We Come Alive 5

Sanity

Friday morning, after spending all of Thursday finishing their trip at the lake with her friends, Manny woke up in an empty bed. She turned over to see the window and wall, but what use to be her best friend sleeping beside her.

Manny got up and looked around the room to see most of Clover's things were missing. All that was left was one pair of her football cleats, a sweatshirt that she was sure was one of the boys', and her duffel bag that was full of her football gear.

Manny walked out of her bedroom and went straight to the kitchen where she saw her dad making a cup of coffee.

"¿Cuándo ella volverá de nuevo?" Manny breathed out.
(When will she return?)

Mateo took a sip of his coffee and shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't seen her since y'all left together."

Manny followed her dad to the living room where he sat down on the couch and turned on the news. "She's not answering any of my calls or texts and she's not—"

"Give her some space, mija." He advised, taking another sip of his coffee then set it down on the coffee table.

Manny crossed her arms and paced the length of the living room. Mateo ignored her until he heard the voice of his partner coming from the back hallway.

"What're you doing?" Kiara asked confused, watching her daughter walk around in circles. "What's wrong?"

"Clover hasn't come back and dad doesn't care!" Manny ranted. "I'm worried about her. She disappeared into thin air and hadn't talked to me at all. Her and Ricky disappeared and left the lake house and the boys told me what happened and—"

"What happened?" Mateo turned around, eyebrows frowned and his interest peaking. "What'd they do to her?"

Manny turned around to look her dad in the eyes. "She was almost..She was molested at this party during the baseball tournament. Ricky told the boys not to tell her but he had to since she was starting to remember. That's what her panic attacks were about."

Kiara quickly walked out of the open kitchen and tried to follow Mateo as he jumped up and grabbed his keys.

"No!" Kiara stopped him, standing in front of him. "You're not leaving this house, because if you do you're going to do something you'll regret."

Mateo glared down at Kiara, but she didn't move. "What do you expect me to do? Sit back while she's somewhere falling off the face of the earth! She's a kid!"

"She's somewhere safe." She assured him, putting her hands on his chest to calm him. "You know those boys wouldn't let a hair on her head be touched."

"They already failed once." He growled. "I know them well. They fail once, they'll keep failing until you teach them not to."

Kiara looked around Mateo's body and to their daughter. "Manny, call Ricky. Ask where Clover is."

Manny rushed to her room and grabbed her phone off the charger. By the time she got to her parents, she had already dialed Ricky's number and put it on speaker. He answered after the fourth ring.

"It's too early for you to have a crisis." Ricky's groggy voice floated through the phone. "What happened?"

Manny shook her head, laughing internally at him. "Where's Clover? Is she with you."

"No." He yawned, grunting as he got up. "I haven't seen her since...uhh...since midday yesterday. She told me she went somewhere safe to be alone."

"She's not here!" Manny protested.

Ricky snickered. "She can't be alone there. Y'all would be on her like a wolf pack on meat. I have an idea of where she is, but for the fact you'd go running there bothering her, I won't tell you. I promise you though, she's perfectly fine. She left me a note when I took a shower, grabbed her stuff, and left. Even told me she'd sneak in there and grab her stuff without y'all seeing her. And by this phone call I can tell she did that successfully."

"Why didn't you tell her?!" Mateo yelled towards Manny, knowing Ricky would hear.

"Good morning to you too, Mateo." Ricky sighed. "What she didn't know couldn't hurt her. I already went through this with her, okay. Me and her...we did a lot of talking on the way back to Dallas. She just needs time to be alone. Okay. Let her be. You gotta let us go at some point, Coach. She's not your real daughter, your real daughter is standing in front of you holding this phone. I'll see you tomorrow at work. I got a white boy to feed."

And with that, Ricky hung up. Mateo huffed and walked around Kiara to go for a drive. As he walked out, he was mumbling how he wished he never met Ricky. But he knew he was right.

~**~

Meanwhile, at her childhood apartment sitting on the fire escape, Clover looked down at people below walking down the street. The breeze was blowing making her hair that wasn't caught in her bun shift on her head.

Her sister had moved out months ago so Clover has the room to herself and her mom was at work, knowing her daughter wanted to be alone after learning what happened to her. She tried to offer Clover professional help, but she denied it. After that, she locked herself in her room and hadn't come out since.

Clover held her phone in her hands as it rang with another phone call from her friends wondering where she was and if she was okay. Clover leaned her forehead against the railing of the fire escape and looked down at the concrete below her. Her feet dangling over the edge, the only thing securing her from falling was the small, rusty black bar in front of her chest.

Then she did it. Clover let go of her phone, watching it plunge to the ground and shatter into pieces on impact. The phone call coming in ending along with the life of her phone. But more importantly, dying with Clover's sanity.