My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Nineteen

Alexia had to drive back to my aunt’s place before heading to the new shelter. That’s where we had kept all the new locks and door knobs. There was about a hundred of them. It was a lot. Just having two people to do that job would take forever so it’s a good thing Annabelle decided to come along with Daniel and her siblings. With 6 people it would take a lot less time. With all the locks and lock knobs we head to the new shelter and park just outside the building.

I get out of the van after handing Annabelle the keys for the building. Alexia turns the van off and we both get out of the van, along with Annabelle, Daniel, Julian and Molly.

Annabelle stares up at the building, looking amazed by the size of it. She then make her way towards the building, holding out the keys and unlocks the door, going inside.

Daniel comes behind her holding the tool box. As soon as he walks into the building he starts taking the lock off the door, placing the tool box down on the floor.

I grab the bag of door knobs and locks, handing some to Julian and Molly as they wanted to help. Then Alexia takes some of them and we all head into the building.

Julian and Molly run over to Annabelle and Daniel holding some of the door knobs that lock. They go in the building and start looking around.

Alexia and I walk over with the rest of the locks and knobs, walking into the building passed Daniel over to Annabelle. “This is all of them,” I tell her, placing the bag on the floor.

Annabelle watches Daniel work at the lock and smiles, biting down on her lower lip. She sighs quietly and leans against the wall. Must be having some kind of fantasy about him.

I look over at her and laugh, saying, “Are you getting turned on right now?”

She looks at me and says, “What if I am? I can’t help the way Daniel makes me feel.”

“That’s okay. I just thought it was funny. Sorry if I hurt your feelings or something,” I tell her, not meaning to offend her in any way. I back off, giving her space and make my way over to Alexia who was standing near by.

“This place looks so cool,” Molly says, running over to Annabelle, completely oblivious of what was going on.

“I noticed that too. And the rooms look even better,” Annabelle tells her, opening her arm for Molly to come over.

She runs into her arm and Annabelle wraps it around her. “The women that come to this shelter are going to love it here and never want to leave,” Molly tells her happily.

“I know they will, when they’re ready and healed. Sometimes it just takes time. A lot of these women are running away from a bad situation. I’m going to start running self defense classes out of the shelters to help keep women safe from harm,” Annabelle tells her sister honestly.

Daniel finishes up with the door and closes it, locking the door so no one else could come inside. He turns the knob and pulls at the door. Then walks over to us and says, “All done. Where to next?”

“Next is the back door as that’s the other entrance into this place. Once that’s done we’ll go around replacing all the door knobs and locks in this place,” She tells him. “I just don’t want us to spread out and start working till I know we’re secure from any intrusion.”

“Okay. I’ll go do that then. I’ll be back,” he says, picking up the tool box and taking another knob and lock. He leans in kissing her on the lips, teasing her.

She leans in trying to deepen the kiss but he pulls away and smiles at her.

“I’ll save the good stuff for later,” he says with a wink. Then he walks off and runs around to the back.

“I need to get something from the tool box. I’ll be right back,” She tells us, letting go of Molly. She then runs around the corner, disappearing from sight.

I turn to look at Molly and say, “So what do you like to do for fun?”

“I like reading. It’s my favourite thing to do,” she tells me while smiling widely.

“Aren’t you six years old?” I asks her, surprised that she could even read so young.

“I’m a very skilled reader. They said that I read at the grade level of a high schooler,” she tells me, sounding proud of herself.

“Wow, that’s quite impressive. I’m sure your parents were very proud of you and all your accomplishments,” I tell her, smiling at her.

“I like playing with my best friend,” Julian says, coming up from behind us. Even though no one asked him what he liked doing.

“Is that so? What kind of stuff do you and your friend play together?” I ask him, turning to look at him.

“We play truth or dare. It’s a lot of fun. Most of the time he’ll pick dare because he’s afraid of what I’ll ask him for truth. It ends up being funny,” he tells me, laughing at the thought of it.

“Do you do anything other than play truth or dare?” Alexia asks him curiously.

“I guess. We like playing war. We build up forts with the pillows and blankets and pretend to fire at each other. That’s fun too,” he tells us, looking over at Alexia.

“What’s taking sissy so long? She said she’d be right back,” Molly asks, looking in the direction that her sister had gone.

“I’m not really sure, maybe she got busy talking with Daniel. Don’t worry she’ll be back soon enough. Why don’t you tell me what your favourite kind of books you like to read are,” I tell her, trying to redirect her to think about something else.

“Oh, well, I like to read fantasy books. Anything about fairy’s and princesses with knights in shinning armour,” she tells me, lighting up as she talks about it. She likely has a specific book in mind.

“That sounds very lovely. I personally am not a big reader but when I do read I like to read about romance. Seeing people fall in love in mushy gushy ways,” I tell her with a smile.

“I like those kinds of stories too, but mostly fantasy,” she tells me, smiling back at me. “What do you do for fun?”

“Well, I really enjoy modeling. That’s pretty fun. When I’m not modeling for a bunch of boys that have sick minds,” I tell her, looking over at Alexia.

Molly jumps up all excited and says, “You’re a model? That’s so cool!”

“I am. I started modeling when I was a few years older than you are now. I love it. And the camera loves me,” I say, smiling over at Alexia.

She smiles back at me, coming over to stand beside me. “She’s a very talented model too. She really knows how to capture the camera’s attention,” she says, looking straight at me.

“Wow, do you have any photos I could see?” she asks me, curious as she comes a little closer.

“I do, but the only ones I can show you are my head and body shots that my aunt’s lover took for me,” I tell her, taking my phone out. I open up the photos Joseph took for me and show them to Molly.

“So pretty. You’re very beautiful,” Molly says, smiling at the pictures on my phone.

“Can I see them?” Julian asks, curious to see what I looked like when I’m modeling. He squeezed through and looks at my phone, eyes going wide with amazement. “That’s you? You’re gorgeous.”

I hear foot steps coming around the corner and see Annabelle and Daniel turning the corner. “What took so long, did you decide to get frisky?” I say as a joke, then I notice Annabelle’s facial expression and my smile vanishes from my face. “What happened?”

“Let’s just say I was right. We need to get the locks changed on every door. Both the outside doors are done and locked. We can get started on the rest of the doors. I can give you more details later when my siblings aren’t around,” She tells me, taking the tool box from Daniel. He doesn’t stop her from taking it. She places it on the ground and opens it up. Taking out the screw drivers she gives one to each of us. “Take this and get to work, the faster we get this done the better.”

We all take a crew driver and nod our heads in agreement. We spread out and start working on changing the locks on all the doors.

After a couple hours of working we get all the locks and knobs changed. Annabelle makes some calls around to find some security for this building and staff to work here.

She walks over to me and gives me the details on Alexander and what kind of man he is. Telling me about the vision she had and all the measures that she’s taking to keep this place safe. “I’m trusting you to take care of this place in my stead Rose. Please take good care of it. I can still call around for people but you and Alexia are the managers who are going to maintain everything here. In a year and a half when you move I trust that you’ll find a suitable replacement for the two of you,” She tells me seriously.

“That’s insane. That man is crazy. s**t. I’m glad I don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes. And it’s a good thing you don’t live here. You can count on us Annabelle. We won’t let you down. Now that the locks and knobs are all changed what did you want to do with this place?” I ask her, looking around.

“I want to furnish it. I already have an image in my mind of how this place will look. I’ve already made some calls and made some arrangements to have some furniture delivered here later today. I’ve got a company coming by after lunch to put in a high tech security system with cameras on both the front and back door and a secure padlock that requires a passcode which will be a series of numbers. That man will not step foot in this place again,” she tells me, looking down the hall at her brother and sister.

“I’m so hungry, can we get something to eat?” Molly asks, clutching her stomach.

“There’s a really good pizza place up the road from here. We could go grab some pizzas and bring them back for everyone,” Alexia says.

“How about we place the order over the phone then go get it when it’s ready,” I say. “I don’t want to be gone longer than we have to be. After what Annabelle just told me I don’t trust that Alex guy.”

“What did she tell you?” Alexia asks, curious.

I move closer to Alexia putting my mouth and hand to her ear and whisper all of what Annabelle had just told me, about the kind of guy Alex is and the vision she had.

Alexia’s facial expression turns to shock and sadness. “That’s horrible. I’m so glad we listened to Annabelle about changing the locks, seems we can’t trust that guy,” she says.

“That’s for sure. I wouldn’t want him taking you away from me. You may not have blonde hair, but you’ve got the most beautiful blue eyes, just like the sky in the daytime,” I tell her, smiling at her lovingly.

“Who’s going to make the call? Because it looks like we’re all standing around doing nothing,” Julian says, crossing his arms. “I’m hungry too. It’s been like five hours since we ate anything.”

Daniel walks over to us and slides his arms around Annabelle from behind, holding her close to him. He places his hands on her stomach and smiles down at her. “Hello my love. I’ve missed you,” he says in a charming tone of voice.

“I’ll make the call.” Alexia says. She takes her phone from her pocket and walks a bit away from everyone while calling the pizza place.

The rests of us find a place on the floor and sit down. Annabelle sits in Daniel’s lap while he sits pressed up against the wall.

I sit down by Annabelle, putting the space of a person between us.

Alexia comes back over and says, “They said it’ll be ready in 10 minutes so we’ll leave to go get it in 5 minutes as it takes some time to get there.”

After the time passes Alexia and I leave the building, heading to the van. We both get in and drive to the pizza place.