Saving Her Shadow

by Lutishia Lovely

  “I want to know why she’s on my doorstep,” Valarie responded. “Saying she’s a reporter wanting to do a story on Raina.”

  “Let her in.”

  “You know her?”

  “Not personally but I’ve read her work. Fantastic writer. Courageous, too. One of her first stories looked into the rumor of financial corruption in one of the Nation’s largest churches. The leaders threatened to sue but she stood by her story. I think her career may have suffered because of it. Heard she’s freelancing because so far no major paper will give her a job.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Bruce asked with a scowl. He rushed past them to open the door.

  “I don’t know,” Drew replied. “But given that Illumination member’s reaction, I say we let her in.”

  Once inside, Kris, Bruce, Drew, and Valarie retreated to a quieter space. Under the attorney’s watchful eyes and keenly listening ears, Kris interviewed Raina. She asked thoughtful questions and asked for a picture of Abby. The visit was short but productive and left everyone feeling one step closer to finding Raina’s little sister and getting her whatever medical help was needed. Afterwards, Raina excused herself from the group and went searching for Jackie.

  She tapped on the bedroom door before opening it slightly. “Can I come in?”

  Jackie motioned Raina into the room. “Hold on a minute,” she said, continuing a conversation through a set of ear buds.

  “Oh!” Raina stopped just inside the door. “I didn’t know you were on the phone.”

  “I’m getting off,” Jackie said, before returning to the phone call. “Steve, let me call you back. I need to talk to Raina.”

  She pushed aside a stack of folded clothes to give Raina room on the bed. “How’d it go?”

  “All right, I guess. Where’s Monica?”

  “Bev had to go to work. Monica left with her.” Jackie picked up a set of tarot cards and idly shuffled them. “That girl was in the Nation, huh?”

  Raina nodded.

  “Did that make it easier to talk with her?”

  “Definitely. There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t have to explain. Most importantly, I felt I could trust her with my story. I know she believed me.”

  “What happens now?”

  Raina shrugged. “I guess we’ll wait and see.”

  Jackie continued shuffling the cards. Raina reached for a pen lying on the bed, twirling it around her fingers as she gazed out the window.

  A moment later, Jackie began placing the cards in a spread. “What song is that?”

  “You heard me?” Raina hadn’t realized she’d been humming out loud.

  “Yeah. Who is it?”

  “Nobody.” Raina ducked her head, embarrassed.

  “Didn’t sound like nobody.”

  “It’s a song I wrote for Abby, about her being my shadow since the time she was small.”

  “Let me hear it.”

  Raina shared the song, sing/rapping both hers and Abby’s part.

  “Ahh . . . that’s sweet,” Jackie said, once Raina had finished. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. You should put that on Storytime.”

  “My song for Shadow? Um, I don’t think so.”

  “No, really, you should! Dedicate it to your sister. Give a little intro about why you wrote it and how it’s even more special now.”

  Jackie slid off the bed and looked around. “Where’s your phone?”

  Raina’s answer was a deadpan stare.

  “Never mind. We’ll use mine.” Jackie reached for her phone on the nightstand, then continued looking around. “We need a nice background,” she mused. “What about here, Raina?”

  She pointed to the bed, which had a colorful picture on the wall behind it. “Those colors match your sweater. A little makeup, and fluff out your hair, and people will know it’s the girl in KCK’s video. We can use that as a hash tag and maybe increase views.”

  “I don’t know, Jackie.”

  “Look, now is not the time to be shy. You want to find Abby, right?”

  “You know the answer to that.”

  “Then we’ve got to use whatever it takes to get people talking about her, asking where she is and if she’s healthy. When something goes on the web, you never know who might see it. Anything could happen. It might even go viral.”

  Raina doubted that. But at one time she’d been sure that her mother wouldn’t see the rap video. That she had was proof that Jackie was partly right. Anything could happen. Maybe it was worth a try.

  “I just interviewed with Kris. Lucy is setting up pages on other social media sites. Your mom thinks that’s enough. Maybe we should ask her about it.”

  “I don’t want to do that. She could say no.”

  “All the more reason to ask her!”

  “I’ve got a feeling we should do this, Raina.”

  Raina pointed to the cards on the bed. “Let’s ask the angels.”

  “Okay.” Jackie returned to the bed. “We want a clear, definitive answer. Let’s just pull one.”

  She shuffled the cards several times, then asked the questions as she placed the deck on the bed. “Angels, should Raina tell her story on Storytime?”

  She nodded toward the cards. “Cut the deck.”

  Raina did, a feeling of something akin to excitement bubbling just below the surface.

  Jackie reached for the top card turned it over and began reading the words on its face. “You know what to do.” Her eyes met Raina’s, then shifted back to the card. “Trust your inner knowledge and act without delay.”

  The feeling in Raina’s gut exploded. “Let’s do it,” she said.

  Raina decided not to wear any makeup but let Jackie fix her hair. “What do I say?” she asked, once they felt she was ready for the camera.

  “Talk to the camera as though you were talking to me or Monica about Abby. Then do the song like you would if she were here. One more thing. Wait here.”

  Jackie left the room and returned with one of the eight by ten glossies Valarie had ordered from a photo shop. With her back against the wall and the colorful picture just above her left shoulder, Raina looked directly into the camera and began speaking.

  “Hi, I’m Raina, the girl behind Sniper in KCK’s Be About It.” Suddenly nervous, Raina felt her heartbeat increase. Jackie motioned for her to keep talking. Raina swallowed her fear.

  “That’s not what this video is about though. It’s about my sister, Abby. I call her Shadow because she’s ten years younger than me and used to follow me around all the time like a shadow does.”

  The memory allowed Raina a tentative smile before it slid away. “I’m worried about her because she might be really sick, and I don’t know where she is. See, my parents belong to the Illumination and don’t believe in doctors or hospitals or getting treated the way others do. When I tried to sneak Shadow out of the house so a doctor could see her, my parents had me arrested for kidnapping and then basically kicked me out of the family which sucks cause . . . this is . . .”

  Raina teared up as she again looked at Jackie.

  “Keep talking,” Jackie mouthed.

  “I don’t even know why I’m doing this,” she continued, raising her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “Probably no one will see me and even if you do . . . it’s just that I love my little sister. I miss her, and we can’t find her and it’s all so frustrating.”

  Tears fell. Raina swiped them away but didn’t try to stop them. “The church has their own treatment for when someone gets sick or goes dim as they say in the Nation. I hope it’s helping that Shadow, Abby, is being filled with Light. But if not, I want them to take her to a hospital. Or at least call me and tell me what’s going on. It’s killing me not to know if she’s all right.

  “Kids in the Nation don’t come on sites like this, but my friend Jackie said I should try and send her a message anyway, that maybe somebody somewhere will see it, and then see Abby, and alert the police or somebody so that we can find her and help he
r.”

  Raina reached for the picture. “This is Abby, my shadow. One of the last times I saw her, we sang our secret song. Me and her reciting every other line while doing a little dance. I wrote it to cheer her up after our cat died. Thinking she might hear this makes me feel a little better now. I’m not a singer or a rapper but . . .” Raina cleared her throat. “This is for Shadow, Abby Reed, wherever you are.

  “When I move to the right, you are my shadow.

  To the left cross-step, shadow all around.

  When I move you move, just like a shadow.

  When I groove you groove, my forever shadow now.”

  Raina felt lighter. It showed in the smile she gave while staring directly at the camera phone before a shy wave and quiet, “Okay, that’s all. Thanks. Bye.”

  She looked at Jackie. “So . . . how did I do?”

  Mimicking Raina’s earlier actions Jackie shrugged and said, “I guess we’ll wait and see.”

  Jackie added hash tags #BeAboutIt, #KCKVideo and #Saving-Shadow to the post, and tagged all of her friends. Minutes later, Monica called.

  “Oh my gosh, Raina,” she gushed, when Jackie placed the call on speaker. “You’ve got me crying over here!”

  An hour later, Larry and Steve called. Bryce did, too. “Yo, that was cool what you did for your little sister. Had me choked up a little bit.”

  “Quit playing.” That he’d seen it and approved made her feel good. His words made her smile. “Glad you saw it, though.”

  “I’m serious. I showed it to KCK. He wanted to help and shared it on his page.”

  “For real?” Raina’s eyes widened. Jackie was excited, too.

  “I gotta run,” Bryce said, “But I’ll be home next weekend. Whatever help you need . . . I’m there.”

  By the time Raina and Miss Christine went home, more than twenty of Jackie’s friends had called raving about the video. Raina checked the website before going to bed. Almost seven hundred people had viewed the video. The next morning, a ringing phone woke her up before the alarm set for seven.

  “What is it, Jackie?” she groggily asked.

  “You’re going viral!” Jackie shouted. “Already more than twenty thousand views!”

  That news woke Raina up. She hopped out of bed. There was no guarantee that they’d find Abby. But she felt a few thousand more would be looking.

  Chapter 23

  The Storytime post went viral—one hundred thousand views in less than a week. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Kris Hall’s story ran in the regional paper two days later, read, it seemed, by everyone in Chippewa. When Raina went back to school, most of the students were very supportive. Some apologized for jokes made at her expense following the kidnapping charges. Others shared her posts and helped pass out flyers. The major papers in the state’s three largest cities published Kris’s article before it got picked up by the Associated Press. Within twenty-four hours, Raina’s story, along with a recent picture of her and Abby, were featured in papers from Seattle to Maine. Raina’s cry for help was genuine and raw and tugged at the nation’s emotions. Most who watched it could see themselves—siblings, mothers, teachers, friends.

  Except for defending and supporting the Reeds on their network, the Illumination had been silent. By week’s end, however, they were forced to issue a statement to the national press. That Saturday, Raina watched as Grand Seer Otis Patterson, the man who’d been like an uncle before conducting the council that eventually voted her obscured, appeared at a press conference and provided a Nationesque spin on the Reeds’ disappearance. In America, he said, families weren’t required to post their vacation plans and had a right to privacy when it came to health issues and family decisions made based on their faith. He promoted Light healing, criticized the biased mainstream media and admonished those in the Nation to avoid the unsanctioned.

  The story set off a national debate around the rights of parents and children, and how sometimes the line got blurred that separated church and state. Talk shows. News outlets. Men and women. Old and young. Everyone had an opinion. After the first couple days, Valarie advised Raina to stop watching the news and return to a singular focus—Abby.

  They hired a publicist that Drew recommended. Felicity Moore was a quiet, experienced professional with an attention to detail. She fielded calls from every major news outlet and several television talk shows. Even Hollywood came knocking in the form of an A-list producer who thought their heartstring-tugging story was perfect for television, maybe even the big screen. Valarie, Bruce, or Drew vetted every inquiry. They were very protective of their client and concerned that Raina might be exploited. To say Team Abby, which after the viral video was renamed Team Shadow, became overwhelmed with the media frenzy was an understatement. But they were holding their own.

  At the moment, Team Shadow was gathered at Valarie’s house, their usual spot—Raina, Jackie, Valarie, Bruce, Drew, and Valarie’s assistant, Marjorie. The back wall of the dining room where they sat had been turned into an organizational board. Potential media appearances for Raina had been scribbled on sheets of white paper, then taped to the wall so everyone could see the potential big picture, literally. ELLA, the name of the number one talk show in its time slot for over ten years, was at the center of the wall.

  Valarie sat back, tapping her chin with a manicured finger. “Ella is a given. Her platform is known for helping others, and she has a special heart for kids. I think an interview with her would be thorough but compassionate and, hey, since she’s always surprising her guests, she might even help us find Abby.”

  “Ella’s big,” Felicity agreed. “But I’m negotiating a booking with national news phenom Gayla Kingsley. She wants an exclusive, no other one-on-ones for thirty days before or after her show has aired. Going on Ella would take that interview off the table. I’m not sure we’d get it back.”

  Bruce rocked back in his chair, frowning. “In today’s news cycle, thirty days is forever. Our main goal is getting the word out about Abby, as quickly as possible, to as many who will cover the story. Gayla is big, but so is Ella. I say we counter with a maybe a week on the exclusive but if Ella reaches out, we can’t say no.”

  Felicity tapped a key on the tablet in front of her and quoted the stats on both shows, which ran on different networks. Everyone at the table concluded that the ideal would be for Abby’s story to run on both.

  “I could counter with a nonexclusive offer,” she said, “with the incentive for Gayla to be the first national newscast to interview Raina. Hers would likely air on a morning show versus a primetime spot. Given the demographics, and Ella’s lock on the afternoons, that would actually be a great situation.”

  They agreed on half a dozen other appearances on popular video blogs and radio stations before Valarie shifted the conversation.

  “I hate to dampen the mood, but we need to discuss how to handle our opposition—FOX and other conservative outlets that have sided with the parents. Our other nemesis is obviously Illumination TV. They have a solid following and an expansive reach, and are spinning the narrative in a way that’s harmful and untrue.”

  “It’s America,” Bruce said. “Everyone has the right to voice their opinions, even if they are untrue, outright lies.”

  “As long as they use the word ‘allegedly,’ ” Drew added.

  Bruce shook his head. “People can lie without using that word. Look at the dude in the White House. Case closed.”

  “Doesn’t mean we can’t sue them for libel,” Marjorie said, her years of working at law firms paying off.

  Valarie agreed. “But as long as the content isn’t especially damaging, it’s not worth our time and effort. Their rhetoric is a distraction, a way to sidetrack, derail us. We won’t let that happen. But we need to be ready to counter whatever distractions are created with what’s important, finding Abby and making sure she’s okay.”

  The doorbell rang. Drew stood up. “I asked a buddy of mine to stop by, Valarie. He read Raina’s story
in the paper and thinks he can help us.”

  He answered the door and returned with a short, average-looking guy sporting a bald head, a slight paunch and an easy smile.

  “This is a college buddy of mine, Stanton Palovich, a former computer technology geek who’s quickly and quietly become one of the best private investigators in the country. He wants to help you, Raina, in any way that he can.”

  Even with a viral video and national talk show host interest, Raina was surprised. A private investigator? Her emotions rose to the surface. That all of these people, most of them strangers, would want to help her was overwhelming. These were outsiders, the unsanctioned, deemed off-limits by the Nation. Yet other than Lucy, Raina hadn’t seen a familiar face from her former religious family. Help hadn’t come without consequences, though.

  Recently, the Nation’s school had found and flagged the email Raina had sent to Lucy and questioned her about it. She admitted to being in contact with Raina, violating a no-contact order given by the church, and almost lost her teaching job. Raina learned this in a final text from Lucy asking not to be contacted again.

  “Thank you,” Raina said to Stanton, who looked to be all of eighteen but was actually thirty-two.

  Stanton nodded, smiling politely as he slipped a hand in his pocket, which brought to mind a thought Raina hadn’t considered.

  “I appreciate you coming here and everything, but aren’t private investigators expensive? I don’t have any money to pay you.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Stanton said. “I just want to help you find your sister.”

  “To that end,” Drew continued, “he’s already started trying to track your parents electronically.”

  “How?”

  A commotion at the front door stopped conversation. Everyone turned as Bryce entered the house.

  “Bryce!” Raina jumped up and ran over to hug him. “When did you guys get back?”

  “Just now. I told you I’d be here.” Bryce held Raina in a warm embrace, until a pointed throat-clearing from Christine cracked up the room. “Did y’all find Abby?”

  Raina shook her head. “Not yet. How was the tour?”