The following morning Angel was at my apartment door bright and early with an enormous homemade breakfast burrito next to a massive pile of hash browns. Steam rolled off the plate as the smell of eggs, cheese and sausage hit me. “Mmmmm that smells amazing Angel. Let me grab my jug of salsa and we can head out and I will just eat in the car.” I zipped across the room into the kitchen, opened the fridge and grabbed my gallon jug of hot salsa then shot back to the door within two breaths. “Ready?” I asked.
Angel giggled and said “You and your food obsession! I swear if I didn’t know it was impossible I'd think you were starving to death every time I brought you food.” She stepped out of the way as I walked out and closed and locked the door. By 7:10 we were on the road and driving away to get Christi from camp. I shoveled down my food as we made our way to the highway and started east towards State College. With luck, we could make it by 9:30 and have a half-hour to find a parking spot and go to the Bryce Jordan Center to meet Christi.
On the drive there we made a quick stop in Blairsville at the Sheetz for gas and I grabbed a footlong meatball MTO with double meat and extra cheese with a bag of chips and a half-gallon of Galliker's Lemon tea. I hopped back in Angel's old Cutlass Supreme and asked “Want any chips?” she just shook her head and laughed “No Miss Mara I don’t know how you do that. Seriously where do you put the food in that tiny little body?” Looking over at her I chastised her “One of these days you are gonna start calling me Mara and drop the whole ‘Miss’ nonsense. You are my best friend and I love you and Christi like my own children.”
We pulled back onto US22 when Angel spoke again “You know I only do it out of the respect I have for everything you have done for me. I know you don’t like it but I just wouldn’t feel comfortable not showing you the respect you deserve.” I scoffed “I did nothing special. I have too much power and do too little with it. All I did was what amounts to nearly no effort for me and it just happened to help you out a little bit. The part about Christi I would have done for any child in danger and these monsters should know better than to operate in Pittsburgh. I have made it pretty clear how I feel about preying on humans in general and especially in my city. The arrogance they have to have to attack someone where I live when there is a whole wide world I barely go into.” my fingers began extending their talons and penetrating the dashboard before I noticed how tense I was getting. I pulled my hand back and calmed down with a “Sorry Angel I will get it fixed. I need to control my temper.”
“It’s okay the car is old and those little scratches are the least of its troubles. I will have to get a new car soon. I am going to try to pick up some more shifts at work and save enough for something a little newer before this one completely dies on me.” Angel said resolutely but I could see the worry in her eyes.
“I have a deal for you. You know how much I hate driving and even more how I hate grocery shopping. I will let you use my Explorer if you do my grocery shopping for me and promise to use my card for your groceries as well since you make me food every time you cook.” I offered hopefully. “Miss Mara I can’t do that to you. I make you food to try to make up for the money I already owe you for rent. I know it doesn’t come close to breaking even but I feel awful not doing something for you when you never expect me to pay you if I am behind.”
“Angel I am 100% ok with this. You have no idea how much those home-cooked meals mean to me. You doing my grocery shopping would be worth $1000 a week to me. I am so sick of going to that awful store. So convenient that you can buy everything from an oil change to Christmas cards to groceries except you have to deal with the weirdest people on the planet and I deal with literal monsters all the time.” I said shuddering at the thought of that blue background and those stupid white letters with the sinister star between them.
Angel guffawed and replied “If that is really how you feel and you aren't just trying to help me out of the kindness of your heart. Want to listen to some music? How about some American Idiot by Green Day? Your heartfelt description of the weirdo shoppers has inspired me.” Cheering up I replied “Sounds perfect. I am always down for some Green Day.” That was how we spent the rest of our trip to Penn State jamming out to music we found in her CD holder.
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We arrived at the Bryce Jordan Center about 9:45 and it took us nearly 20 minutes to find parking almost ten blocks away. “Do you want me to go ahead and find her and let you catch up? I don’t like the idea of her having to wander around alone here.” I asked Angel to which she replied “If you don’t mind I appreciate it. I don’t like her being all alone either. Ever since she got taken I have been terrified of what could happen to her.”
Glancing around and seeing there was nobody watching I drew on my power and flashed away as fast as I could run and was standing in front of the building in only a few seconds looking around. There were little girls in ballet outfits and workout clothes coming out of the Center with parents in a stream. I looked through the ever-growing crowd of girls trying to spot Christi. I finally saw her and who she was walking with and I immediately took off to her and her father who was holding her hand walking her down the sidewalk away from the direction Angel was coming from. Not caring who saw me this time I popped up in front of Victor as if out of thin air to anyone nearby looking our way.
Startled Victor let Christi’s hand slip away as she saw me and without hesitation ran over and wrapped her little arms around my waist saying “Aunt Mara you came to see me just like daddy. He said he was bringing me to momma because she was working.” I glared up at Victor saying “Oh, did he now? Well your momma is on her way to us right now she just had to park the car and if she runs into any trouble on the way no amount of daughterly love will stop me from doing something very naughty.”
“I’m not afraid of you little immortal. Cambions fear no one. I would never do anything to harm Angelina.” he said as he texted a message into his phone in a very obvious attempt at being inconspicuous.
I snorted and picked up Christi “How was ballet camp munchkin? Did you make any friends?” Christi brightened even more and started an endless stream of words about all the nice girls she met and how they all love her new ballet clothes and she was so happy that she fit in. “Never allow someone to treat you differently because they think you are less. The world is full of people who believe they are better than others because of their money or social status but it is all bullshit. You are as good or better than anyone you will ever meet because I say so.” Christi giggled “Aunt Mara you said a swear. You will have to put money in the swear jar.” I gasped and put my hand over my mouth in shock.
Victor smeared in derision “You are teaching her to be weak. Without money and power, you are just a victim or prey. Look at her mother. She is weak and can barely take care of herself let alone my daughter.” I was about to go off on him when I heard Angel's voice “Needing money and power is the weakness. Being kind and empathetic is real strength and takes courage. I may not have a lot of money but I will always do my best for our daughter unlike you who only shows up when it is convenient and doesn’t even help me pay for her. Hey, Christi baby are you ready? Miss Mara is probably getting hungry again and I think she mentioned something about stopping for ice cream after we eat.”
Christi let go of me and ran over to Angel and gave her a big hug “I am starving momma can we get McDonald's? The food here was good but we ate really early and I was so excited to see you I barely ate anything.”
Angel shook her head and said “No we are not eating fast food. Let’s pick a restaurant that has a good Ice Cream menu so we can just do everything in one stop then head home. How about Friendly’s?” I jumped in “As long as I can get something filling and greasy I am game for anything.”
“Can daddy come momma?” Christi asked. Victor answered before anyone else could “I can’t come baby girl I have to go back home to take care of some urgent business that just came up. I will see you soon.” he turned around and walked off. “Wonder why he was here?” Angel asked. “I don’t know but it gives me a bad feeling. Maybe you and Christi should stay upstairs in my place for a few days when we get back.” Angel looked worried and said “That may be for the best in case something happens. If it were just me I would be reluctant to accept but with Christi, I won’t take the chance.”
We had an uneventful trip back to Pittsburgh except for the waitresses' disbelief of my three entrees being devoured by someone my size. When we got home I went with them to their apartment and helped get what they would need to stay with me for up to a week and we decided to come back later for more if we missed anything. Once we were settled in my living room I handed Christi the remote and she put on cartoons while Angel and I sat quietly thinking about what had all gone on that day and what it could mean for the days to come.