[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
“So Kevin, are you going to come out with us tonight?” Kevin had been unusually quiet on the ride back to the hotel and Howie was growing concerned for his friend. “Kevin? Yo Kev? Hello?”
Kevin turned from the window to look at Howie. “Um… what?”
“Where have you been? I asked you a question three times.”
“Oh. Sorry. What did you want?” Kevin ran his hand through his hair and sighed. His mind had been on the scene back at the record store. He couldn’t figure out what he had done to upset Ellena, or what he said to make the little girl cry the way she did. No matter what he tried to tell himself, he couldn’t get rid of the guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach. The look of pain and heartache that was on the Lacey’s face replayed over and over in his mind. He tried to tell himself that she was just another fan and that many fans did strange things when he was around but it was no use.
Slowly, he reached his hand into his pocket and ran his finger down the smooth leather of the wallet inside. He could have just as easily left the wallet with the record store manager to return to Ellena. He could have handed over the wallet and forgotten all about her. He knew himself better than that though. Even if he had left the wallet at the record store, he would never have forgotten about her. He couldn’t explain it but he felt a strange sense of urgency to see her again. He needed to see her again to apologize. He needed to see her again simply to set the record straight. At least that’s what his head was telling him.
“Um…no. I’ve got some things I need to do tonight. Where are you going?”
“We’re going to the peelers! Woo hoo!” Nick exclaimed from the back of the van.
“Oh gee. As exciting as that sounds, I’m still going to pass.” Kevin replied sarcastically.
“Stop being such a puthay Kevin and come out with us.” Nick joked.
Kevin remained sullen and shook his head. “I’m not being a puthay. I told you. I have something I gotta do tonight.”
“Are you sulking about getting burned by that chick at the signing?” Nick donned a mischievous grin and laughed. Kevin rolled his eyes. Howie and AJ turned their attention to Nick in the backseat.
“Kevin got burned by a chick? Oh do tell!” AJ clapped his hands together and waited for Nick to relay the story.
“Oh dude! She was hot…..”
Kevin tuned out Nick’s chatter, rolled his eyes and turned away from them to stare out the window again.

*******************

“Lala, do you hafta work tonight?” Lacey had been sitting at the kitchen counter eating grilled cheese. She had breadcrumbs in her hair and cheddar stripes on her cheeks.
“Nope! I’m staying home tonight.” Ellena smiled at the mess of a child sitting beside her.
“Yay! Can we watch Aladdin?”
“Sure. You got get washed up and I’ll pop some popcorn.” Ellena helped Lacey off the high stool and set her on the floor. Lacey raced down the hall to the bathroom. Ellena cleared the plates off the counter and wiped the top. “Popcorn hmmmm. If I were popcorn, where would I be?” She mumbled to herself while opening and closing several cupboard doors. “Oh yes, in the very farthest back part of the pantry “ of course.” She groaned and opened the pantry. Four tin cans came tumbling out as soon as she swung the door open. She managed to catch three but the fourth fell on her foot. “Ouch!” She yelped in pain and hopped around the kitchen on one foot.
Lacey turned on the water and splashed around in the sink for a while. Once she had managed to get water on every square inch of the bathroom counter, she turned off the tap and dried herself off, leaving the towel in a crumpled heap on the floor. She heard a faint knock at the door and decided that she would answer it for Lala. She opened the door after struggling with the doorknob. Her eyes grew wide as she looked up at Kevin standing in the hallway of the apartment building.
“Hi Lacey. How are you?” Kevin smiled down at the child.
“Good.” Lacey replied and remained in front of the doorway.
“Is Ellena here?” Kevin asked. Lacey remained silent and nodded.
“Can I talk to her?” Kevin smiled again.
Lacey grinned and turned her head in the direction of the kitchen. “LALA! COME HEEEERE!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.
Ellena barely heard Lacey from the back of the pantry, where she was still searching for the coveted bag of microwave popcorn. She spied a box behind a package of cookies on the very top shelf. She stepped on the bottom shelf in order to reach it as she yelled back to Lacey. “Hang on a sec, girlfriend. I’ll be ““ The bottom shelf broke away from the wall. With a loud crash, Ellena fell to the floor. Cracker boxes, cookie packages, tin cans and pudding cups rained down on her.
Lacey’s eyes grew impossibly wider as the crash came from the kitchen. She turned on her heel and ran into the kitchen with Kevin right behind her. They found Ellena sitting on the floor amidst the mess, laughing.
“Are you okay Lala?” Lacey asked.
“Who me? Ohhh yeah.” Ellena chuckled again. “I’m fine. Guess what?”
“Huh?” The little girl replied.
Ellena held up a box and laughed harder. “I found the popcorn.” Kevin watched as Lacey giggled. “I think that huge can of tomatoes broke my foot.” Ellena, still laughing, brushed cookie crumbs off her blue jeans and pointed at Lacey. “Don’t laugh girlfriend! How am I supposed to dance with a broken foot?”
Kevin cleared his throat. “Can I give you a hand up?” Ellena’s head whipped around to where he was standing.
“Oh! I didn’t realize that we had company!” Ellena’s heart jumped in surprise. Kevin held out his hand for her. She reached up and grasped it firmly with hers and he pulled her up from the floor. The same chills ran through him as did earlier that afternoon when she shook his hand at the record store.
Ellena’s eyes twinkled as she straightened her sweatshirt. “Hi um Kevin, you’ll have to um…. excuse the mess.”
Kevin chuckled. “I think I can handle that.” A brief, uncomfortable silence followed. Ellena looked at Kevin expectantly.
‘So…umm…what can I do for you?” She asked.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot what I was here for.” He pulled her wallet from his pocket and handed it to her. “You left this at the record store today.” Ellena took the wallet from him and studied it as if she were seeing it for the first time.
“Oh my god! Thank you so much. I didn’t even realize that I had left it there “ with Lacey being so upset and all I didn’t even miss it.”
“Yeah, about that I wanted to ““ Kevin began before Lacey interrupted him.
“Do you really know my mom?” She peered up at him with the bluest eyes he had ever seen. Before Kevin was able to answer, Ellena knelt in front of Lacey and put her arms around her.
“Lacey, We talked about this remember?” Ellena spoke softly to the girl. “He doesn’t know your Mommy. I told you where she is didn’t I?”
Lacey nodded and fiddled with the gold chain around Ellena’s neck. “She’s an angel in heaven.”
“That’s right.” Ellena pulled Lacey close to her. After a long hug, Ellena let go of Lacey and stood up.
“Why don’t you go and start the movie and I’ll bring you some popcorn when it’s ready.”
Lacey’s curls bounced up and down as she nodded and ran out of the kitchen. Ellena smiled at Kevin. “Sorry, she’s at that age where she questions everything.”
Kevin shrugged. “Don’t apologize. I have to hang around Nick all the time so I know what you’re going through.” He grinned.
Ellena crinkled the corners of her eyes. “Nick…the blond one right?”
“Yeah.”
“Here, have a seat.” Ellena pulled a chair out from the counter and offered it to Kevin. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Sure.” Kevin sat down and watched Ellena open the fridge.
“Let’s see….I’ve got Pepsi, cranberry juice, root beer, blue kool aid and sunny delight “ ick. I don’t know how she can drink that crap. Ah hah! How can you tell I have a three year old?” Ellena reached in and grabbed a Barbie doll from the cheese compartment. She smirked at Kevin.
“I’ll just have a Pepsi.” Ellena pulled a can off the shelf and set it in front of Kevin with a glass full of ice. “Thanks.”
Ellena unwrapped a bag of popcorn and tossed it into the microwave. Then she knelt on the floor to begin cleaning up the mess. “I can’t thank you enough for bringing my wallet. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to realize it was missing but I would be lost without it. My life is in that thing, all of my ID, all my work schedules.” She stacked a row of cans back into the pantry.
“All your work schedules?” Kevin questioned. “How many jobs do you have?”
Ellena sat back on her feet and sighed. “I have three right now. One is finished in two months. Then I won’t go back to it until September.”
“What do you do?”
“I’m a dancer.”
“What kind of dancing?”
Ellena smiled and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. “Every kind. I teach latin ballroom on weekends. During the week, I coach the cheerleader’s dance team at the high school down the street. That’s the job that will be done in two months. Then, three nights a week I work at a club downtown.” Ellena finished putting away the mess on the floor and stood up.
“How do you manage three jobs and a three year old?”
Ellena shrugged. “You do what you have to do to get by. Two more years like this and I should have enough invested to send Lacey to college in fifteen years and hopefully put a down payment on a house “ maybe one with a small dance studio in the basement. Then I’ll quit the club and teach at home.” Ellena dumped the popcorn in two bowls and pushed one across the counter in front of Kevin. She picked up the other bowl and a juice box and took them into the living room to Lacey. She returned seconds later, poured herself a Pepsi from the fridge and took a seat beside Kevin.
“So tell me about Kevin.”
Kevin took a drink from his glass and shrugged. “Not much to tell. I’m on a break from touring with the group right now and we’ll be going into the recording studio next week.”
Ellena looked unconvinced. “Oh come on! There’s more to you than being Kevin What-his-name from THE Backstreet Boys.”
Kevin laughed out loud. “Richardson. It’s Kevin Richardson.”
“Richardson huh? Is that English?”
Kevin stared at her disbelieving, “Yes, yes it is.” “And you are Irish?”
Ellena giggled. “A wee bit! How did you know?…Oh right “ my license. It’s pretty much a dead give away with a last name like O’Ryan.”
Kevin took another long drink of his Pepsi and then turned serious. “Ellena, I really wanted to apologize for this afternoon. I didn’t mean to say anything to upset you “ or Lacey.”
Ellena set her glass on the counter and stared at it as she spoke. “No, really it’s okay. I guess I just get a little over protective of her from time to time. You had no way of knowing. Don’t worry about it.”
Kevin watched Ellena shift uncomfortably in her chair.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Ellena tilted her head to the side and thought for second. “Okay, shoot.”
“What happened to Lacey’s parents?”
Ellena’s expression changed slightly and then she covered it up with a sigh. “That is a very long story.”
Lacey emerged from the living room, dragging a blanket and clutching a worn, stuffed rabbit.
“Lala, I’m tired.”
Ellena brought her up to her lap and wrapped the blanket around her. She looked at Kevin with a little uncertainty. She wanted him to stay. She hadn’t had a decent conversation with another adult for a very long time and she didn’t want it to end so abruptly. “Kevin, I’m going to put Lacey to bed. I’ll only be a few minutes. If you want to stay, you can hang out in the living room until I’m done.”
Kevin made no move to suggest he would either stay or go. He got up from his chair and looked at the doorway. “Maybe I should just go and let you put her to sleep.”
“No.” Ellena put her hand on his arm. “You don’t have to do that. I won’t be long. I promise.” Before Kevin could answer, Ellena led him into the living room and waved her hand at the sofa. Without a word she carried Lacey down the hall to her bedroom.
“Ooookaaaaaay.” Kevin mumbled to himself. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Ellena helped Lacey out of her clothes and into her pajamas. Lacey got under the quilt and snuggled down close to the pillow. “Do you want a story tonight?”
Lacey shook her head. “No. Will you sing to me?”
“Okay pumpkin.” She pulled the blanket up around Lacey’s chin and began to sing.

Lullaby, Lullaby
Sweet little baby
Don’t you cry
I’ll rock my own sweet child to rest
in a cradle of gold on a powerful river…

Kevin sat in the living room and looked around at the many photos in the room. Every photo had Lacey in it. Some of them were pictures of Lacey and Ellena but mostly just of Lacey. Suddenly, from down the hall way he could hear Ellena softly singing a haunting melody that he had never heard before.

Sweet baby dear
Sleep without fear
Mother is here beside your pillow
Lullaby, Lullaby
Sweet little baby don’t you cry
Sweet baby dear
Sleep without fear
Mother is here with you forever
Lullaby, Lullaby
Sweet little baby don’t you cry