For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I told Cristy to get her girls checking out the documents for these girls, from birth certificates to driver’s licenses. Wisty was the first to come up with irregularities, in their birth certificates. “Look at these Cristy,” she said, “the one on the right is real, the other on the left is a forgery. Check the bottom right corner.” Cristy looked and sure enough there was a difference in the little logo even though they were very similar. She called me right away to let me know.
“Good work Wisty!” I said, “Keep digging girls!” I then communicated this to Sky and Kat. It means these girls are not necessarily who they seem to be, except for Kerry. I asked Sky to try something since she and Kristina are staying in the room with Kerry and Krissy. Close to bedtime, Sky told the girls that her and Kristina are meeting with Kat for a few minutes, but she would leave 6 cats in the room to guard them. Off they went while Kerry and Krissy sat on their beds surrounded by 5 cats, while Rascal walked up and down the room as the main guard.
“Rascal is big for a cat,” said Krissy. “He’s an Ocelot,” said Kerry, “a wild cat that came from the jungles of South America. You don’t need to be afraid, Mandar told me these cats are specially trained for all sorts of things, including guarding people. They even have little emergency buttons on their collars that they push if we are attacked. Then they attack whoever comes in here, and all of them know how to kill attackers.” “These cute, furry cats can kill people?” asked Krissy.
“Yep, but they are perfectly friendly with friends like us,” said Kerry smiling. “Can we really trust these people Kerry?” she asked again. “Absolutely,” answered Kerry, “they are completely trustworthy. What are you thinking?” “Well, I was wondering if I could trust them enough to tell them about me,” she said, “I mean, can they protect me from…them?” “Yes, and they will take us away from here to a place where we will be safe,” said Kerry.
“Why don’t they take you away?” asked Krissy, “You are not mixed up in any of this.” “I don’t want to leave you and Darlene,” she said, “you two are my best friends and I want to stay with you.” Sky and Angel then returned with Darlene. “Darlene will be staying with us tonight,” said Sky, “and my good friend Angel is staying here with us too. Kristina is staying in one of the other rooms tonight.” While they continued talking, Azura, Sky’s cat, was meowing everything she heard when the girls were talking.
“Azura really seems to want attention,” said Krissy. “Oh, she just likes to talk with me,” said Sky, “we talk to each other all the time, right Azura?” Mew, meow!= “Yep, we like to talk lots!” “Wow, it’s as if she answered you!” exclaimed Krissy. Sky laughed. “She did answer me,” said Sky, “now, did you girls want to talk about something?” The girls looked at each other. “How, how did you know that?” asked Krissy. “Azura told me you were wondering if you could trust us,” said Sky, “and if we could protect you from ‘them’.”
Both girls were wide eyed at this point. “Were you listening at the door?” asked Kerry. “No, I didn’t do that, honest,” said Sky, “when Azura was doing all that meowing before, she was actually telling me what you said. We are not really spying on you, we are doing this to help protect you. We want to help you, but you first need to help us so we can keep you safe and alive. We know you are not who you say you are. We have checked your documents, your ID, everything about you, and none of you have parents that are alive except for Kerry.
The rest of you were kidnapped after your parents died, while you were in foster homes, and all at the age of 6. Darlene was 6 also but was kidnapped 3 years later than the rest of you.” “Yep, that’s us alright,” said Darlene with her head down, “they trained us to do all sorts of things, stealing, drug running, pickpockets, whatever they wanted us to do.” “Yeah, and Megan, Rhianna, Julie and Emma were the tough girls,” said Krissy, “they would beat kids of people who didn’t pay their “bills” to our “parents”.
Megan and Rhianna even killed some kids and hid the bodies so well they were never found. We were terrified and our “parents” told us if we went to the police or disobeyed, then we would end up dead too.” “We want to get out of all this,” said Darlene crying, “but we’re scared, we just don’t know what to do.” Krissy and Kerry were crying now too. “Can you please help my friends Sky?” pleaded Kerry, “Please?”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.