Toto and the Boys III: Dannie

Chapter 2

A piece of the past…

Dannie walked the narrow pathway toward home with easy steps. Though her feet with at ease with the maze-like twists and turns of the familiar path her heart and mind were nowhere near calm. She could feel her heart start to hammer against her chest. But she had to face what was coming like she did for years.

She could hear her mother’s angry voice from behind the door as she stood outside. Children from around the squatter-infested she called her neighborhood almost threw her off her feet as they ran past her.

She knew she would regret opening the door but she did just that like she had for years. What greeted her were her mother’s shouts as she stood before her husband with hands on her hips talking about how he spent the afternoon drinking. Her father shouted back at his wife and Dannie silently made her way to her room which had a curtain that served as a door. There was just one bed and in it lay the only person she came home to every day.

“Hey,” she whispered to her sister as she placed her bag at one corner.

Her younger sister just smiled at her and asked, “Did you bring me something?”

No, because she had not received her allowance from her benefactors yet. Then she remembered something. “Jackie gave me something before we left school. It’s nothing but she hoped you’ll like it.” She went to her bag and took out the orange headband from her friend.

Tessa, who was one year younger, smiled as she pushed herself from the bed with what was left of her strength. Dannie handed her the band and watched her sister admire it.

“Danica! Are you home?!” her mother’s voice cried out from outside.

“Yeah,” she answered back.

“What the hell are you doing in there? Get your ass out here and cook supper!”

“Coming,” she answered again, standing up from her sister’s bed.

 

PRESENT DAY

“I am so excited now that you decided to spend your vacation outside the convent,” Jackie said from the passenger seat with her usual exaggerated tone of excitement that usually contagious.

“Of course, where else would I go?” Dannie asked, looking outside my window. “It seems that things are still the same,” she noted.

“Don’t be silly, Dannie. You’ve only been gone a year. Not a lot has changed,” Georgie said without taking her eyes off the road. Lately she had been more careful, especially after that incident where I almost got freaking killed. And Jordan had her on a leash. Well, not really because she would not obviously allow that, knowing her. But it was still a leash of some kind that mellowed down most of Georgie’s extremeness.

“A lot has changed,” Dannie baby contradicted. “One of you is getting married. That’s BIG.”

“Well, yeah, you can say that,” Georgie admitted.

“I was really surprised when you told me the news,” Dannie said.

Oh, don’t mention it, Danny baby. You wouldn’t want to know my reaction. I would not dare tell the tale but it was out in the open now. Vicky, Beatle, Dee and even Nomad knew about my stupid reaction.

Honestly, I shouted something like, “Who’s gonna take me now?!” when I heard the freaking proposal. Because, really, if one of them was getting married, it meant I was in trouble. Dannie was spending her time becoming a nun and she would not surely be needing me like the past one year. That only left the other two and one of them was getting married which meant I would only be used by the other one who was bound to get married someday as well and who would take me then? Where would I go?! Those were my concerns and those thoughts still bothered me every now and then.