Sharon picked up her daughter's phone and tried another PIN. No good. She tried one more. Still no good. She put the phone back down. She only tried two a day, she didn't want to risk the phone locking up no matter how bad she wanted to know what secrets Cathy was hiding.
Cathy had always been a good girl and never hidden anything from her mother. That changed after she took the job at Robertson's Cleaning Services. It was Cathy's first real job, an office job, working directly for Phil Robertson alongside Phil's daughter Megan. The girls had been friends for years and Sharon trusted Phil (he was a good, successful, trustworthy, Christian, white man), but something changed almost right after Cathy started working there.
Cathy's father (Sharon's ex) and Cathy's stepfather (Sharon's current husband) both said more or less the same thing, "It's normal, the girl is just growing up and she wants a little independence and privacy. Give it to her."
Cathy's Grandmother (Sharon's mother) said about the same but added, "Don't go looking for what you don't want to find."
Sharon felt it wasn't normal, that something was wrong. It wasn't just secrets. It was late night texts and phone calls. It was disappearing for few hours at a time. It was a playing card tattoo when Cathy had never really played cards or expressed an interest in getting a tattoo. It was the home pregnancy kit Sharon found in the trash (negative, Thank God.)
Sharon made a mark in a little notebook she kept. Two tries a day for the past four weeks and she had run out of ideas. She knew all the PINs Cathy normally used and had gone through them. She had gone onto other guesses. Birthdays. High School Graduation Date. Date her dog died. Date she got a new dog. Sharon was pretty much out of ideas.
She put the notebook away. Tomorrow was another day.
The next morning, while Cathy was taking a shower, Sharon walked into her room and picked up the phone. The night before a new possibility hit her, the date Cathy started at Robertson's. It made sense, that's when all the changes started. She picked up the phone and entered the date 0925.
The phone unlocked.
Sharon stood and stared at the screen. Even though she kept trying she had sort of given up inside, assuming she'd never figure it out. What should she check first?
She flipped open the gallery and start glancing at pictures. The new puppy. Family. Friends. Some wildflowers growing near the house. A selfie of Cathy riding a horse (when had she ridden a horse?) A sunset. A butterfly. Strawberry picking with Megan. A picture of Cathy's feet in the sand with surf washing over them (it was obviously Cathy because you could see the tattoo. When did she go to the beach?). A few boys, some Sharon recognized, some she didn't, but not any faces that repeated a lot or more than others. Pictures of her 19th birthday party at the lake last August. Nothing odd or untoward about any of the pictures.
Even if Sharon was unaware of some of her daughter's activities, it seemed like it was all pretty normal stuff for an 18, no 19 year old girl. Sharon began to think everyone else was right and she was just being a clingy mother, afraid to see her little girl grow up.
She scrolled down a little more, relieved and preparing to put the phone back. She froze. Cautiously, as if she was afraid the phone was about to explode, she touched the thumbnail. The picture took over the screen.
It was her little girl, a selfie, no, not a selfie, someone else was holding the camera and Cathy was looking up at it with wide eyes. She was on her knees. Naked. Totally. It was pre-tattoo. The tip of a man's penis was in her mouth. Her ruby red lips where wrapped around it. It was a black penis. A black penis in Cathy's mouth.
It took a moment for Sharon to process when she was seeing. Her daughter, her baby, her sweet girl, had a black man's penis in her mouth. The penis belonged, obviously, to the man who was taking the picture.
Sharon flipped to the next picture. The penis hid Cathy's face as she licked the man's balls.
The next picture. The penis back in Cathy's mouth, deeper this time. Many more pictures like that.
Another picture. Cathy laying on the bed, touching herself, her head tiled off the side of the bed, mouth open.
A video. It starts like the picture, with Cathy laying on the bed, touching herself, her head tiled off the side of the bed, mouth open.
A man's deep voice asks, "Are you sure about this?"
