“French toast and a side of bacon,” I replied.
“Okay. What kind of eggs do you want?”
“I don’t want eggs,” I said.
“It comes with eggs,” he replied.
“Okay. I want an egg over-hard,” I said.
“Like a hard-boiled egg?” he asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.
“No, like an over-hard. Like not over-easy, over-hard,” I said, trying to simultaneously give my order and glare at Caro.
“So the same as over-easy eggs,” he said and began jotting it down.
“Wha — no, that’s not what I said, I want the yolk to be cooked,” I said.
“So you do want hard-boiled?”
“Say hard-boiled one more fuckin’ time,” I said, pointing my finger at him. He leaned back slightly in offense and then turned his attention toward Caro.
Caro glanced up, delighted with my decision, “I’ll have the Belgian waffles.”
“You got it,” our waiter replied. We handed our menus to the waiter and he went to put our order in.
I leaned back in the booth with my arms crossed. Caro surrendered to my coldness.
“Okay, Dani,” she took a deep sigh, “I am going to tell you some things that must never leave this table. Do you understand?”
I sat up quickly and folded my hands on the table attentively, “I understand.”
“Okay,” Caro took a deep breath, “When I was nineteen, I escaped from…well, you know what from. Anyway, I was living here, fuckin’ poor and homeless. I couldn’t bring myself to turn a trick or sell drugs to make money; I’d rather die than contribute to that life, so I just began wasting away on the streets. I lived like that for two years.
“One night Law found me. I assumed he was just another man wanting something from me. He offered me a hotel room for the night and a place to stay for several nights to come if I wanted. In that moment, I was so….desperate for warmth, food, and shelter, I just could not turn him down, so I went with him. He showed me to the hotel room. He insisted I take a bath, he had clothes for me, he brought me food. I hadn’t eaten a crumb in four days.
“After I took a bath, he was waiting for me in the room. I sat next to him. I didn’t want to but I pulled down my robe and closed my eyes. Then, something unusual happened, he told me to put my clothes on, that that was not what he wanted from me. I was so confused; I just didn’t understand how he could want to help me without getting anything in return. He told me that ‘Too many beautiful souls in this world are thrown out, they are made to think they are nothing, they are judged because their flaws are put on display for the world. I only want to reintroduce those people to the opportunities that are possible in their future.’
“He put me up in a house with other people like me. I got my own room, he got me a job, we were provided with food and clothing. There were two other people there like us, gifted,” Caro said. It was the first time I heard her refer to us as gifted rather than flawed. “It was kind of like a cult, but I didn’t care. We suddenly had value again, we helped people, we fed the poor, we built playgrounds and fixed people’s houses and shit. He only required that we were loyal, we work, we stay clean from hardcore drugs, we seek to grow, we tend to our gifts, and are not fueled by greed or hatred.”
“So what happened? Why did you leave?” I asked, captivated by her story.
“What do you think? I appreciated what Law did for me; if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. Danielle, I grew up with nothing, so when someone comes around and says that I can make four paychecks in one night and I don’t have to take my clothes off, I’m going to listen. I started doing favors for Franklin and he paid me very well. I didn’t belong with Law’s people. I wasn’t built like them. I had this desire to right all the wrong that had been done to me. Franklin understood me. He promised me I would get my revenge. Law was all about forgiveness, and I could not forgive any of those sick fucks for what they did to me. Law just didn’t understand. He said that I would not let go of my hatred and that it was consuming me. He said there’s a better way to right the wrongs in this world than resorting to violence. He tried to get me to stay but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t.”
“So you went to work with Franklin?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I did. See, Franklin understands people like us. We’re not all born wanting to make the world a better place. We have a darkness inside of us that we need to feed. The world chewed us up and spit us out, and left us to die. What the fuck do we owe the world? Franklin encourages us to actually use our gifts to get the revenge we deserve.”
“Is that why Franklin and Law are enemies? They just don’t see things the same way?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s why,” Caro said quickly.
“Do you. . . ever regret leaving?” I asked.
“No. . .” Caro said, averting her eyes, “Never.”
“So that guy at the coffee shop was one of the people you lived with?”
“No, I don’t know him. I imagine he’s a newer resident.”
“What should we tell Franklin?”
“The truth, he probably already knows everything anyway.”
“You think?” I asked. Caro merely glanced over with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you think Law really got my pills?” I asked.
“Probably,” Caro said, digging into her purse and reading the pills, “Yup, looks like your prescription.”
She slid the bottle across the table and I removed two pills and drank them down with my water. Our food arrived and Caro
