Melinda glanced at the girl, six years old with curls of platinum snaking around her cherubic face. For a moment the mother seemed to smile, then her lips went flat. “We’re going to stay with some friends of mommy’s for a while, baby.”

“But you said we could go home!” Cammie stuck out her bottom lip.

Melinda straightened next to the bed, ignoring the packing for the moment, a brown bruise on her left shoulder revealed above the strap of her Cavalli dress. “Honey, I’m sorry, but we can’t go back. I talked to one of the neighbors and daddy is still there.”

Cammie continued to pout, her eyes hooded as her head slunk between her shoulders.

“Don’t give me the vulture look,” Melinda said. “We’ve got too much to do this morning to play pouty games.”

The girl spun on her rump to stare out the hotel window, the New York skyline beyond. The sun was just rising, creating shadows between the thousands of buildings within the her eyesight.

Melinda huffed and went back to packing.

Cammie turned to glare at her mother. “You said we were going someplace fun, like at Fourth of July, to see fireworks of sumptin.’ ”

Her mom returned the glare as she grabbed the phone next to the bed. After her nails clicked several buttons, into the receiver she said, “Hello, can you tell me if my cab is ready?”

A moment later, Melinda thanked the hotel operator and returned the phone to its cradle.

“You could at least tell me where we’re going?” Cammie asked.

Melinda swung around to face the girl again. Anger was clear on her face, but she managed to hide it again. “Mommy’s friend Roberta has offered us a place to stay for a few weeks.”

“I don’t know no Roberta.”

Melinda hesitated, then, “She’s one of the fundraisers who helps mommy with her volunteer work. We have to visit her today at her job downtown.”

Cammie nodded, accepting all she had been told, and tucked in her lip again.

Melinda knelt next to her little girl. “ I promise you, as soon as daddy is out of the house, we can go home. We’ve talked about this. Today’s going to be a whole new life for us.”

Cammie nodded again. “I know, mommy. You just don’t want daddy doing bad stuff to you no more. I understan.’ ”

The woman wrapped her arms around the girl and squeezed.

Ten minutes later they were twelve stories lower on the ground floor. Hand in hand, mother and daughter strolled out the elevator doors and across the wide, gilded foyer of the hotel, a bellboy in scarlet a step behind with their luggage hanging at the end of his arms.

The mother and daughter were soon ensconced in the back of a yellow taxi, their luggage in the trunk.

“Where to?” the cab’s driver asked from the front seat.

Melinda patted Cammie’s hands, a distant and worried look on the mother’s face. “World Trade Center, please.”

“You got it, lady.”

The driver hit the accelerator. The New York sights passed them by, pedestrians and shops and restaurants floating past seemingly at the speed of light.

Cammie couldn’t take her eyes from the window, her young mind taking in everything.

A few minutes later they neared their destination and the cabbie slowed their ride to a crawl as they closed on a line of cars in front of the double towers.

The taxi suddenly shook, rocking Melinda and Cammie from side to side and nearly slamming them into the doors.

The driver slapped a foot on the brakes, squealing his vehicle to a halt. “What the hell was that?” He craned his head around to stare with wide eyes at his passengers. “You two alright?”

Melinda twisted in her seat to check on her daughter.

Cammie sat there, her eyes still facing outward, but now turned up. “Look, mommy,” she said with a grin. “Fireworks. Jus’ like Fourth of July.”