OVERALLS AND EYELINER
|#|#|
THE TRIP DOWN TO MISSISSIPPI DIDN’T TAKE AS LONG AS WHAT HE THOUGHT THAT IT WAS GOING TO BE. In fact the ride down was over before he knew what to say and what to do. His mind was filled with images of a woman he had left in his past and questions that he would never get answered. As he got to his feet, he spotted Ororo following him and everything became all too real and even more questions sprung up in his mind. What was she thinking? How was she dealing with this bomb shell?
Just the thought of what it could have meant for the two of them made him avert his eyes from her. Logan wasn’t the type of man to express his feelings and believed that a lot of what he wanted to convey was done through gestures more than actual words, so this train of thought on Ororo came as a bit of a surprise for him.
As if she knew what he was thinking, Ororo placed a hand on his shoulder and Logan turned his head to look at her. ‘We’ll talk later,’ she said. ‘Right now you have something more to deal with.’
Logan knew that she was right, but that didn’t make him feel any better. As they made their way into the orphanage, Ororo gestured that she was going to go over and sit down, meaning that Logan was on his own. Had this been any other situation, Logan thought he would have felt that he was betrayed, but it wasn’t the usual situation. It was something that he had never faced before and as he made his way over to the main desk he hoped that he wouldn’t have to face it again... or that he was told straight off the bat that he was going to be a father.
The receptionist was sitting at the computer listening to music on her I-Pod. Logan cleared his throat. The woman didn’t look up at him. Logan cleared his throat again and got the same reaction. By this time Logan was getting annoyed and did the only thing that he could think of. He tapped hard on the glass. That got the woman’s attention.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know that it’s not polite to scare someone?’ She asked, her southern accent was thick but not native to Mississippi. Tennessee more like it.
‘Don’t you know its not polite to ignore people?’ Logan growled in reply.
The woman rolled her eyes. ‘My name is Millie, what can I go for y’all?’
‘I’m here to see a Miss Alexander about my daughter.’ Daughter, the word was foreign to him and sounded wrong coming from his lips.
‘Oh,’ Millie said. ‘You here about Anna?’
‘Yep,’ Logan said.
‘Right this way,’ Millie said and opened a door not too far away. ‘I’ll take you straight to her.’
Logan just grunted in response.
MISS ALEXANDER’S OFFICE WAS WARM AND INVITING, BUT LOGAN FIGURED THAT WORKING IN A PLACE LIKE SHE DID IT HAD TO. After all, she didn’t want to scare the kids who were going to live here for however long. Miss Alexander was sitting behind her desk when Millie opened the door, but the moment Logan was introduced Miss Alexander was out of her chair and had welcomed him with a handshake and an offer for coffee. Logan refused politely – or as politely as Logan ever could.
Sitting down in chair opposite each other, Miss Alexander crossed her legs and looked at Logan for a couple of minutes.
‘I’m sure that this has come as a bit of a shock for you,’ Miss Alexander said. ‘I’ve dealt with a few father’s who never knew that they fathered children and they could hardly talk when we met because they were still in shock.’
‘I don’t shock well,’ Logan said.
‘Pardon?’
‘It takes a lot to shock me,’ Logan replied. ‘What exactly did you want to talk to me about?’
‘Mostly it was just explaining the forms that you needed to fill out because you are becoming Anna Marie’s legal guardian.’
‘Where do I sign?’ Logan asked.
‘Mr Logan, I-’
‘Where do I sign?’ Logan asked, stressing each syllable.
‘Here... and here... and here... initial here...’
This went on for a couple of minutes before Logan had signed in all the relevant places.
‘Where is she?’ Logan asked.
‘This way,’ Miss Alexander said and led him out of the office and down the hallway.
IT WAS A PRETTY HOUSE. There was no other way to describe it, Logan thought as he looked up at Cilla’s house from the pavement. It was small, probably only a couple of bedrooms, but it just seemed to scream Cilla. Walking through the front gate, which creaked, Logan made his way around to the backyard where he found her bent over and weeding one of the garden beds. She looked up at he came close.
‘Hey, I thought that you might have gotten lost. I was getting worried,’ Cilla said as she got to her feet.
‘With the directions that you gave me, that was a possibility,’ Logan said smirking and Cilla hit him.
‘Sugar, my directions weren’t that bad.’
Logan pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and began to read from it. ‘From the Diner go straight until you get to a park, from the part go left and then go right when you get to a oak tree,’ Logan looked up. ‘There was no oak tree.’
‘Yes there is, it’s right at the beginning of the street,’ Cilla said.
‘That is a weeping willow,’ Logan said.
‘There’s a difference?’ Cilla asked and Logan just shook his head. ‘Ok, so I tree species challenged. The farthest I’ve ever gone out into the wild was picking wild flowers when I was ten and even then I was only a couple of feet away from the caravan.’
‘Caravan?’ Logan asked.
‘My parents were in the circus business,’ Cilla said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
‘Right,’ Logan said smiling.
‘Come on,’ Cilla said and grabbed his hand after pulling off her gloves. ‘I’ve got dinner ready for us in the kitchen.’
She led them inside and once they were in, she shut the door. ‘Just let me go and clean up a little.’
Before Logan could reply, Cilla left the room, leaving Logan on his own. Looking around, Logan took in every sight. The house was just screaming Cilla, and not because it was decorated in her tastes. Draped over a couple of chairs were some clothes that Cilla had obviously left to dry because she was out of space on the line. Lying on the kitchen counter were a variety of makeup products including eye-liner and lipstick. Lying over a door knob was a t-shirt with a large tear in it. That was when Logan realised something. Picking up the t-shirt, Logan walked over to the bathroom and leant against the door as Cilla dried her face. Once she had finished she looked over at him.
‘What?’ She asked and he held up the t-shirt.
‘I was wondering where this got to,’ Logan said smirking.
‘You were the one that left it here the last time we had a sleep over,’ Cilla said smiling.
‘You were wearing when I left,’ Logan said.
‘You could have asked for it back,’ Cilla replied.
‘We were outside and you weren’t wearing anything underneath,’ Logan said.
‘And that is a problem?’ Cilla asked as Logan wrapped an arm around her waist.
‘It is when we’re outside and other people can see you naked,’ Logan whispered in her ear.
‘Ooh possessive,’ Cilla said. ‘What next, you gonna grab me by the hair and drag me up to my bedroom to have your wicked way with me?’
‘Nope,’ Logan said and smiled wolfishly. Before Cilla could even thing about what that smile meant, Logan threw her over his shoulder and carried her to her bedroom.
‘What about dinner?’ Cilla asked.
‘We’ll have it later!’
THEY TURNED LEFT AND THEN LEFT AGAIN BEFORE THEY CAME TO A STOP OUT THE FRONT OF AN OPEN DOOR. Knocking, Miss Alexander and Logan walked into the room. Logan looked around. It was very basic and housed a couple of beds. Each bed had a different bedspread and was carved different. It wasn’t until his eyes passed the window that he saw her.
‘Anna, I’d like you to meet someone,’ Miss Alexander said and the little girl turned and looked at them. Logan held his breath slightly.
Sitting there was a little girl that was no doubt his Cilla’s. She had her mother’s hair, which had a curl to it and was currently pulled back into a pony tail. Her hair fell just past her shoulders. She had dark green eyes that were filled with sadness and seemed to show stories of things that she should not have seen for someone so young. She was dressed in a pair of jean overalls and a red t-shirt. All in all her looked like a little girl who would rather play in the trees then with dolls.
‘Anna, this is Logan,’ Miss Alexander said. ‘He’s going to be taking you home.’
‘Back to Irene’s?’ Anna asked and Logan shook his head and walked over to her.
‘Back to where I live,’ Logan said. Anna was silent for a few minutes before looking up at Logan.
‘Where’s that?’ Anna asked.