But I did like to be chased.
“Stop Nova!” Grayson hollered. “I just want to tell you a secret. It’s a really cool one that no one else knows about.”
The silly boy was trying to trick me so I’d stop. Not happening. If he had a secret, he could’ve told it to me in class. I breezed by the kindergarten yard and waved at Sadie. Next year, we’d have the same recess time and could play together.
“Come on, Nova. Stoooppp!”
“No!” I giggled some more as I looked back at him. When I faced forward, I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Dad!” I pounded the ground harder to get to the fence he was standing behind. “Dad!”
He waved as he looked around. After calling him the other day, I didn’t think I’d see him. I’d been happy to just talk to him, although he didn’t seem interested in me. But I hadn’t cared even when it made me feel weird. Dads were different, and mine wasn’t the kind who spent much time with me. It was fine. His job kept him very busy.
“Dad, what are you doing here?” I could hardly talk because I was out of breath.
“I thought you missed me?”
I nodded. “But Mom will be angry you’re here. You shouldn’t have hurt her. Dads and moms are supposed to be nice to each other.”
“Don’t worry, she’ll get over it.” He kept looking around the playground instead of at me.
“She won’t get over it,” I shouted because he made me frustrated.
My parents didn’t know I sometimes saw my dad hit Mommy. When they thought I was asleep, I’d tiptoe out of my room late at night. He’d tell her she deserved to be slapped and she’d apologize for being difficult. Then everything would be okay for a while. The last time he hit her, she had bruises on her face and arms. She’d picked me up from school, and we never went home—we bolted.
“Lower your voice,” he hissed. “I need to talk to Karma. Can you tell me where you live?”
“Are you going to tell her you’re sorry?”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.”
I smiled and bounced on my toes. Mrs. Fuentes said forgiving someone who hurt us frees our soul. Maybe after he apologizes, Mommy will let him move in with us.
“Now tell me where you live.”
“I don’t know the address, but the house is the only blue one on our street.”
“That isn’t enough information. I need the address.”
“But I don’t know it.”
He growled. “Is her work in Bastion or Winters?”
“Bastion.”
“Are there other tattoo parlors there?”
I shrugged.
“Don’t you know anything?”
“Nova, who’s that man?” Grayson asked at my side. He was out of breath, bracing his hands on his knees.
“Um, my dad.” I was kind of embarrassed to tell Grayson.
“He doesn’t look like you.” Grayson scrunched his face, staring at my dad. “I have the same color of hair as my dad.”
I shoved him. “So what? I have dark hair like my mom.” I looked at my dad’s blond hair and green eyes. My eyes were a weird gray color, and my mom’s were blue. I didn’t know where my strange eye color had come from, but Jaynee had told me it was rare, whatever that meant.
“Hair color doesn’t mean anything,” Daddy told Grayson in his angry voice. “Go play somewhere else, so I can talk to Nova.”