“How Atlas you have the instructions?” she states calmly.
“Then you peaked at the cards,” I say.
“You have those over there too, remember.”
Damn, she’s right. “There is no way you solved this murder that fucking fast.”
“Maybe I’m just that good.”
“Nobodys that good,” I grumble. As I slam the pieces back in the box as I pack up yet another game True has beaten me at. I check the time to see we have blown right past lunch and it’s damn near dinner. While True goes to the bathroom I pull out my phone and order pizza.
I woke up the next day to see True in the middle of the bed eating cold pizza and watching cartoons. Not the cartoons kids watch now, no she’s watching a cartoon about stone statues that come to life and an NYC cop who befriends them. Before I know it I’m eating the pizza too and watching the cartoon-like a 1950’s housewife watches her “stories”.
“There’s a movie you know,” I tell True during the commercial break.
“Really? Can it be downloaded?”
“No, it's only on VHS tape.”
“VHS tape! Where the hell could we get that and even if we could find it, who still has a working VCR? Damn, I would have loved to see it she says” then turns her attention back to the TV once the show comes back on.
As she’s absorbed in the cartoon I have ordered the movie and a VCR, they both should be here in two days thanks to 2-day shipping.
I walk in the bedroom after work and find True in a tank top and leggings laying on the sofa reading from her e-reader. “OMG, how could he trick her into traveling back in time with him! Ooouuu I’d be pissed, mate or no mate,” she says.
I do not think she’s talking to me since she has yet to acknowledge me as I sit on the other end of the sofa.
“How was work?” She asks me.
“Hot,” I say “but we are making a lot of good progress, we’ll come in ahead of schedule.”
“That’s good, right?”
“Yes, that means we can move on to the next phase. We have already sold all the houses in this phase so the sooner we can start the next phase the sooner we can sell all those houses too. I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first but Josh’s vision proved to be right, the people around here were just waiting for someone to use all this land to build nicer houses at reasonable prices. Half of the people that bought one of our houses, allowed us to purchase their old house and the plan is to flip those and sell them too. Ingenious. It’s a lot of work but we’ve provided safe, affordable, upgraded houses for people who wanted them and jobs for people who needed them. It's a win-win situation.”
I look at True and she really is getting better. There are some things that are still difficult for her to do which is how I found myself kneeling before her in the shower this morning, shaving her legs since she can’t bend down without it hurting her. She put a towel in between her legs like a cloth diaper to cover herself but that was not enough to stop me from imagining spreading her legs and having a taste. My hands were shaking like a crackhead trying to light a pipe to get a hit. As soon as her legs were shaved and rinsed off I got out of there like a bat out of hell. It took forever to get my hand to stop shaking, she is going to be the death of me.
“Can I purchase one of the houses?”
I freeze because hell no she can’t buy one of the houses, she belongs here with me, she belongs to me. But instead of saying that I open my mouth and “of course, you can” come out. It never occurred to me that True might have her own money. I do not know why but it just never did. I’ll bring you the catalog tomorrow so you can look through it and see if there is anything that you like.
“Ok thank you Atlas,” she says so softly I almost missed it.
I might bring her the damn catalog but I will not let True go, but how realistic is that when I still don’t know anything about her or why she was left to die. It’s time I finally get some answers.
Four weeks later:
True
I am almost completely healed; everything is good except for my ribs. They are still a little sore. I am getting dressed to go out to get a much-needed haircut. My hair has suffered from me not being able to really do it because of my injuries. Atlas has kept it from completely breaking off with the hair products he uses on it and keeping in braids and silk bonnets. I asked him who taught him to do a black woman's hair and that is how I found out about his sister Savyy. He learned to braid from his dad who is Maori, although they usually wear their hair down, in pony tails, or man buns they still learned how to braid. Atlas said he thinks their mother missed not having any daughters but pacified her craving by doing her eight sons long hair.
I need some regular clothes, not more of these sweats, leggings, tank tops, and t-shirts. I have been pretty much in bed and sleeping most of the time, but thankfully those torture sessions called showers came to an end as soon as I got the use of both my eyes back and some strength from regular meals. I know Atlas has been trying to find out information on me and why I was in that house the night he came to kill Victor but he wouldn’t ask me while I was hurt for fear of upsetting me. But I can tell my grace period is about to come to an end. The other week when he asked me my last name I told him the truth, kind of.
“True?” Atlas says.
“Yeah?” I respond while eating salted caramel core ice cream and watching Worf kick someone’s ass.
“What is your last name?”