Saving Her Shadow

by Lutishia Lovely

  Several hours later, a weary, hungry, thirsty Raina was led to a small room. There were two long metal tables on either side of the rectangular space and chairs bolted to the floor. Standing between the tables, looking like sunshine and rainbows rolled into one was her savior, Valarie. After the handcuffs were removed and the officer left the room, Raina walked into Valarie’s arms.

  “Now, now,” Valarie cooed, after giving Raina several minutes to release pent-up emotions. “Cry all of your tears out now, on my shoulder. After this, you’ve got to be strong.”

  Raina shuddered, but after several more seconds pulled back and wiped her eyes. Valarie reached into her briefcase and pulled out a package of tissues. She sat and motioned for Raina to take a seat on the other side.

  “How are you?”

  “Still breathing, so okay, I guess.”

  “Were you alone in the holding cell?”

  “No, there were other women in there. They left me alone. I kept waiting for Jackie and the other ladies. Where were they taken?”

  “They were questioned and released.”

  Raina’s relief was audible. “I’m so glad they didn’t get into trouble. They were only trying to help. What about me? Did you talk to the judge?”

  “I did.”

  Raina watched as Valarie’s mood changed. It was slight, but definite, and didn’t feel like good news.

  “Your parents have asked that charges be filed against you. The judge has decided to move forward with your case.”

  “No way. Miss Valarie . . .”

  “It’s hard, I know, but these are the facts. You need to be aware of them, of everything you’re facing and what you’re up against. It might be difficult but I’m going to try and get a meeting with your parents. See if there is something that can be done to work this out without going to such an extreme action. I’m also going to file a separate motion to have the charges dropped or at the very least reduced, on their face. The first and most important thing to do, however, is try and get you out of here. To do that, we need ten thousand dollars. Do you know where we could get that kind of money?”

  “No one other than my parents, who will probably never want to see or speak to me again.”

  “I’ll keep trying to get your bail reduced. Until then, you’re going to have to stay here. It’s not what either of us want and will hopefully only be a couple days, but you’ll be given a prison jumpsuit and moved to the general population. You can do this, Raina,” she continued, when Raina’s face melted in despair. “You’ve got to, for Abby. This fight to get your sister help isn’t over. It has just begun.”

  Chapter 18

  Raina stayed with Valarie as long as she could. When the officer returned, Raina was not taken to the holding cell but processed for the county jail’s general population, as Valarie had warned, armed with several candy bars and bags of chips that Valarie bought her. Jackie’s mom had been the first friendly face she’d seen since getting arrested. She still couldn’t believe it. She was in jail! She’d never considered being in one, had no idea what they looked like. Secular television was largely off-limits. She’d never even seen an episode of Orange Is the New Black. The guard guided her to her cell, opened the door, and released the cuffs before she went inside. She surveyed the layout, bunk beds and toilet. She closed her eyes against the harsh lighting, the sound of doors clanging, women on edge, and fought to keep the tears from returning. Valarie was correct in what she said. Raina had to be strong. Not knowing anybody with ten thousand dollars who would use it to bail her out, meant that she might be there a while.

  Raina climbed on the top bunk, her back against the concrete wall. She moved her fingers back and forth, working to get the feeling back after being handcuffed. The black skinny jeans and turtleneck pulled on for Abby’s treatment—instead of kidnapping, as her parents called it—had been replaced by a nondescript gray jumpsuit, a shade darker than the walls and floor. She lay in bed wearing socks and shoes. The jail was freezing. Every piece of clothing helped. The scratchy wool blanket at the bottom of the bed was disgusting. Just looking at it made her skin itch. Yet she placed it over her thighs for warmth. She tried to disappear into the land of dreams. But sleep was long in coming. The events of the past twelve hours played on loop in her head, especially what had happened since arriving in county. She’d done nothing wrong and wasn’t a criminal. But law enforcement treated her like one.

  Raina flopped on her back and reached for one of the candy bars. Until now, fear had taken way her appetite. If that hadn’t done it, the gruel they served and called breakfast that morning would have surely done the job. The bread looked stale, the coffee watery, and what they dared called applesauce looked like the last inmate’s puke.

  Your parents have asked that charges be filed against you. The message Valarie delivered kept echoing in her head. By parents, Raina knew she meant Ken. No matter how devoted Jennifer was to the Illumination, she couldn’t see her mother making the suggestion that her daughter be put in jail. She wasn’t totally surprised that her stepdad would do it. If the council found out about this latest situation, they’d almost surely withdraw his promotion to Supreme Master Seer, something that was over two decades in the making. Raina felt bad about that. Ken loved the ministry more than life. But not more than she loved Abby. Raina knew that for a fact.

  The judge has decided to move forward with your case. What did that mean, besides going to trial? What would that look like? Valarie didn’t want to get into those particulars, would rather Raina try and stay positive and focus on being released. The range of a prison sentence for a kidnapping conviction was wide, anywhere from one to twenty years. If Raina went to prison, who’d look after Abby? While locked up, who’d look after Raina?

  The sound of clanging steel shook Raina from her thoughts. Close footsteps made her eyes fly open. Someone was being put in her cell. No! She slowly sat up and met a pair of eyes glaring at her. She maintained a cool expression and direct eye contact with the newcomer before turning her attention to slowly unwrapping the candy bar.

  Raina was glad she’d already claimed the top bunk, a suggestion from the girl who shared the holding cell last night. She was in on a drug charge and pretty much a regular when it came to the Clinton County Jail. She shared what she could, verbally showed her the ropes. Said basically to be polite to the guards, quiet to the other inmates, to not talk shit but not to back down either. She’d been right in saying the food would suck and time would crawl. The one error she’d made was also the most critical. She’d doubted Raina would have anyone sharing her cell.

  The guard finished removing the prisoner’s handcuffs and backed out of the cell.

  “Behave yourself, Banks,” she gruffly implored. “You know we don’t mind adding time.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Banks said, still eyeing Raina. “What’s up?”

  “Hey,” Raina replied, without looking up. For a moment she continued to feel the inmate’s stare, then felt the bed shift slightly when the woman made use of the lower bunk. Raina pushed a portion of the dark chocolate and almond jail delicacy past the wrapper and took a bite.

  “What you in for?”

  At the thought of saying “kidnapping,” Raina almost laughed out loud. “Stupid stuff,” she said instead. Because her parents charging her for trying to help her sister was totally bonkers.

  “What’s your name?”

  Raina sighed. She really wasn’t up for a conversation and didn’t plan to be in there long enough to need friends. Plus, the less people who knew she was in there, the less likely it would be for the Illumination to learn about it. Then again, given that it was her father who’d filed the charges, the community probably already knew about it. The Council might have been the ones who made the suggestion.

  “I really don’t want to talk,” she honestly replied.

  The woman jumped up and moved closer to Raina. “Who gives a shit what you want? If I ask you something, you need to answer. Or it’s going
to get wrong in here real fast.”

  While nerves jumped on the inside, Raina slowly, calmly raised her head. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the woman in front of her—the round face, slanted eyes, big nose, and uneven lips. Her mind did a rewind, going back almost ten years. It stopped on a memory, hazy at first, and then . . .

  “Ann. Banks.”

  It was Banks’s turn to squint as her tone turned suspect. “How in the hell do you know me?”

  “Because you haven’t changed.” Raina straightened her back with confidence. “You’re still the same bully I met just after moving to Chippewa. You made those early days in my new town a miserable experience.”

  “How am I supposed to know you? I bullied a lot of people.”

  “I don’t care if you remember me from all those years ago. But here’s the deal. I want to get the green light from my lawyer and leave here as quickly as I can. I don’t want any trouble, but my days of running from it are over. So whether it goes wrong or right in here is totally up to you.”

  Later, Raina would wonder just where in the heck that bravado came from. Part of it was her worry about what had happened to Abby, and that Valarie didn’t know whether she’d been taken to the hospital, a state agency, or back home to Jennifer and Ken. That all of what everyone had gone through had been for nothing was something she didn’t want to consider. If that was the case, she’d be ready to fight ten Ann Bankses, and whup them all. She’d be just that ticked off.

  * * *

  “Get up, Reed. You have a visitor.”

  Mother?

  Raina felt a surge of happiness. Her mom had finally come to her senses and come to get her child. Raina hopped down from the top bunk, then turned to be handcuffed. Hopefully it would be for the very last time!

  “You out of here, Reed?”

  “I hope so, Banks.”

  Cell mates make strange bedfellows. After calling Ann’s bluff, her cellie did a one-eighty. She actually talked like a normal person, no posturing, no threats. Raina learned that Ann had grown up in foster care, adopted by an elderly woman when she was nine. The woman died when she was twelve, around the time that Raina moved to Chippewa. She was taken in by the woman’s daughter and abused by the live-in boyfriend. In hearing her story, Raina understood why Ann walked around hating everybody. She’d never learned to love herself. In the years since those bullying days, not much had changed. After being forced to abort the boyfriend’s baby at the age of fourteen, Ann was kicked out of the daughter’s house and lived on the streets. One of the ways she supported herself was by a variety of criminal enterprises, including stealing, the reason she was now in county. She was just two years older than Raina but had lived a lifetime more, with the rap sheet, battle scars, and two kids to prove it.

  “Take care of yourself, Reed.”

  “You, too, Banks. When you get out this time, stay out.”

  The guard opened the door to the visitors’ room. Raina stopped short. Instead of Jennifer, Raina saw Christine Clark, smiling, dressed like she was heading to a Baptist church.

  “Are you my visitor?” Raina asked.

  “Child, right now I’m your salvation. Valarie is outside taking care of the paperwork. You need to send up some praise to Jesus. Some of my church sisters put our money together and just bailed you out.”

  Raina was floored. She forgot all about the no touching rule and threw herself into Christine’s arms. She was indeed getting out but not in the way she’d imagined. Why hadn’t her parents tried to contact her? Where was Abby?

  “Miss Christine, do you know anything about my little sister? We were taking her to the hospital when I got arrested.”

  “I know Valarie has been working to find out what’s going on with Abby. I’ll let her tell you what she’s found out.”

  Just like that, less than forty-eight hours after the nightmare began, Raina was out of jail. The charges were still there and had to be worked out, but when they left the visitors’ room Raina headed toward the exit, not back to the cell. She thanked Christine profusely, and Valarie as well. Once in the car she only had one question.

  “Is Abby okay?”

  “We don’t know,” Valarie replied. “I called your mom, tried to get answers.”

  “You did?”

  “I had the number from that first night you stayed at my house, remember?”

  Raina did, vaguely.

  “I called and introduced myself as your attorney, and the person who’d housed you when you were kicked out. Thought that might win me some brownie points.”

  “Did it?”

  “Not a one.”

  “Just as I began to inquire of your sister, I heard a male voice in the background. Your mother told me to talk to their attorney and not to call her house again. Then she hung up.”

  “So we don’t know about Abby?”

  “Sorry, Raina, but no. You’re probably starving. Do you want something to eat?”

  “No thank you, Miss Valarie. You’ve already done way more than I can ever pay back. You, too, Miss Christine, and all of your friends. I don’t know how I’ll ever get enough money to pay you back, but I promise, one day I will.”

  Christine tilted her head toward the back seat. “Don’t worry about that right now, baby. You’ve got enough on your plate right now.”

  The short ride to Chippewa was mostly quiet. Everything in Raina’s world had changed. She couldn’t imagine what to expect when seeing her parents. But she knew she had to try and see Abby. She leaned forward, toward Valarie.

  “You’re taking me home, right?”

  “Right now, Raina, that definition is a bit vague.”

  Valarie explained how Raina had been remanded to Miss Christine’s custody and as such had to reside in her home until the next court date. “Do you think your parents will see you?”

  “I don’t know, but I want to find out.”

  “I understand that.” Valarie reached the Chippewa city limits, then continued on to Lucent Rising. They took the exit and shortly afterwards entered the confines of the well-maintained, planned community.

  Raina got out of the car. “If you need to run an errand, you can pick me up later.”

  “No,” Valarie replied, “something is telling me to wait right here.”

  That something was right. Raina rang the doorbell but no one answered. Without even checking she knew Jennifer’s car was in the garage. But she checked anyway. It was there. She pulled out her key, placed it into the lock and turned. Nothing. The locks had been changed. Raina went around to the back. That door was locked, too. She returned to the front of the house in time to see Lucent Rising security pulling up in their stark white vehicles. A guy wearing shades and a baseball cap with the Lucent Rising logo, got out of the car and walked toward her.

  Raina couldn’t believe it. She marched down the drive to meet him.

  “Dennis?” Given the circumstances, Raina wasn’t particularly happy to see her neighbor but was glad it was someone she knew. “You work security now?”

  “You are trespassing on private property. The owner has asked that you be removed.”

  “Stop it, seriously. I get it, okay? Obviously, you think you know what happened.” She swung her arms around herself. “It’s Abby, Dennis. She’s really sick.”

  At that word, his eyes widened. “Very dim,” she corrected. “She almost died.”

  Dennis repeated the standard line as instructed and finished, “The owner has asked that you be removed.” He leaned forward and whispered, “You have disgraced your family and cost your dad a promotion. Do you care so little about your little sister that you now want to shame her, too?”

  Raina’s hand whipped around and slapped his face before she knew it had moved. The security team moved forward as one to grab her. She turned, and with tears blurring her vision, jumped in Valarie’s car.

  Valarie locked the door and reached for a weapon. She was licensed to carry and ready to defend her charge.

  Chri
stine welcomed Raina back into the car with a tissue and some wisdom. “Anything worth having is worth fighting for. We won’t stop trying to get help for your sister. Your old family might not want to help you. But your new family will.”

  Chapter 19

  A week after it happened, Raina’s arrest was still the talk of the town. It hadn’t yet been published in the county newspaper, but the moment she entered Chippewa High, she knew that everybody else knew, too. Most of the kids stared and whispered from a distance, but a few were bold (or tasteless) enough to comment as she passed by.

  “Hey, Raina, where are your handcuffs?”

  “There goes the jailbird!”

  “What picture are you putting in the yearbook . . . your mugshot?”

  That one almost made her forget Valarie’s rule about ignoring the haters and respond.

  Jackie beat her to it. “No, your mama,” she said, turning around and stopping.

  “Come on,” Raina said, pulling on Jackie’s coat sleeve. Jackie defending her the same way as when they were kids made her smile. “I’m not ten anymore.”

  Students who were church members totally ignored her, looked through her as though she wasn’t even there. If she was on one side of the hall they’d cross to the other and shield themselves. That stung. Some of them had been Raina’s friends for years. She’d almost made it through the school day when the principal’s assistant came and delivered a written message to her classroom. Raina opened it, half expecting, half hoping it was from her mom. Instead there was the name and phone number of an attorney’s office with a message to call as soon as possible. What was this about? Abby? Her parents? One of Valarie’s contacts? Curiosity at what the attorney wanted made it hard for her to focus on the subject. Halfway through she asked to be excused. She went to a quiet area by the library, pulled out her phone, and dialed the number.

  “Browder Law Offices.”

  “Hi, this is Raina Reed. I got a message to call a . . . Sean Browder.”