Ending Link (Link Dane 2)

ONE

ONE

I never envisioned myself driving back to this part of England ever again. In fact, I made myself a promise to never look back to this city and leave all it's remaining behind.

One could argue that this place had played an important role in shaping what my life has become. It has contributed a great deal in shaping me as the person I am right now.

That doesn't mean I was glad to be back.

I heard a soft murmur come from the back of the car. I glanced up, through the mirror and saw her gazing back at me with a glint appearing in her big brown eyes. It was her signature look. Since she did nothing but communicate truthfully with her facial expressions the most, I had it mastered to a T. Every look had its own meaning behind it. But they all somehow fell on a scale from it's-no-biggie to you're-screwed.

"What did you do girl," I drew out slowly, anticipating the worst since I saw her tiny teeth slowly poke out her mouth and graze her bottom lip.

That's when I knew she screwed up.

"On a scale from one to ten, how bad is it?" I asked her over my sigh. I had my attention back on the road and I braced myself fully for what was to come next.

"One infinity." She replied back to me carefully, slowly, making sure that I wasn't going to flip out.

I didn't say anything after that, mainly because I couldn't get a six year old to further understand the meaning of being patient. I didn't want to remind her that I told her not to open her juice until I had stopped the car to do it for her. She would just look at me as if everything I told her flew over her head.

And I didn't have the patience to deal with her selective hearing today. Not when I was less than an hour away from my city, and just an hour away from my old house.

And I also didn't have the time to stop and fix her.

"Right so listen carefully," I started to say. I dished out the instructions to her, telling her the bag next to her contained her clothes. I told her to take off her clothes and put on the Mulan shirt along with her jeans skirt.

I couldn't lie and say I wasn't impressed with the grace she carried at such a young age. And I was even more proud when, after five minutes, she managed to do everything without actually taking off her seatbelt.

"Well done!" I gushed at her. I was even more thankful that we were stuck in traffic the last ten minutes so I wasn't exactly driving fifty and instead, crawled my car barely over ten.

"Is your seat wet?" I asked her.

I saw her look down at her seat and then followed it by a shake of her head. "No. Just my clothes."

"Okay no problem then." I smiled at her before looking back to the road.

That is how my life had pretty much become. Caring for a six year old who sometimes baffled me with her words and sometimes left me in awe, took a lot of me. And that wasn't even a small percent of it. She was my Joy. My bundle of happiness that I kept safe no matter what. It was tough, probably the hardest thing I have ever done but it was the best thing for me.

All the sweat, tears and blood that has gotten into taking care of her, all made it worth it when she shot her crocked smile at me.

I let out a sigh, consumed with happiness whenever I thought about my daughter. I didn't have to look far whenever I found myself in a slum. Joy was everything.

"We're here!" I said excitedly even though I felt anything but excited. I was nervous and jittery. Chances of running into anyone clouded my mind as I crept closer to the city. I didn't want to run into anyone. Heck, with my different hair and the fact that I had a kid now hopefully made me less familiar.