But no. Instead, she was here, digging up grass and baring her yard in the early steps of a laborious job that would hopefully feed them through the winter. She never would have dreamed she’d be in this position.
“Who’s this guy?”
Deni followed Jeff’s gaze to a man walking up the street toward their house. She caught her breath. “That’s Moe Jenkins. He’s one of Jessie’s old boyfriends. Dad and I talked to him the other day. We’re pretty sure he’s Sarah’s father, even though he denies it.” She squinted in the sunlight. “Is he coming here?”
Jeff jabbed his shovel into the ground as the man swaggered closer. “Looks like it.”
The man gave them a cursory wave as he reached the yard. “How y’all doing?”
Deni muttered that she was fine. Moe was dressed in filthy jeans that looked like he’d rolled in the dirt. He wore a threadbare T-shirt, its hem coming loose, and a backward baseball cap on greasy hair. His skin looked dry and brittle, and the leathery wrinkles around his eyes made him look middle-aged. She suspected he was younger than he looked.
Spotting the two children on the porch, he started to cross the yard.
“Excuse me,” Jeff said, blocking his way. “Can I help you?”
The man smelled of alcohol. “I came to see my little girl.”
Deni glanced up at the porch. Sarah looked up at him without recognition.
“That’s funny,” she said. “When my dad and I came to talk to you, you denied having a little girl. You said nobody’d ever been able to prove it.”
“Yeah, well, I got to thinking after you left. Started feeling a little guilty about that, and then I found out about Jessie’s death.”
He pushed past Jeff and started up the porch steps. Luke started to cry. Gripping his army men in his hands, he stood up and backed away.
“What’s the matter, Luke?” Moe said. “It’s me, Moe. Don’t you remember me?”
Luke nodded, but the fear remained on his face.
That was it! Deni wouldn’t allow this man to torment these children. She stepped on to the porch and sat down in the rocker, and pulled Luke onto her lap. He buried his face in her neck and clung to her, trembling.
“Moe, the sight of you doesn’t give these kids warm fuzzies. I don’t think Luke wants to see you.”
“That’s okay. I mainly came to see my daughter.” He bent over and stroked Sarah’s hair. “Hey, sweetie. How are you?”
She took her thumb out of her mouth and looked up at him skeptically. “Fine.”
He reached out as if to pick her up, but Jeff grabbed his arm. “Don’t touch her.”
Moe turned back, eye to eye with the sixteen-year-old. Jeff’s hard glare was intimidating. “I’m not gonna hurt her!”
“Then what do you want?” Jeff demanded.
For a moment, Deni feared a fight would break out, but she was confident Jeff could take him. She reached out for Sarah, and the little girl came quickly.
Moe’s voice softened. “The truth is, after I saw you and your dad, I got to feeling like I was shirking my responsibility. And now that Jessie’s dead, I decided I need to step up to the plate. Be a man.”
Deni’s stomach tightened. Surely he didn’t mean …
“I thought it was time I came and got these kids. I’m Sarah’s daddy, and the boys are her brothers. So I guess I’ll take all four of them.”
Deni caught her breath. “No way. My parents won’t let you take them!” She set Luke down. “Honey, go find my dad and tell him to come out.”
Luke scurried into the house. Deni got to her feet, still holding Sarah’s hand.
“You must be crazy,” Jeff said. “A few days ago you didn’t want anything to do with them. Now you want to herd them up and take them home?”
Moe held up a hand to calm him. “No need to get upset, now. I can explain. See, those kids were Jessie’s heart and soul. And I loved her. So what else can I do?”
“You loved her?” Deni repeated. “The other day you acted like you hated her guts!”
Doug came out of the house, Luke cowering behind his legs. Kay followed.
“What’s going on?” Doug asked.
“He thinks he’s going to take the kids,” Deni said. “All four of them.”
Kay gasped, and Doug’s mouth fell open. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with their disbursements, would it? The hundred bucks you could pad your pockets with if you had four extra kids around?”
Deni couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized it. Of course that was what he wanted.
The man looked indignant. “Are you accusing me of exploiting these kids?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Doug said. “That’s what it sounds like to me. You weren’t that interested in them when I talked to you a few days ago. You even denied paternity.”
“I told your son, I got to thinking.”
“Yeah, you got to thinking about the money,” Doug said. “Look, we have custody of these kids. We’re trying to find their family.”
“Hey, I am Sarah’s family.”
“But as you said, nobody’s been able to prove that yet.”
“Look on her birth certificate,” Moe insisted. “My name is listed as her father.”
Deni doubted he’d even shown up at the hospital when Jessie had given birth. “Do you have a copy?”
Moe threw her a look. “No. Jessie had that.”
“Then there’s no proof at all, is there?”
Moe was getting angry. “Man, if I have to get a lawyer, I will. But I’m getting those kids.”
“Fine,” Doug said. “Why don’t you go straight to the sheriff right now and talk to him? He’s the one who put them in our care.”
“Hey, I don’t need the sheriff. All I need is a judge.”
“The judge knows us. He gave us a court order.”
“That was before somebody who was blood kin came to claim them.”
Doug’s teeth came together. “It’s time for you to get off my property.”
The man backed away, lifting his hands in the air like he didn’t mean any harm. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it, that’s the way you got it. Expect papers to be delivered in the next day or two. Mark my word, I’m getting those kids.”
As he turned to walk off the porch, Aaron and Joey walked up carrying a bucket of water from the well. When he saw Moe, Aaron stopped and set the bucket down. “What’s he doing here?”
“I came to see you, Aaron.”
Aaron’s chin shot up. “Get lost. You don’t belong here.”
Moe crossed the yard to the boy and kicked his bucket over. Leaning down, he looked into the kid’s face. “Nice to see you too, buddy.”
Doug seethed as the man sauntered away. He stared at him until he was off their property.
As he went away, Deni saw that Luke was still sobbing. She bent down and looked into his frightened, tear-stained face. “What’s the matter, Luke? Has that man hurt you before?”
“Not me,” he said, sniffing. “He hurt my mommy.”
“What’d he do? How did he hurt her?”
“He hit her.”
“It’s true,” Joey said. “He broke her nose once and knocked out some of her teeth.”
Aaron went up to comfort his brother. “Don’t worry, Luke. Moe’s not gonna touch us. We’re not going anywhere with him!”
Sarah pulled her thumb out of her mouth and looked in the direction the man had gone. Deni hoped her father had a means of keeping him from getting her. If that man got custody, it would be the biggest disaster of Sarah’s life.
Even worse than her murdered mother.
thirty-four
THAT NIGHT THE BRANNING FAMILY ASSEMBLED THEIR LITTLE team of workers — the whole family and a few church members. Of the fifty families represented in the Sandwood Place Apartments, only fourteen people showed up to help with the garbage cleanup. Aaron didn’t know why Doug wouldn’t listen to him — the whole thing was just a great big waste of time.
> The whole process made him sick, and he couldn’t stop thinking about his mom lying in those woods for all those weeks, just behind all that garbage.
He wondered where her body was now. Lying on a table somewhere? In a coffin? The police had taken her off to do some tests or something, but he didn’t know when they’d give her back. It troubled him to think that she hadn’t been buried yet. But if they gave her to him, what would he do? Where would he dig the hole to bury her? Planting a rosebush in her honor was one thing, but putting his mother in the ground was another.
He started to feel sick, so he wandered back toward the building.
“Aaron, where are you going?” Kay asked.
“To my apartment,” he said. “I need to get something.”
Kay’s eyes were concerned as she gazed at him. “Okay, but let Deni go with you.”
Earlier they’d made plans for him and Joey, Luke, and Sarah to stay home, but he’d convinced them that if anyone was going to Sandwood Place, he was. It was his home, and he had things to check on. They’d finally given in, but they insisted that he keep someone with him at all times.
What did they think he’d do? Get lost? They were his apartments, and he knew his way around. He sure didn’t need a babysitter.
Deni followed him up the stairs. There was crime scene tape on the door, and the sheriff had lectured the residents about leaving the apartment alone. According to one of the neighbors, the sheriff had told them that if he found so much as a hair or fingerprint that didn’t belong, that person would be considered a suspect. So far it had worked. Aaron and the Brannings had permission to go inside, though.
Deni wouldn’t give him the key, so he waited as she opened the door. He stepped into the sweltering, rancid air that smelled of sewage. The smell almost knocked him back.
Deni covered her mouth and nose. “Man, how’d you ever live here? This place is gross.”
“Toilet’s backed up,” he said.
Deni choked.
What a drama queen.
“We’re going to have to get in here and clean this up,” Deni said, “but it’s not a job I’m volunteering for. Mom and Dad can do it. They’re used to cleaning up stuff that makes them nauseous. Just hurry up and get what you need so we can get out of this place.”
Aaron resented her disgust. This place was his home. It was where he’d lived with his mother, and all things considered, they’d had a few happy memories here. Like that time after she got out of jail and she was clean for a few days. She’d made spaghetti and a birthday cake for Joey. They’d watched some lame Disney movie on TV. The Little Mermaid or something like that. Things had been good those days.
There were times when his mother had been a nice person, though not many people knew it. They only knew her as a doper. Half the time she couldn’t walk straight. But every now and then, she had been like a real person, with a personality and everything. And during those times, he’d clung to hope that things would change.
They just never had.
He walked into her bedroom, looked around at her things. There was nothing here that he needed, not right away. But there was a picture of her tacked to a bulletin board on the wall. He took it down and looked at it, and that old knot swelled up in his throat.
She’d been a terrible mother. He should be glad she was dead.
Then guilt, strong and stark as the apartment’s smell, pulsed through him. She was his mother. He had always taken care of her. But things had gone so wrong.
“Hurry up, Aaron,” Deni called from the other room. “I’m gonna throw up if we don’t get out of here.”
He shook himself free of her memory. He grabbed a Wal-Mart bag from the floor. She had bought some thread, of all things, and some polka-dot material, like she was going to make Sarah a dress or something. She must have bought it during one of her I’m-sorry-I’m-a-lousy-mother-and-I’ll-do-better episodes. He dumped out the bag’s contents, then grabbed a few things that he wanted and dropped them in.
Then he granted Deni’s wish and got out of there.
The truth was, he was glad to be out of there too. Even to him, the stink was awful. He couldn’t believe he had lived there all that time. He should have cared more about his brothers and sister and forced himself to clean it up. But the sewage backup wasn’t his fault. How many other apartments here had the same problem and were living with that smell?
Deni locked the door behind them and took a deep breath of air. “Thank goodness,” she said. “They need to just burn that apartment out and start over with it.”
“No, they don’t. They need to leave it alone.”
“I’m just saying they’ll never be able to rent it out again. The bathroom’s probably ruined.”
He felt his ears burning. “Everything’s ruined, or haven’t you heard? Nothing works in this stupid town.”
She seemed surprised she’d insulted him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I don’t go around talking about the mess in your lousy room,” he said.
“Don’t be so sensitive.”
He wasn’t sensitive, but he didn’t feel like going on with this lame conversation. He stormed back to the stairs as if anxious to get back to digging up the garbage. Behind him, a door opened.
“Hey, Aaron, you’re back!”
He turned and saw his next-door neighbor Edith leaning out of her doorway. “Yeah,” he bit out. “I came to dig through your garbage. Why aren’t you down there doing it?”
Before, if he’d said a thing like that, she would have cussed him a blue streak and threatened to hit him. Instead, she smiled like he was the cutest thing. “Garbage isn’t my thing,” she said. “I’m, like, allergic to refuse.”
Allergic to refuse? Where did she get this stuff?
She strolled toward him. “So, Aaron, have you thought about my offer?”
He shrugged. “Not really.”
“Well, you should. I thought it all out. We’ll put a door between our apartments — ”
“Stop it,” Deni cut in. “He’s not coming to live with you, so give it up.”
Whoa.
Edith challenged Deni with a look, and he almost expected his neighbor to lunge. He’d seen her lose her temper before.
“I don’t believe I was talking to you.” She turned from Deni back to Aaron, her tone all sweetness. “As I was saying, Aaron, we can put in a door and you can stay in your own apartment, and I can stay in mine, but we can go between and I can look after you. Wouldn’t you like that?”
“My apartment needs a plumber,” he said. “It smells bad.”
“Well, we can clean it up. Didn’t your warden say he was getting some plumbers to come help us?”
Warden. That was a good word for Doug Branning. He gave her a smirk. “I thought you were allergic to refuse.”
“Hey, for you I’d do anything.”
He tried to think of one thing she’d ever done for him before.
“Come on,” Deni said. “Give me a break.”
Edith ignored her. She was really piling it on. “Think about it, Aaron. I know you’re mature enough to do what you want. You’ve been surviving just fine for the last couple of months and taking good care of your brothers and sister. It’s not like you need constant supervision.”
Deni took Aaron’s hand and started to pull him toward the stairs. “I told you to leave him alone.”
“Yeah?” Edith thrust her chin up. “And who made you queen? I’ll talk to him if I want.”
Aaron jerked free. “They won’t let me live here,” he told Edith. “They don’t trust you.”
“Well, if you tell the judge that you really want to live with me, he’ll listen. They care what you think.”
“No, they don’t. Nobody cares what I think. You get a judge involved with us and we’ll be in four different foster homes before you know it.”
“Just think about it,” Edith said. “You know you want to live with me, Aaron. I can give you your freedom.”
Something wasn’t right about her offer, but it was tempting.
They reached the stairs, and he followed Deni down.
“Do you believe her?” Deni asked. “Like she really wants to help you? After all those months when she didn’t care a thing about you?”
The not-caring might be a good thing. If someone didn’t care, they wouldn’t watch you that closely. If there was anything he wanted right now, it was his freedom. Chances were, she’d be like his mother, hardly paying attention at all. The judge and the sheriff would think he was supervised, but really, he could do whatever he wanted, take care of his brothers and sister the way he needed to without any outside help. Maybe it would work.
He couldn’t see her going in there and cleaning out the toilet, though. He’d have to do that himself. But since being at the Brannings, he’d kind of gotten used to work. Maybe if he came back here and cleaned it up, the sheriff would look and see that it wasn’t such a bad place after all. Maybe he would agree to let them come back.
As he followed Deni back around to the garbage dump, he began making a plan.
thirty-five
THE SHERIFF CAME BY SANDWOOD PLACE THAT EVENING TO interview some more of the apartment dwellers about Jessie’s life and death. When he was finished, he came around back to talk to Doug.
“I’ve been trying to investigate Jessie’s current boyfriend,” he said. “The guy has a rough past. It looks like he’s cleaned up his act. He’s living with his parents, working hard. I don’t really think he was involved with the murder, but he’s helping me piece together the timeline leading up to her death. Oh, and by the way, Moe Jenkins actually managed to get a lawyer to file papers today to get immediate custody of the kids. Probably paid him with stolen goods.”
Night Light Page 15
