket.

She grunted, doubled over and lurched away, like she was going to run. Poppy started after her, fists raised, itching to hit her again.

Poppy had been crouched in the loading bay, bawling, feeling sorry for herself, when she spotted the mother dragging Katie down the street toward Bally’s garage.

Immediately she’d sensed something wasn’t right. Why hadn’t Katie been reunited with her daddy?

Poppy had followed them into the garage and seen her slap Katie just as the elevator doors shut.

What followed was mostly a blur running up the steps with murder in her heart, pacing the elevator, getting to level three and seeing Katie with tears on her face and a big red slap mark across her cheek.

Something snapped in Poppy then, and Jesus it had felt so good flattening that bitch’s nose. She wanted to keep on pounding her, let her know how it felt.

And now the bitch was trying to run. Still bent over, she staggered away. But she didn’t get far. She ran the top of her head dead on into a concrete support. Poppy heard a meaty smack and then the bitch was crumbling to the floor like an empty burlap sack.

She stood over her, waiting for her to get up, but she didn’t move. And as suddenly as it had come, the red rage was gone.

Poppy turned and hurried back to Katie. She swept her up in her arms and carried her toward the stairs.

“C’mon honey bunch. We’re getting out of here.”

She’d parked the truck across the street in a church parking lot. The place was plastered with no parking signs but she’d left a note on the dashboard about engine trouble and how she’d gone to get a mechanic—Please, please, PLEASE don’t tow me! Risky, yeah, but she hadn’t wanted to get trapped in one of these multilevel garages if she had to make a fast exit. Like now.

Poppy belted Katie into the passenger seat and pulled out onto Pacific.

Not sure yet where she was going, she gunned past the medical center and headed up to Atlantic.

A sign said no right on red there but she made one anyway, just to keep moving.

As she braked for a stoplight at Kentucky, she turned to Katie who was still sobbing softly.

“You mad at me for hitting your mother?” Katie sniffed.

“No. I’m glad. She hurt me,” she said, holding her reddened cheek. “She always hurts me.”

“Yeah? Well she ain’t never hurting you again.”

“That’s what my daddy said, but she did.”

Your daddy’s not too good at keeping promises, is he, Poppy thought. If he was, this never would have happened.

But in a way she was kind of glad things had gone wrong. It was like a sign.

Poppy didn’t believe much in signs and all that religious mumbo jumbo, but Jesus, if something was supposed to be a signal that Katie was better off with her than with her own folks, that little scene back there in the garage was it. A totally major-league sign.

And that’s fine with me, she thought, glancing over at Katie. I’ll keep you for the rest of my life. I’ll raise you just like I’d‘ve raised Glory. You’ll never have a lonely moment, and you’ll never ever have to worry about getting hurt.

Jesus, what was it with people? Kids were supposed to be precious. They were helpless. They depended on big folks for like everything—food, clothes, a roof over their heads. And safety. Big folks were here to protect little folks until they could protect themselves. That was what it was all about. So what kind of a world did a kid see when she had to be afraid of the very people who were supposed to like protect her.

She leaned over and ever so gently kissed Katie’s cheek.

“There. Does that make it feel better?” Katie stopped sobbing, but the tears looked ready to run again at any second.

“You still don’t look too happy. What say we get a Happy Meal the first McDonald’s we see? How’s that sound?” She nodded and—finally—a smile.

“And I think you could use a big hug too, Katie. How about it?” Another nod. Poppy snapped Katie’s seat belt open and gathered her into her arms.

“You’ll never get hurt again, Katie. I promise you that. From now on you’re gonna have a safe and happy home. Just like mine.” The truth of that struck her like a blow. She’d had a very happy home growing up. Things had been iffy in the money department sometimes, but she’d always felt safe and wanted. And with her dad having all those brothers, there’d like always been lots of family around.

And they were still there, still living in Sooy’s Boot. Maybe they’d take her back. Maybe if she showed up with Katie and said This is my little girl… this is your brother Mark’s granddaughter—maybe they’d let bygones be bygones and welcome her back.

Yeah. Go back to the Pines. Nobody’d think to look for her there. And even if they did come looking, they’d never find her.

“Katie,” she said. “How’d you like to see where I grew up? You want to meet all my uncles and aunts? I know they’d love to meet you. You wanna do that? We can—”

The car behind them honked. Poppy glanced up and saw the light was green. Quickly she belted Katie back in and started moving.

“Yeah,” Poppy said, getting more psyched by the minute. “Let’s do that.” Let’s go home.