Overlooked(2)(74)

Still in the process of waking up, I don’t say anything.

“Do you know how many phone calls I got about you whoring at the carnival? The carnival! So help me God, what did I ever do to deserve a daughter who goes around with carnies? Carnies!”

“Dad,” I start.

“You single-handedly destroyed my good name in this town. How am I ever going to be elected regional Lions Club president now?”

I pull the pillows over my head, blocking myself from him.

“Honey, why did you do that? You’re a good girl from a good family, it’s not safe,” my mother says, on the verge of tears, her voice breaking. Or maybe she’s been crying already.

All I want to do is get out of here and find Steel.

“Leave me alone,” I say, my voice muffled by the pillows.

“How am I supposed to recover from this? I’m the president of the Lions Club, and your actions are going to cost me that.”

I fling the pillows off and sit up.

“I am an adult. My actions are nothing to do with you and your stupid club.”

“I don’t give a damn what age you are, I will not stand by why my daughter drags my name through the mud!” my father screams.

“Honey, I’m just so worried about you, it’s not safe to be hanging around with those types, you’re liable to end up dead in a ditch,” my mother says through her sobs.

“You two are ridiculous. And selfish. I’m leaving.”

Grateful I still have my dress on, I leap out of bed and stomp to my door. My father moves faster than a wide receiver and reaches the door before me.

“Over my dead body,” he says through gritted teeth, his nostrils flaring.

“You can’t stop me, I’m an adult. Get out of my way.”

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that in my house,” he says.

“So get out of my way, and I won’t have to.”

My mother latches onto my arm and pulls. Her tears are flowing uncontrollably and she tries to wrestle me back to the bed.

“They’re all drifters who are lying cheats and criminals. It’s not safe. I need my baby to be safe. I couldn’t live if something happened to you,” she says.

“Let me go,” I say, shaking my arm, “I mean it!”

My father steps over the threshold and beckons my mother. She goes to his side and he slams the door.

I yank at the door handle, twisting and turning, but it won’t budge. He’s holding the handle from the other side. The hiss of his whispering to my mother comes through the door, but I can’t make it out.

“This is confinement, you can’t do this to me.”

“Emily, I’m going to bring you up some supper,” my mother says in her most caring voice. It’s as though I’ve fallen off my bike and skinned my knee.

Growling, I storm back to my bed and grab my phone from my bedside table. As fast as I can, I type Maddie a text.

My parents are holding me captive

-Good then you won’t go back to that creep carny today

Unbelievable. I thought she’d understand, unlike Courtney.

He isn’t a creep

I hit send, slam the phone down and cry myself back to sleep.





I Remember You (Steel)

It’s November, we’re in Georgia, near the Florida border, and it’s the last night of the carnival before the winter break. Traditionally, it’s the biggest party night of the year. Only I don’t feel like partying.

“Going to be a great night, this is always the best night for choice pussy. Remember last year? You had two at once,” Razor says.

I grunt at him. He knows I’ve lost all interest in it. Emily still hasn’t left my head. Pretty local girls keep throwing themselves at me, and all I’ve done is curl my nose and push them off me.

It kills me that she thinks I left without saying goodbye.

“Zombie went and found a whole truckload of girls for tonight.”

“Don’t care.”

“Come on, man. You can’t get hung up on that chick. Face it, you’re never going to see her again.”

“I’ll find her.”

“Then what? You get married and have babies? Keep it real, none of these townies see us as anything other than one of the carnival rides. One weekend a year is all the fun they want from us.”

I don’t feel the need to respond to him. Something happened that night between us, something more. I’ll be damned if I don’t find her and keep her for good. Whatever it takes.

Every night since Papa Smurf sent me away with the twenty-four hour man, I’ve been trying to find out what the name of her town is.

Papa Smurf had something big on the twenty-four hour man, and whatever it was, it was big enough that he wouldn’t even give me a whiff of a hint about the name of the town. The minute the carnival season finished, he took off, never to be seen or heard from again. Whatever Papa Smurf had on him must’ve been big.