Dawn of Eve - MJ Howson (read full novel .txt) 📗

the glass and splashed across Eve’s hair and face, staining her rosy cheeks and pink-painted lips. “I’ve told him I can’t get Jacob to come in with me. Does he care? No! He said we can’t force him and that maybe Jacob isn’t the problem. Can you believe him?” Dawn picked up a pill bottle and shook it vigorously, causing the pills inside to rattle. “All he wanted to talk about was these stupid pills. He’s worried about my anxiety. If he’d make Jacob come in, I wouldn’t be so anxious. Doesn’t he understand?”

Dawn placed her wine glass beside Eve. She sighed as she twisted the cap of the Prozac bottle open. Dawn glanced inside the container and frowned. “Sometimes, I think these are just making things worse.”

“Don’t take them,” Eve said.

“You keep saying that.” Dawn squatted a bit so she could be eye to eye with Eve. “Do . . . do you think the doctor is like Caretaker in your diary? With those vitamins?”

“Don’t trust him.”

“I . . . I don’t think the doctor’s like Caretaker. I’ve told you that before.” Dawn took a small step back and crossed her arms. “You never listen to me.”

Dawn strolled into her bedroom and retrieved the wooden box from beneath her bed. She opened it, grabbed her fertility pills, and brought the bottle back into the bathroom. She opened it and the rest of her meds and filled her palm with her pills. She looked at Eve briefly before using her wine to wash down her medication. After emptying her glass, she grabbed Eve and returned to her bedroom.

The wooden box sat open on top of her bed with the diary resting inside. Dawn placed Eve, her hair and face now smeared in red wine, against the pillow on the bed. She snatched the diary from the box and slid beneath the covers.

“He wants to see this, too,” Dawn said, waving the diary in Eve’s face. “At my next session.”

“Don’t show him.”

“No?” Dawn ran her fingers across the worn leather binding. “I . . . I guess it’s not his business.” Dawn opened the diary to where she last left off. She looked at Eve and said, “I told him you must have had bad parents for keeping you in that camp all year. I’d never do that to you. I told him it proves I’m ready to be a mom. He doesn’t get it.”

Dawn put her arm around Eve and pulled her close, causing Eve’s locket to slip from beneath the doll’s dress. Dawn cupped it in her hand and let her eyes fall across the intricate detailing. She twirled the pendant and admired the scripted letter W on the front and the 12/22 on the back. Dawn slowly ran her thumb across the latch before tucking the locket back beneath Eve’s dress.

“Okay,” Dawn said as she turned her attention to the diary. “Where were we?”

∞∞∞

November 27, 2012

Eve looked across the room at Hugo, flopped in his lumpy bed. Three-quarters of a chocolate cake sat on a platter between his legs. Hugo ran his fingers along the edge of the plate, scooping up the light chocolate frosting. The other five dust-covered beds made the room feel barren and somewhat lonely.

“Another great cake, huh?” Eve said.

“It’s like the only thing they get right in this stupid place,” Hugo replied. “I’m just glad I’m finally leaving. It’s been almost a whole year here.”

Eve tore a page from her diary before closing the book and tucking it beneath her pillow. She stood up and slipped her red moccasins onto her feet. As she crossed the floor to Hugo’s bed, she said, “Way back when I figured out we were stuck here until our birthday, I had a huge fight with my mom.”

“So did I!” Hugo chuckled and shook his head. “My dad got so mad at me.”

“Same.” Eve looked around the dreary cold room and sighed. “I’m going to miss you.”

“Me too,” Hugo said. He placed the cake platter on the rickety table beside his bed and patted his hand against his brown blanket. “I’m . . . kind of scared. About tonight.”

Hugo reached beneath his mattress and retrieved his PEZ dispenser. The pale yellow shaft, topped with a sombrero-capped boy’s head, was a gift from his favorite uncle. Hugo couldn’t wait to get back home to El Paso to see his uncle and the rest of his family again. He flicked the top back, causing a tan chocolate-flavored candy to pop out. Hugo tossed it in his mouth and held the dispenser toward Eve. She shook her head and smiled.

“I can’t believe you haven’t run out yet,” Eve said as she sat down beside Hugo.

“Last year, when my parents told me I could bring one special thing to camp, I told them it had to be my PEZ with plenty of candy.”

“How much did they bring?”

Hugo shrugged and popped another chocolate tab in his mouth. He said, “Whenever I run out, I tell my mom, and she brings me more.”

The two sat in silence, staring at the cobblestone floor. The high-mounted windows rattled from the cold wind buffeting them. A storm outside caused thunder to rumble in the distance and the overhead lights to flicker. The scent of chocolate from the birthday cake filled the air, bringing a tiny bit of joy to the two remaining campers.

“I . . . I think you’re right about Caretaker,” Hugo said. He began to fidget with his flannel blankets, their light brown color a close match to his skin tone. Hugo drummed his fingers across his round protruding belly. “She’s a liar. She pretends to care for us, but she always sides with Father John and Mother Martha. Always.”

“I don’t trust any of them,” Eve said. She looked at the page she tore from the diary and folded it a few times. Eve handed it to Hugo. “This is for when you get out.”

“What is it?” Hugo opened the note.

“It’s so you can find