The Impostor, A Love Story (2 page)

“Hello, Angel.” I entered the room and saw
Jessica’s sparkling eyes. I picked her up, swung her around, and
gave her a big kiss.

“Can we go to the park, Mommy?”
Mommy
.
I was barely old enough to be a mom, but my daughter had become my
everything.

I peeked out the window. “Honey, it’s going
to get dark soon.”

“Pwease, Mommy.” Her big blue eyes opened
wide as she pouted her little lip. Irresistible.

“Okay, sweetie, we’ll try.”

I grabbed the keys and decided to make the
best of our little bit of sunlight. We pulled into the park at
twilight.

When we arrived, we were transported to a
place where princesses, good queens, and villains lived. We climbed
through the playground as the moon illuminated the sky and all that
mattered was this precious moment in time when “happily ever after”
was real.

As darkness finally fell upon us, I picked
Jessica up and started to carry her back to the car, disappointed
our magic had to end.

That’s when I saw his car. My heartbeat
increased as I scoped the parking lot to see how close my Prism
was. Jessica’s dad, Ronald, walked toward me. He was back in town.
I flashed back to the beer bottles littering the room, his slurred
speech, and the worst part—his anger.

“Nicole.” He rushed toward me.

I tried to hurry and get Jessica in the car
before he got to us.

“Nicole, you haven’t answered any of my
calls.” All of a sudden, this dead-beat dad started showing up
places unexpectedly. He promised he had changed. I had heard that
before.

For years, he thought chasing girls and
drinking alcohol was more important than spending time with his
daughter.
What happened this time
? I wondered.

Ronald had been my first—my only. Enamored by
my high school sweetheart, I thought we would last forever; but
once he acquired a love for alcohol and drugs, his inhibitions all
disappeared. Because of an injury, he never made it to college
football, and thinking back, that is when his addictions started to
get really bad. He became someone different—negative, verbally
abusive, and lethargic. Before long, he started using his fist.

“Jessica needs her daddy,” Ronald began.
He probably just needs a place to stay
, I tried to remind
myself, so I wasn’t hurt by him again.

“Come on, Nikki. I love you, honey. Think of
it. Jessica needs a family.”

I wanted to believe he loved me, and I wanted
our little family to live happily ever after. I fell in love with
him when I was fifteen and still believed in storybook endings. I
still wanted to. But I remembered the bruises, and somehow this
time I managed to be strong enough to say no.

His facial expression contorted as color set
in his cheeks. My heart began to race even faster as I stared at
the closed driver’s door.

He grabbed my arm and I flinched. His grip
cut off my circulation.

“Jessica needs her father.” His voice
changed; it became harsh and demanding. I could smell the beer on
his breath. His fingers dug into my arms as his eyes bulged. “She
needs her father.” He shook me hard. I felt my brain shake in my
skull, and I started to feel light-headed. It was dark. There was
no one around to hear me scream.

Jessica watched us from inside the car. I
couldn’t let her see me get beaten again. Biting his hand, I
surprised him, and then I kneed him in the balls. As he doubled
over, he released my arms. I opened the door and jumped in my car.
Slamming the door, I locked it quickly. He grabbed at the handle as
I started the car and sped away.

I carried Jessica into my apartment still
feeling uneasy. After tucking her in bed, I walked to my dresser
and examined the piece of paper Raven had scribbled the number on,
and decided to call my best friend, Emily.

The first time I had talked to Emily about
Alaska she responded as if I was crazy. “Why the hell would we go
to a place covered in six feet of snow?”

“Ronald’s back from prison, Em. He’s
harassing me to get together with him again.”

“I can’t believe he’s already out. You have
to be careful. You put him there. He is not the kind of guy that
forgives easily. I have seen you fall for his lies over and over
again. It always ends the same. Does he know where you live?”

“Not yet. He found me at the park, but I lost
him before he was able to follow me home. He said he’s changed, Em.
He said Jess needs her dad.”

“He just wants to control you again. If he
wanted anything to do with Jess, he would have been giving you
child support. You can’t trust him. I know he is the only guy you
have been with and so you still care for him, but think about what
he did to you. You can’t keep forgiving him, Nikki. You can’t keep
being so naïve.”

“I know. I know better. Why is it I want to
believe he’s finally for real?”

“You’re never going to break the spell he has
over you until you sleep with someone else. He’s no good for you!”
She tried to convince me, “If he’s back, you need to get away. He
will find you like he did last time. I’ve been thinking about that
idea you had about going to Alaska. It may be fun. I need to find a
way to move out of my parents’ house anyway. I could use a job
where I could actually make some money. Let’s do it, Nicole. Let’s
go!”

This time Emily understood. It wasn’t just
about us making more money and getting out of dead-end jobs.

We were both searching for more. Before I
knew it, we were escaping to Alaska.

A patch of turbulence shook me out of my
memory. I tried to blink so Emily wouldn’t see the tear escaping my
eye. I had never left my daughter before. My parents agreed to
watch Jess until I could bring her to Alaska or run back
home—whichever came first.

Jessica deserved a better life, not just
imaginary castles for a stolen moment. My angel deserved more.

One day, life will be better
. I gazed
out the window of the plane.
One day soon
.

“This is crazy. We have five layovers. Why
are we flying to Texas and then back up to Nevada? It doesn’t make
sense.” Emily shook her head, stuffing the boarding pass back in
her purse.

I didn’t complain because the club that Raven
gave me the number to hired us and paid for our airfare. In Utah,
we took the red-eye flight, arriving in Seattle at about one in the
morning. Time seemed to stand still as we waited for the airline to
begin boarding to Anchorage. My eyelids were heavy, and every so
often, I caught myself nodding off. We decided to curl up in a
corner, using our coats as covers, figuring the loud “Boarding
Flight 192” would wake us up. It didn’t. When we woke up, no one
seemed to be in the terminal. Emily stared at the time, hitting her
watch as if it would change back for us.

“There is no way.” Emily jumped up.

“We missed our flight?” I rubbed my eyes and
then it hit me. “We missed our flight!”

“I can’t believe they left us. We were right
here at the terminal,” Emily raised her voice.

Rushing to the counter, we pleaded, “We
missed our flight to Anchorage. Can you get us on the next flight
please?” We gave the attendant our boarding passes, and she told us
we could fly on standby at six a.m.

Shrugging our shoulders, we proceeded to the
gate and decided to rest, curling up across a few of the seats.
This time we had a
big
sign on us saying, We are flying to
Anchorage on Flight 622. Don’t leave without us! Before long, we
were sound asleep.

“Ladies, we are boarding Flight 622,” I heard
a muffled voice. I slowly started to wake up. “Ladies we are
boarding.” A young, really attractive guy who we figured worked for
the airlines nudged me.

My eyes snapped to attention as I wiped at
the tiny bit of drool off the corner of my mouth. How
embarrassing.

He hesitated for a moment, perhaps feeling
awkward. He woke me from my deep sleep.

“I . . . I . . .”

He stood silent, staring at me. His eyes were
an intriguing blue, guarded by long lashes that should have been
illegal on a guy. I realized I was gazing into his eyes and quickly
looked away, wondering if I had been talking in my sleep . . . or
worse.
Was I snoring
?
Why was he staring at me
?

He finally continued. “I saw your sign and
didn’t want them to leave you. You better hurry and get in line.
Did you already check in?”

I rubbed my eyes. “There was no one at the
counter when we got here.”

“Give me your boarding passes, and I’ll see
what I can do.” We dug in our purses and handed him our passes.
“Oh, you all are on standby.” He scrutinized the passes as if they
had a disease.

“What does that mean?” the two of us
questioned.

“Well, it means you can only fly if there is
room on the plane. There isn’t going to be any ‘cause we’re
full.”

“Don’t tell us that. We’ve been flying for
the last thirty hours. I need a bed.” I sighed. “I need a shower.
It’s an emergency! Is there anything you can do to get us on that
flight?” I begged.

“Well, I’m technically not working right now,
but I’ll see what I can do.”

“We will owe you big time. Please try.”

“Only because you do need a shower.” He
winked at me as he turned to walk toward the counter. His dark
curls gently bounced as he walked.

“The lady at the gate is a jerk! She would
have left us here sleeping again,” Emily mumbled.

I agreed. “I hope he can get us on.”

He came back smiling, his blue eyes lit up as
he held out the boarding passes, “Got them.”

“You’re a life saver. Thank you so much,”
Emily graciously responded.

“The only catch is you have to sit with me. I
told them you were with me. That’s the only way I could get you on.
I’m Brad by the way.” He grinned, putting his arms around each of
us and walking us to the line.

“I guess we can handle that. I’m Nicole and
she is Emily.” He was adorable, so we didn’t mind.

Brad stood maybe 5’10” like my dad. I wasn’t
good at the height thing, though. At only about five foot, everyone
appeared tall to me. Brad looked like a jock—not the football star
type, but maybe a soccer player.

“Sleeping Beauty.” He squeezed my shoulder
gently so I’d glace at him. “You can’t go back to sleep, either.
The flight is only a few hours, so you will survive. I don’t want
to hear you snore.”
Oh my god, was I snoring
? He winked at
me.

“You are mighty demanding, aren’t you?” I
insisted.

“These are my terms. Take them or I’ll bump
you, and you’ll be back to sleeping on those metal seats.”

“Okay, Prince Charming, anything but the
metal chairs. Seriously though, thank you for waking us up. That
would have sucked if we missed our flight again!” I replied.

“Truth is you all are tiny. This is a full
flight, and I didn’t want to get stuck in between those two big
smelly guys.” He inconspicuously pointed out the two heavy men
walking together just ahead of us in line. “Thank god she could
change my seat.”

“And I thought it was our charm,” Emily
responded quickly.

He pointed out our seats in the plane. “Hey,
you all sit down; I’ve got to talk to Sherry for a minute. I call
the middle seat.” Brad went to talk to the flight attendant in the
back for a moment.

“He’s really cute, Nikki. You like him, don’t
you?”

“Shh. No I don’t.”

“You are such a liar. I see how you stared at
him.”

“Shut up, Em, he’s coming back.”

Brad returned and squeezed in between Emily
and me.

Shortly after we settled in, a voice bellowed
over the PA. “Good Morning! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard
Flight 622 to Anchorage, Alaska. My name is John Graham, and I'm
your in-flight service director. Your cabin crew is here to ensure
you have an enjoyable flight to Anchorage this morning.” After he
gave the safety precautions, he continued. “Now I’d like you all to
join in and help sing Happy Birthday to Sleeping Beauty, one of our
lovely passengers celebrating her birthday here with us this
morning.”

Brad stood up and directed the choir of
passengers. I could feel warmth spread across my cheeks as he made
me stand up to be serenaded. I smacked him on his arm.

“Happy birthday to you . . .”

As I slumped back in my chair, I smacked him
again for embarrassing me.

“It’s not my . . .”

“Shh, what they don’t know won’t hurt
them.”

The flight attendant suddenly appeared with a
bottle of champagne.

“Thanks, Sherry. We’ll take three orange
juices.” He turned to us. “The mimosas on this flight are to die
for.” He smiled his charming, boyish smile.

As she walked away, I whispered again. “It’s
not my . . .”

“Just enjoy it, right Emily?”

Emily agreed. “I can’t think of a better way
to begin our morning.”

He had us laughing the whole flight. After
the second bottle of champagne, the stewardess finally cut us
off.

A patch of clouds opened up, and I caught a
glimpse of the snow-covered mountains from the corner of my eye. I
became silent for a moment and leaned over Brad to see out Emily’s
window as we flew over the mountain range.

“Have you ever been to Alaska before?” he
commented on my obvious fascination.

“I’ve never been anywhere before. This is so
beautiful.”

He watched me almost as if he couldn’t
believe this was my first trip anywhere. I snapped out of my trance
and realized I was totally invading his space.

“I’m sorry.” I sat up quickly.

“For what?”

“For squishing you.”

“You can squish me all you want.” His face
lit up. “So,” he paused, looking at me, “So, where are you all
staying?”

“We don’t know yet. We figured we’d get a
hotel room close to the airport.”