Dragonfly by Jax Hill 

I'm not quite sure how it happened. Tawny and Marigold ended up moving out of Franz’s place and moving in with Maggie. She had a nice three-bedroom condo in the city, and she put them in one of the bedrooms. It made Franz pretty crazy. Tawny told him she still wanted to see him, but she didn’t want to live with him.

“She’s grateful as heck and all I gave her a way to get out of stripping, but she would rather live with a complete stranger!” he fumed.

Torstein laughed at him. “Maggie’s not a complete stranger. Maggie’s been helping her all along, ever since you brought her here. Who do you think helped her get the clothes she’s wearing now? And besides, if you want Tawny to live with you, you could propose marriage, you know?”

Franz rolled his eyes.

“Although, I doubt Tawny would marry you. I think she’s enjoying catching up on some feminine company right now.”

It was story time, and Tawny and Marigold were sitting together in the company of 4 little kids and about 10 homeless guys. They were mostly old guys; they weren’t going to give the ladies any trouble. They just seemed to like to sit and listen to them. Marigold helped Tawny tell the stories sometimes, doing different voices. They practiced at home.

They had told Maggie they didn’t want to take charity from her, so they’d gotten jobs as waitresses in a diner. They weren’t making the same money they had as dancers, but they were meeting nicer people, and it seemed to be making them feel more worthwhile. They worked the swing shift from 4-11 so they could always be here for Story Hour.

And they’d befriended Angel. Franz was wary about that. He still felt protective of both women, and he was afraid Angel would get them hooked on crack. Sully had started bringing Angel to Story Hour, and when she wasn’t jumped-up, she seemed to enjoy it. She would stay after and talk with Tawny and Marigold. And sometimes Maggie. Angel seemed shy around Maggie. She knew Tawny and Mari had been strippers, but I guess in her mind she thought Maggie was a “lady,” and somehow too good for her.

Just now Sully and Angel were crossing the park for Story Hour. Angel looked OK, not too messed up. Franz growled. “I really don’t like that crack-head sitting with the girls,” he said, for maybe the 10^th time since she started attending Story Hour.

“It’s cool,” Torstein said. “If love is stronger than hate, it follows that light is stronger than darkness, and good is stronger than evil.”

Franz looked at Torstein in confusion. “You wanna explain that, Master Yoda?” he asked.

“Tawny and Marigold are on a good path — in large part thanks to you, Franz. You gave them a way to escape the darkness. Now they’re inviting Angel to follow.”

“Yah, or else she’ll get them hooked and they’ll be worse off than they were stripping.”

“That’s why I say we have to believe that love is stronger than hate,” Torstein said.

I wasn’t sure. Was love stronger? Was good stronger than evil? I was glad that Tawny and Mari were discovering they could have normal lives with their self-esteem restored ... but I didn’t forget what Franz had told me when Marigold first showed up. Was Nikolai wondering where she’d gone? Did he know already?