Chasing Sunsets

by Karen Kingsbury

  She had no choice, really. Her heart would figure it out eventually.

  A few blocks down the road, she pulled over and used the number on Lexy’s information card to text her. Hey. It’s Mary Catherine. I’m the volunteer who’ll be helping you this weekend. I wondered if I could come by and take you for a walk. Maybe get coffee.

  Lexy must’ve had her phone with her, because she was quick to respond. No coffee.

  “Okay.” Mary Catherine tried to think of what to say next. Her fingers worked their way over the small keyboard. A milkshake, maybe?

  The response took a little longer this time. Fine. I can’t be out late.

  Lexy’s answer made her smile. The girl was clearly guilty of far more than staying out late. But like Officer Kent said, these kids would lie. They didn’t trust anyone. Least of all some stranger. Still, Mary Catherine felt a glimmer of hope. Lexy was willing. Before she pulled away she texted Shamika. How’s Jalen? The two of you have been on my mind all day.

  Shamika texted back quickly. The same. His doctors say the longer he’s in a coma, the worse it is. Please pray.

  I am. I will. Just like that Mary Catherine had plans for both day and night. She tapped out another text. I’ll come up and visit after dinner.

  Thank you. Shamika included a praying hands emoji. Sometimes I like to sit here alone with him, because that’s most like usual for us. Just him and me. But other times I feel like I’ll go crazy if I don’t have someone to talk to. I’ll see you tonight.

  Mary Catherine appreciated the joy that filled her heart and mind as she drove away. She didn’t need Marcus to feel happy about what God was doing in her life. Didn’t need his arm around her shoulders or his kind eyes looking into hers. Days like today it was enough to simply carry out the message on the sweatshirt he’d given her. Live life.

  With God’s help, that’s exactly what she planned to do.

  18

  MARY CATHERINE WASN’T SURPRISED at the small house Lexy lived in or the fact that it appeared to be in one of the roughest projects, just a few blocks from the youth center. Even so, she didn’t worry about her own safety. This was the sort of thing Mary Catherine lived for. She knocked on the door and waited.

  A young teenage girl answered. She looked down the street one way and then the other. “Come in. Hurry.”

  Clearly the girl didn’t want to be seen talking to her. “Are you Lexy?”

  “Yeah.” She cocked her head back. “My grandma wants to meet you.”

  An older woman shuffled into the room. “My name’s Anna.” She shook Mary Catherine’s hand. “I don’t understand . . . Why do you want to take my Lexy out?”

  Mary Catherine was actually glad the woman cared enough to ask. She explained her role as a volunteer for the Last Time In program. “The goal is that this will be their last time behind bars.”

  “I have my own crimes. Years ago.” The old woman nodded. She was still beautiful, and clearly Lexy favored her. But her hands shook and she looked frail, timid. “Too many men. I’m trying to make up for it now.” Tears filled her eyes. “The guns and violence, kids killing kids. It gets worse every year. You aren’t someone unless you’re a WestKnight or an EastTown gang member. It’s not good for anyone.” Anna looked at her granddaughter. “It’s not too late for Lexy. She needs a way out.”

  Lexy stared at the floor, like she was unwilling to look at her grandmother or acknowledge the truth in the woman’s statement.

  Mary Catherine was still standing. She took hold of the older woman’s hand for a brief few seconds. “I want to help.” She looked back at Lexy. “The police agree with you. They think she has a chance. That with help she could find her way out of this life.” Mary Catherine paused. “If she wants to.”

  Anna nodded. “Very good.” She looked deep into Mary Catherine’s eyes. “Take care of her.” She wiped at a tear. “She’s all I have.”

  It was a common theme here in the projects. People were broken and battered, scared and alone. Most of them were lucky to have one person who cared for them or lived with them. For Anna, that was Lexy. Her granddaughter. The only family she had.

  “We’ll be gone a few hours, if that’s okay.” Mary Catherine had a plan in mind. But she wanted to clear it with this dear woman first.

  “Yes. Please.” She was trembling again. “Lexy won’t talk to me. Maybe she’ll open up with you.”

  There was so much Mary Catherine wanted to say. Questions she wanted to ask. But she needed to get to know Lexy first. “Yes, ma’am.” She nodded to Anna. “I hope so.”

  They were in Mary Catherine’s Hyundai and nearly out of the neighborhood before Lexy said anything. “Do all the volunteers do this? Take their kid out for ice cream?”

  Mary Catherine thought for a minute. “Probably not.” She glanced at Lexy. “I figured it’d be better if we knew each other at least a little before Saturday.”

  “You know what I did?” Lexy looked small and uncomfortable in the passenger seat. She stared at Mary Catherine with big eyes. “Cops tell you?”

  “Yes.” Mary Catherine kept her eyes on the road. “You’re Dwayne Davis’s girl. You were with him when he robbed a Seven-Eleven and you were with him when he killed a boy from the EastTown gang.” The light ahead turned red. Mary Catherine looked straight at Lexy. “You were also with him the other night when he shot that four-year-old.”

  Lexy exhaled and stared out the window. After several minutes she muttered, “Why you want anything to do with me?”

  “Do you want to be in a gang?” Mary Catherine felt funny using the word. But it was all Lexy would understand. “Or is it just because of Dwayne?”

  Maybe it was the first time Lexy had thought about it. She took her time answering, and for a long time she stared straight ahead. Finally she looked at Mary Catherine. “I like it. Every girl wanna be Dwayne’s shorty.” Defiance rang in her voice. “But he picked me.”

  Mary Catherine thought about correcting her English but then let it go. One step at a time. “We’re here.” She pointed to a Dairy Queen up ahead. “You want a milkshake or a sundae?”

  Lexy seemed stumped by the question. They pulled into the parking lot and the two of them walked inside. At the counter, Mary Catherine pointed to the menu. “Have whatever you want.”

  “Anything?” The word sounded almost angry, as if Lexy didn’t believe this. Like there had to be a catch. “What about a burger?”

  “Sure. Get a burger and ice cream, if you want.” Mary Catherine wasn’t hungry. Besides, there was nothing on the menu she could eat. She had to give her heart a fighting chance.

  “Okay.” Lexy looked up at the menu, then back at Mary Catherine. “What’s the thing where they chop up candy and ice cream in a cup?”

  “A Blizzard?”

  “Yeah.” It was the first time Lexy had smiled since Mary Catherine stepped into her house. “I’ll have a cheeseburger and that.”

  The girl behind the counter looked impatient. “What kind of Blizzard?”

  Lexy settled on vanilla ice cream with Oreo cookies and hot fudge sauce. “And whipped cream.”

  “ ‘Please,’ ” Mary Catherine reminded her.

  The surprise on Lexy’s face was as real as the air they were breathing. She turned back to the cashier. “Please.”

  Good, Mary Catherine thought. It’s a start.

  “Where we goin’?” Lexy focused on her Blizzard. “You said we’d be out for a couple hours.”

  “I’m taking you to Elysian Park. It’s near Dodger Stadium.” Mary Catherine used her GPS to lead the way. The park was another fifteen miles from the Dairy Queen.

  Lexy looked nervous. “You been there before?”

  “No. They have trails. There’ll be people all around.” Mary Catherine smiled, her eyes on the road. “I thought we could walk for a while, get to know each other. W
e can leave whenever you want and then I’ll take you home.”

  Lexy didn’t say anything. Either she didn’t have an opinion or she didn’t care. Twenty minutes later they parked in the lot at Academy Road and Elysian Park Drive. Mary Catherine had read that the other side of the park could be shady. This part was supposed to have well-marked trails with beautiful views of the city and the stadium.

  It was a park Tyler and Sami had told her about.

  They started up the trail and Mary Catherine waited until they found their stride. Lexy was still finishing her Blizzard. “What do you want to tell me, Lexy?”

  She peered over the edge of her cup at Mary Catherine and shrugged. “Got nothing to say.”

  This wasn’t going to be easy. But the time was worth it. She could feel the girl’s guard dropping, even just a little. “Why do you want to be Dwayne Davis’s girl?”

  Lexy cocked her head back again, doing her best to look tough, no doubt. “Dwayne gonna be leader of the gang. That makes me famous, too.”

  Mary Catherine resisted the urge to roll her eyes. In Lexy’s world, her reason mattered. Mary Catherine was careful to use a gentle tone: “Lexy . . . Dwayne’s behind bars. He’s not getting out. Not ever.”

  The cockiness in Lexy’s expression faded. Suddenly she looked like a lost little girl. “That ain’t true. Dwayne told me he was getting out.”

  “He’s not.” Mary Catherine looked at Lexy. They were walking, but their pace was slow. “They’ve got Dwayne on at least two counts of murder. Attempted murder. Dealing. Robbery. I talked to the police, Lexy. They don’t believe Dwayne will ever get out.”

  The girl looked at her nearly empty ice cream cup, and at the next trashcan she threw away what was left. Again they walked in silence for a while until Mary Catherine could think of the right next question.

  “You’d be locked up, too. That’s why you’re doing this program. So you don’t have to. Because you’re so young.” Mary Catherine wasn’t sure how much the girl understood. “You know that, right?”

  “I guess.” She crossed her arms tightly in front of herself as they walked.

  “What happens when your guy goes to prison? Are you still part of the gang?”

  Lexy looked frightened again. “The guys, they take turns. They’ll fight it out. Who gets me next.”

  Her answer wasn’t entirely clear but Mary Catherine figured she’d heard enough to know. The guys would take turns with her? That could only mean one thing. Lexy was little more than a child, and yet she took it in stride. Like being treated that way was a rite of passage.

  “You know something, Lexy?” Mary Catherine had to start speaking truth into the girl. “You don’t have to let them do that. What’s in it for you? Being in the gang and having guys do that?”

  “They keep me safe.” She jerked her head back again. “Once a WestKnight, always a WestKnight. EastTown Boyz don’t mess with you if your man’s a WestKnight. You in, then.”

  “So the EastTown Boyz don’t hurt you . . . but the WestKnight boys do. How is that a good thing?” Mary Catherine kept her words slow and even. She didn’t want to make Lexy too upset. Officer Kent had warned that when pushed too hard most of these girls would shut down. Sometimes for good.

  But Lexy wasn’t shutting down. Her expression softened, like maybe she had never thought about that before. How staying in the WestKnights could be a good thing when she was going to be hurt either way.

  Lexy looked up at her. “What other choice I got?”

  “That’s what we’re going to try to figure out, me and you.” Mary Catherine hesitated. “You know who your other volunteer is?”

  The girl looked straight ahead, her steps slow. “I get two?”

  “You all do.” She smiled. “The other one is a guy. Marcus Dillinger.”

  Lexy stopped walking. She stared at Mary Catherine and her eyes grew wide. “From the Dodgers? The pitcher?”

  “Yes.” Mary Catherine let that sink in for a few seconds. “The one Dwayne tried to kill.”

  “No.” She started to shake her head. “He can’t come. He can’t see me.” She looked over her shoulder like she might run. “He’ll know it’s me.”

  “Lexy.” Mary Catherine put her hand on the girl’s back. “Honey, Marcus knows who you are. He wanted to do this because of that. He wanted to come today. We both believe you have a chance. A way out of this.”

  “I don’t want to meet him.” She looked away and began walking again, faster this time. As if she were in a hurry to finish the hike. “I just wanna go home.”

  Mary Catherine kept up with her. Lexy was shifty and hesitant and probably—like Officer Kent said—ready to shut down completely. Whatever the girl felt deep inside her heart, it would take much effort to find it.

  If they could find it at all.

  LEXY HAD NEVER felt like this in all her life. She didn’t want to say too much, didn’t want to open up. But something about Mary Catherine made her do it. Like the white girl really cared.

  “Tell me about your parents.” Mary Catherine wouldn’t give up. No matter how quiet and rude Lexy was, the girl kept trying.

  “What’s to tell?” Lexy stared at the ground as they walked. “My dad was killed when I was a baby. My mom’s in prison. You met my grandma.” She was about to tell Mary Catherine how she’d raised herself, but at that exact minute they rounded a corner and stopped. Two police officers were arresting a skinny white man with a long beard. Right here on the trail.

  Lexy stopped and next to her Mary Catherine did the same thing. The guy looked creepy.

  “Come on.” Mary Catherine put her arm around Lexy’s shoulder and eased her past the scene.

  One of the officers turned to her. “You girls okay?”

  “Yes, sir.” Mary Catherine answered first. “Is it safe?”

  “This park?” The officer glanced at the guy in handcuffs. “It’s never completely safe up here. But yes. You can get back to the parking lot okay. Call nine-one-one if you see anything out of the ordinary.”

  “We will, sir. Thank you.” When they got past the men, Mary Catherine gently released her hold on Lexy and picked up her pace. “Let’s get back.”

  “Yeah. Maybe the park wasn’t such a great idea.”

  They didn’t talk much on the way back to the parking lot, but Lexy couldn’t let go of the feeling that she wanted to trust Mary Catherine. The older girl seemed really interested in her answers. In her as a person. The reality made her feel a lot of things. Hope, maybe. Happiness—if this was what happiness felt like. But something else, too.

  Fear.

  Lexy had learned a long time ago that the worst thing on the streets wasn’t the thugs or the bullets or the way a brother threw a girl on a bed and had his way with her. It wasn’t a break-in or a drug bust or getting arrested.

  The worst thing was caring.

  JAG AND ASPYN hovered over the house where Lexy lived. They watched the two girls pull up in Mary Catherine’s car and walk inside.

  “Thank You, God.” Jag was exhausted. He and Aspyn had more strategizing ahead. No mission had ever been more taxing. Despite that, Jag was overcome with relief. “The things that man on the path planned to do to Mary Catherine and Lexy . . .”

  Aspyn closed her eyes. “Unspeakable. You stepped in at just the right time. Pulling him out of the bushes onto the path was the right thing to do. Instead of running, he was forced into the light.”

  The bearded man had been waiting in the bushes, ready to attack Mary Catherine and Lexy. Jag had appeared from the shadows and ordered the guy to step onto the path.

  When the man pushed further back into the brush, Jag grabbed his arm and pulled him out. In one swift move, Jag had the guy pinned to the ground, his arm bent behind his back. That’s when Jag had seen the gun in the man’s sock. He grabbed it and the guy’s cell phone and c
alled 911. Two officers were already at the park. Just before they turned the bend on the trail and drew their guns, Jag dropped the gun, stepped into the brush, and disappeared.

  Jag was grateful for the control he’d learned the last time. He had no desire to kill the man in the bushes. Protecting Mary Catherine and Lexy was all that mattered. Orlon had been right. The mission was very dangerous. Evil lurked around every corner and this much was certain.

  The stakes had never been higher.

  19

  MARCUS MET TYLER AT the hospital that afternoon to give blood. Whether Jalen could use it or not didn’t matter. Someone could. They were in the lobby waiting their turn when Charlie Kent came in.

  “Brought in another two gunshot victims today. They’ll both live but they’re in bad shape.” The officer looked weary. “I haven’t seen this much violence in years.”

  He took the seat opposite Marcus and Tyler. “We made an arrest an hour ago near Dodger Stadium. Story could’ve wound up very differently.”

  Marcus couldn’t imagine being a police officer in Los Angeles. “What happened?”

  “An officer from another precinct was walking the trail. He found a man in the bushes and recognized him from the wanted list. Called for backup and a couple of our guys made the arrest.” Officer Kent shook his head. “The guy’s on our most-wanted list, multiple homicides, rape, attacks on kids. Escaped prison in Northern California a year ago.”

  A sense of satisfaction came over Marcus. “Glad you caught him.”

  “What was he doing in the bushes?” Tyler also seemed gripped by the story.

  “That’s the scary part. A couple of girls were walking the trail. A few minutes more and they would’ve walked right past the guy. We think he was planning an attack. Waiting for the young women to walk by.”

  The pieces came together, and Marcus felt like he was falling, like he couldn’t feel his feet beneath him. “What . . . what park did you say it was?”

  “Elysian Park. Near Dodger Stadium.” Officer Kent stood. “You two here to see the little boy?”