Free Emily Kimelman - Sydney Rye 04 - Strings of Glass by Emily Kimelman Page A

who have risked their lives to help. I can’t ignore
their sacrifice. I am afraid, but I want to keep going.”
    “Which
direction?” I asked.
    Anita
looked up at me like it was a trick question. I laughed pointing to the split
in the road. “Up the hill is steep and Blue and I were once attacked by a
pack of dogs there. But it’s quicker and a better workout. The other way is
longer, smoother, lots of houses, very safe.”
    Anita
didn’t answer. “This seriously is not a question of which direction you
want your life to go in but rather how you’d like to spend the remainder of
this walk. Uphill or flat?”
    “Uphill,”
she said.
    We
climbed the slope, neither of us speaking, our breaths coming too
rapidly for conversation. We passed where Blue bested the alpha. Lulu sniffed
the ground, but caught up quickly. There was no sign of
the dogs.
    When
we’d reached the top of the hill I asked,
“When it was happening, were you thinking about how you would write
it?”
    “No,”
Anita said.
    “Were
you thinking, I hope this gets exposed for the world to see;
for the monsters these men are to be brought into the light of day;
or were you just hoping that it would stop?”
    “No,”
Anita shook her head. “I couldn’t believe it was happening again.”
    I
stopped. “Again?”
    Anita
looked up at me, her swollen eyes defiant. “Yes. Again.”
    “Who?”
    “Kalpesh.
When I was a kid.”
    “I’m
sorry,
Anita.”
    “He’s
the one who should be sorry.” Her fists were clenched. “The
monster.” Tears sprung into her eyes and she turned away from me. The sun
reached higher in the sky, shooting rays through the jungle in shafts of light
akin to lasers. Blue pushed his snout into Anita’s hand and she opened it,
reaching to pet his head. She swiped quickly at her face and then grimaced in
pain.
    “I
guess that’s something that you never really get over,” I said.
    She
shook her head and smiled. “Certainly spent enough
on therapy though.”
    I walked
over to a low mud wall that lined the road and sat looking into the trees.
Anita joined me, sniffling. “How did it happen?”
    Anita
sighed. “Our families have known each other for generations. He is older
than me by about a decade and it started when I was so young.” She shook
her head and rubbed her shoe into the dusty road. “You know, I barely
remember anything before it. That’s how small I was.”
    “Do
your parents know?”
    She
nodded. “That’s how I ended up in England. They wanted to get me away from
him.”
    “Jesus.”
    “Yes,
you can imagine what that made me think.” She looked back up into the
trees. I followed her gaze and watched a black crow who cawed at another, high
in the branches.
    “A
punishment?”
    “Yes,
I thought I was being sent away because it was my fault.”
    “You
know that’s not true now.”
    She
turned to me. “Do I?” She frowned. “No, I don’t know that.”
    “What
did your parents say?”
    “Say?”
she laughed. “Nothing. They never said anything but they did get me
therapy.”
    “Did
it help?”
    She
shrugged. “I’m here. This is where it all got me. My ass kicked, almost
raped, certainly abused, sitting in the jungle chatting with a…” she
turned to me, “whatever you
are.”
    “A
friend?”
    She
laughed. “You don’t strike me as the type to have friends.”
    I
laughed. “You might be surprised what a good friend I can be.”
    “Certainly
a good person to have on your side,” she
said,
nudging me with her shoulder.
    I
nodded. “I can help you.”
    “Help
me what?”
    “Make
sure it never happens again. At least not by him, not to anyone.”
    Anita’s
eyes filled with tears as she looked out into the jungle. Lulu barked at
something that rustled in the brush. Blue glanced in her direction,
but stayed close to Anita. “You know what I’ve been most afraid of, ever
since I realized what he was, how he became like that?”
    “What
do you mean?”
    She
turned to me and grasped my