Flee (The Aurora Lockette Series, Book 1) by Miranda Kavi

life. Why are people making such a
big deal out of this?”
    I was relieved someone was standing up for me
and my mom when we couldn’t do it ourselves. It restored my faith
in humanity. Well, somewhat restored my faith in humanity.
    “Thank God,” my mom said. “I was starting to
think the whole world was completely mad. Maybe this will die
down.” She took a long drink of her third cup of coffee and set it
down on the table. “Let’s go canoeing,” she suggested brightly.
    “Sure, Mom.” And we did. We stayed away from
the T.V. and phone.
    We returned to the cabin several hours later.
She cooked some steaks on the compact charcoal grill outside. We
ate in front of the T.V. I mentally braced myself for any more
Aurora related coverage.
    A pretty brunette appeared on the screen of a
national news network. “And now returning to the story grabbing
national headlines. Spectators claimed a woman, Aurora Lockette,
saved their child by flying to catch her when the cliff the child
was standing on gave way. Additional reports surfaced Lockette was
with Gavyn Dhaval at the time, a notable Hollywood figure. It seems
that at least this part of the bizarre story is true. Today, for
the very first time since these events unfolded, Gavyn Dhaval
released a written statement as follows:
     
    ‘I’d like to clear up some misconceptions
about events that recently transpired. Earlier this week, I was
with Aurora Lockette. She was brave and alert enough to lunge after
a little girl who was falling off a cliff, saving her life. Aurora
caught the girl before she went over the edge and pulled her back
up. I can only imagine the trauma this family experienced at almost
watching their child die. However, I can no longer remain silent
while they continue to make ridiculous assertions that Ms. Lockette
flew. These are absurd and hurtful, as they have caused unwanted
attention and hate to be directed to Ms. Lockette. I would ask the
media respect Ms. Lockette’s privacy. It is unfortunate a heroic
but very human act has been turned into a hate-filled media
circus.’ ”
     
    “Wow,” my mom said.
    I’m sure his agent and rep were cringing he
would have to publicly comment on such a ridiculous situation. Pain
broke through my numbness and threatened to crash over me.
    I excused myself and hid behind the closed
doors of my bedroom. In the darkness, I thought about everything I
had lost.
    I slept in late the next morning. When I woke
up, my mom was stretched out on the couch in the living room.
“Morning,” she said as I trotted in with a cup of coffee. “I think
we can go back in a couple of days. The news broke this morning the
family retracted their statements and apologized. They ‘admitted’
they were looking for some publicity. All your classmates are still
refusing interviews. That was early this morning and there hasn’t
been a single story again,” she said. “I don’t know what prompted
them to do this, but I’m sure glad they did. This family and Gavyn
are covering for you now. Maybe it’ll be enough to get everyone
else to back off too.”
    Sure enough, four days later we were loading
up the car to return to Kansas. Erica reported there were no
visitors to my mom’s home in several days. The story completely
dropped out of the media. My mom had her phone service restored
under a new number. There wasn’t a single errant message.
    I had time to think about what the future
might hold for me as we drove back. I had withdrawn from law
school, knowing my situation would be ingrained on my classmates’
minds forever.
    When we pulled into the driveway, I hadn’t
come up with a plan and I was exhausted. I went straight to my old
bedroom. My sister’s boyfriend had kindly driven to San Antonio and
vacated my apartment. Boxes of my stuff were stacked in neat rows,
filling half of the room. My furniture was in storage in my
sister’s basement. I was grateful to have most of my stuff back. I
still had a stash in the cabin