An Angel's Vice

Chapter 24 - Business & Pleasure

January, 19th. 2009
Sunday, 2:03pm - West Perrine, Miami-Dade

-Mockingbird, Eminem-

Serenity is dashing into a room and having the power of supporting and stopping a helpless, confused, small being—freshly new in this world—from crying. It is picking them up from their lonely place of sleep and cradling them in your arms, protecting them from your absence; and you can't fully grasp the truth of your presence being all to them, but you can feel it in their gradual descension to silence. This is your creation, this person exists with your help, they came from you and the woman you love with all your heart. And they also happen to be the purest part of her, too—an extension to what you first fell in love with. Apart from obvious reasons, of course you'd do anything to protect this baby. They deserve the world, but a better version of it than the one you met their mommy in.

"Shhh," Lauren hushes her little girl tucked against her chest, supporting her head and bum. She presses soft kisses to the top of her daughter's head as she gently sways side to side like a boat in a calm sea. "Daddy's here. I'm here, princess. It's ok, baby," Lauren swipes the pink blankie from the crib and throws it over her shoulder. She glances at the stuffed white goat she grew up with and gleefully smiles—blissfully nostalgic. But she leaves the goat there and takes only her daughter with her out of the room.

'When I'm gone but I'm trying to give you the life that I never had. I can see you're sad, even when you smile even when you laugh. I can see it in your eyes deep inside, you wanna cry. 'Cause you're scared I ain't there, Daddy's with you in your prayers. No more cryin wipe them tears, Daddy's here no more nightmares.'

'Daddy's always on the move, Mama's always on the news. I try to keep you sheltered from it but somehow it seems the harder that I try to do that the more it backfires on me. All the things, growin up as Daddy that he had to see, Daddy don't want you to see but you see just as much as he did. We did not plan it to be this way, your mother and me, but things have got so bad between us I don't see us ever being together ever again like we used to be like when was teenagers, but then of course everything always happen for a reason.'

Lauren is silent like a ninja moving across the smooth, wooden floorboards of her ranch in Cuidad Colón, Costa Rica, journeying downstairs, out the back, and into the tropical, early morning atmosphere where the sky is of a dim blue hue, the rolling hills (richer in colour than the Emerald Isle) encompasses the ranch in rural protection, birds fly by with a happy tune, the three horses in the stables snort and blow in the distance, and the weather is like the flames of summer have fallen in love with the showers of spring and made a baby. It'd rain soon, but for now this little family will take advantage of the time they have before it arrives.

Camila is already outside, effortless on her toes as she floats around the long, rustic farm table plentiful with plates and platters of the breakfast she typically makes every morning with love—at least when Lauren isn't the one taking care of the cooking while she nurses their child. Camila sets down the last dish—scrambled eggs, diced mango and fried banana, dark beans against white rice—and rearranges the pitcher of freshly made passion fruit juice to make more room. She has her light brown hair half up and half down, pinned back by a claw clip, and she wears a v-neck, long floral sundress of greens and blues that clinch her waist but loosen up like the free wind around her thighs and legs. Camila takes a step back, inspecting the spread, analyzing if she forgot something or not.

And then she turns her head, the tension between her brows dissipating and her eyes turning to crinkled slits as she smiles wide at their baby in Lauren's arms, and she excitedly jogs toward them with her own arms out, eager to embrace the two. Camila kisses their daughter first before she and Lauren share a long, deep kiss that doesn't fall short of passion.