Free Guardian of Eden by Leslie DuBois

wrong.
“What is this?” I asked Corbin’s secretary Courtney. It was a pretty stupid question since I could clearly see for myself.
Eden, still dressed in her Barton Arms uniform, posed, smiled and flirted with the camera as Corbin snapped picture after picture.
“Your sister is incredible,” Courtney said. “It looks like she’s been doing this for years.”
“Why is he…how did this happen?”
“The model for the Gap shoot was late so Corbin just started taking pictures of Eden. I really think she’s gonna work out better for the layout. I mean look at the connection between them. Isn’t he amazing?” Courtney didn’t take her eyes off of Eden and Corbin. I couldn’t tell whether she was more amazed by Eden’s beauty or Corbin’s technique with a camera. Courtney was an art major at Georgetown who wanted to be a photographer one day so she absolutely idolized Corbin.
I looked again at Corbin immortalizing my sister with a camera. Surprisingly, I wasn’t angry. I felt relieved. The clothing wasn’t inappropriate, plenty of people were around, and Eden looked happy. Genuinely happy. I waved to her so that she would know I was there, and then I slipped into Corbin’s office and called Maddie .
Maddie and I spent almost every free moment together. In the mornings we’d meet at the coffee shop and walk to school. During our common free period, we’d take a stroll around campus together no matter how cold it was outside. She offered to join Eden and me for one of our frequent trips to the library or local museum, but suddenly, Eden didn’t want to go anymore.
Due to some sort of security breach, my father’s prison had suspended visitation for the week. So instead of driving to North Carolina to see him, I took a few minutes and spoke to him on the phone . Then I met Maddie in the city where we caught a movie together. I guess she quickly became my girlfriend. I’d never had a girlfriend before. I don’t know why. I guess I had always been too preoccupied with taking care of Holly and Eden that I really didn’t have time to think of my own wants and needs. Now that they were happy, I too, had a chance to be happy.
The next Wednesday, Maddie and I went to the library. She politely asked Eden to come along, but once again, Eden refused.
“I can’t believe your favorite book is a dictionary,” Maddie said jokingly as she sat on my lap in the reference section.
“ Shhh ,” I said, placing a finger on her lips. “This is a library, you know,” I whispered. “Besides, it’s not just any dictionary. It’s the OED. It not only gives you the definitions, it gives you the etymologies, and the transformations of the words over time. It’s quite amazing.”
“You’re amazing.” She kissed me and added, “If you weren’t so sweet and cute and sexy, I would think you were the biggest nerd in the world.” She smiled and leaned in to kiss me again, but her phone rang. I had gotten used to that bothersome intrusion over the past week. Anytime we got remotely intimate, that stupid phone rang. It was almost as if her father knew the exact moment to call in order to keep us from getting too close.
Maddie hopped off my lap and darted out of the library while simultaneously digging her phone out of her purse. As I gathered my books and followed her, I noticed the librarian staring at me. I didn’t know why she stared. It could have been the usual. She didn’t like to see an interracial couple. Or, with Maddie running out of the door in a hurry, she could have thought I’d hurt her somehow.
I never got used to the suspicion aroused from a black man with a white woman, or girl for that matter. Once when Eden was eight or nine, she fell and busted her lip while we were at the park. I tried to clean her up and calm her down as she cried hysterically. When the police officer first approached us, I thought he just wanted to help, but in a few moments it became clear he thought I was a threat to Eden. It took