The Benefits of Being an Octopus

by Ann Braden

  But I don’t believe a word of it.

  “You move in with Michael if you want,” Fuchsia looks up at her mom from where she has tucked herself farther into the corner of the kitchen. “But I’m not going anywhere. And they should be able to stay here with me.” She kicks at one of Bryce’s boots that he left near the door. “Why not?”

  “I’ll call the police on you,” Crystal says.

  “That’s fine.” Fuchsia shrugs. “I’ll have already called them about Michael. Zoey told me about protective orders, and I don’t want that man allowed anywhere near me.”

  “You want them to take you back into foster care?” Crystal hisses.

  “Then they do. But they wouldn’t have to—not if you stayed here and called the police about Michael for me.”

  Crystal squeezes her hands together, and I realize that they’re shaking.

  My mom stands up and puts a scrap of paper on the table. “That’s the domestic violence hotline number. You should think about calling it no matter what you decide about us.”

  Crystal’s only answer is to glare at my mom and keep squeezing her hands together.

  “Zoey, come on,” my mom says. “I think it’s time for us to go.” She bangs on the bedroom door. “Bryce! Aurora!” she calls. “Let’s go!”

  She opens the door to reveal Bryce cupping Jane Kitty in his hands like the most precious jewel in the world. Aurora is wrapping Bryce’s legs up in a bear hug like it’s the only way to get out her need to squeeze something super tight with love.

  “Oh, please,” Bryce sobs. “Don’t make us leave yet. This kitten loves us! And we love her!”

  His voice is trembling, and there are tears in his eyes.

  My mom pauses. And in that pause, I hear a voice.

  Crystal’s voice.

  “You can stay. You can all stay.” She’s looking at Bryce as she lets out a long breath. “We’ll make it work.”

  CHAPTER 26

  “What do you mean ‘All our stuff’?” Bryce calls from the back seat.

  My mom doesn’t take her eyes off the road. “We need to pack it up—and quickly. You can’t ask too many questions.”

  “Are we going to use this car?” I ask.

  My mom shakes her head. “Too risky. But Connor’s already at the Pizza Pit for the lunch shift. I think he’d let us use his to get our stuff out of there.” She grips the steering wheel hard. “As long as Lenny isn’t already back home.”

  “So do you mean I have to pack up all my toys?” Bryce asks.

  “That’s what she means,” I say.

  “And Petunia?” Aurora asks. “Where Petunia going?”

  I twist around in my seat. “We’re all going to be staying together and Petunia is going to stay with us. It’s just that we’re going to be living in a new place.”

  Bryce has been scratching at the old sticker from school that’s stuck to his shirt, but he stops and looks at me. “Where?”

  I suck in my breath. “We’re going to be living with Fuchsia and her mom in their apartment.”

  “WITH THE KITTY?!” Aurora shrieks. If she hadn’t been buckled into her booster seat I think she would have rocketed clear across the car.

  “Yes,” I say, “with the kitty.”

  For the rest of the drive, all Bryce and Aurora can do is scream in excitement about the kitty. They only stop their shrieking when my mom pulls into the trailer park and slows down for each of our final turns.

  The back seat is completely quiet when we pull into the parking spot next to the trailer—until I hear Bryce ask in a small voice. “Are Lenny and Frank going to move to the apartment with the kitty, too?”

  “No,” I say. “They’re not.”

  “Oh, okay,” he says.

  “And you can’t tell them that we’re moving,” my mom adds. “Okay? Not a word about this.”

  “So it’s going to be a surprise for them?” Bryce asks.

  “Yeah,” she mutters, “something like that.”

  I’m right behind my mom when she walks up to the door to the trailer, and all I can think is please-don’t-be-home-yet, please-don’t-be-home-yet. My mom must be having the same thoughts because she’s slowing down. It’s like the door handle is covered with poison and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with grabbing hold of it and opening the door.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I whisper. “If Lenny’s at home, just blame it on me. I wanted to take care of my friend.”

  My mom closes her eyes. “And we just wait for another day to pack up and move out.” But then she sucks in her breath, and I realize she’s holding back tears.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I repeat. I wrap my arms around her just as firmly as she used to wrap her arms about me when she’d tell me things were going to be okay.

  She bows her head, squeezing her eyes shut. “Now that I can see the way out, I want out,” she whispers. “I just want out!”

  I grab hold of the door handle. “We’ll make sure that this is the last time we ever have to walk in this door.” I push open the door and walk inside. All I can hear is the TV. Lenny and my mom’s bedroom door is open, and I peek in. No Lenny.

  Around the corner I find Frank in his recliner. “Has Lenny come back yet?” I ask over the noise of the TV.

  “Does it look like he did?” Frank calls back without looking away from the TV.

  I turn around to find my mom close behind me. “We need to go fast,” I whisper.

  She must be thinking the same thing because she turns on the spot, grabs a trash bag from the kitchen, and disappears into her bedroom.

  “Come on, Bryce and Aurora! Let’s go! We’re going to clean up our room together, okay?”

  Aurora practically skips into the bedroom, shouting, “It gonna be a soopize!”

  I grab a couple more trash bags and head into the bedroom after her.

  “Come on, Bryce!” I call. He’s still trying to get his winter boots off without using his hands.

  “Why do we have to hurry so much?” he asks when he finally appears at the door.

  “We just do.” I’m stuffing things into a bag at lightning speed. I pull the Mickey Mouse night-light out of the wall. “Think of it as a race.”

  “Petunia,” Aurora is saying to her sea turtle, “we’re gonna get to go live with a kitty!”

  My mom pokes her head into our room. She’s got Hector on her hip. “I’m going to run over to the Pizza Pit and borrow Connor’s car.” She’s talking superfast. “As soon as I get back here with it, you’ve got to be ready to go. I’m going to leave Hector here with you. Can you get the car seats out of Lenny’s car before then?”

  I nod. “Okay. We’ll be ready. Go!”

  My mom looks at me for an instant and then sets down Hector on the floor. “I’m going to leave my bag outside by the trash cans, but it’s not trash.” Then, she’s gone.

  Bryce starts play-fighting with the lightsaber and just barely misses Aurora.

  “Bryce, put that down and start packing your things into this bag, okay?”

  I finish throwing the rest of Aurora’s clothes into a bag and start in on Bryce’s to help him.

  “Can we bring this lamp with us?” Bryce asks. “I really like this lamp.”

  “It’s not ours, Bryce. I’m sorry.” I grab clothes from off the floor. We’ll figure out what’s dirty later.

  “But it’s in our room,” Bryce says.

  I cram Bryce’s sandals from last summer into the bag. Not that anyone can imagine wearing sandals when it’s February. “I’m sure there’s already a lamp at Fuchsia’s apartment.” When did he start liking that lamp?

  I stand up, tie the two big bags shut, and pick up Hector. “I’m going to bring these outside and get the car seats ready. You put anything else that’s ours in that last bag, and I’ll be back in to get it in a few minutes.”

  Outside, Aurora’s booster seat is easy to detach, but the base of Hector’s big hulking car seat is a different story. It’s lik
e the release button on it is not an actual button but is instead just a different colored piece of plastic that has no intention of releasing anything and really wonders about why you keep punching it in the face. I’m still wrestling with the car seat when I hear my mom pull up at the curb. She better be able to get this thing out of here.

  But when I finally extricate myself from the back seat and stand up, I see it’s not my mom.

  It’s Lenny getting dropped off by Slider.

  “Oh, hi!” I say. I can feel my hand instantly start to shake.

  “What are you doing in my car?” he asks as Slider drives away.

  I force a smile. “Just trying to fix Hector’s car seat. It was getting too loose.”

  He sticks his head in the driver’s side. He’s looking at the odometer. “So where’d you go?”

  “What do you mean?” I keep trying to jab at the car seat button because it’s even harder when your hand won’t stay still.

  “Someone drove three point seven miles since I left. You know anything about that?”

  “Oh, it was because of my friend. She was having a really rough time and I made my mom drive me over to see her.”

  Lenny raises an eyebrow at me. Maybe he does suspect something’s up.

  “Well, it was just three point seven miles, right?” I say. “I mean, she was having a really rough time.”

  “So you needed to pat her on the shoulder while she has some cry fest about a boy. Just don’t use up my gas to do it.” Lenny is putting on his nice face for me but I can tell that underneath the gears are starting to turn.

  He slams the car door shut and then looks back at me. “What’s up with all those trash bags?”

  “Oh. Those.” I try to keep breathing. “We were doing a lot of cleaning … ” But then I trail off—mostly because Bryce and Aurora have appeared on the stoop, and Bryce is still holding the lamp.

  Lenny’s nice face is gone. “What’s going on?”

  Aurora’s eyes go all big. “IT’S A SOOPIZE! THERE’S A KITTY!”

  He turns to me. “What’s she talking about?”

  “Oh, she’s just really excited about cats these days,” I say quickly. “I think she’s starting to have an imaginary friend. Don’t worry, there aren’t any actual cats in the trailer.”

  Lenny turns to Bryce. “What are you doing with that lamp?”

  “Um … ” Bryce looks terrified. He puts it down on the stoop, like lamps always live on stoops. “Nothing.”

  Mom drives up to the curb in Connor’s old Subaru, her face gray with fear. She comes to a stop, but the engine is still going.

  “What in God’s name is going on?” Lenny shouts.

  Please don’t drive off without us.

  “We didn’t want to leave the trash out in front of the trailer all week until the garbage truck comes,” I say. I grab as many of the trash bags as I can, and hurl them into the trunk of Connor’s car. “But we didn’t want to put any more miles on your car, so my mom borrowed a car from someone else, so we could make a trip to the dump before it closes at five p.m.” I walk back over to Lenny’s car like I know what I’m doing, and even though everything inside me has turned to goo I jam my thumb into the car seat button like I mean it. It finally releases and lets me haul the car seat out of the car. With my other arm I grab Hector from where he’s been playing on the back seat with a seat belt and head for Connor’s car.

  Lenny’s face is shifting to a deep shade of red. “Whose car is that?”

  “Let’s go, Bryce and Aurora! We’ve got to go!” I call. “To the dump,” I add, praying that they don’t hear that part and decide not to come.

  “WHOSE CAR IS THAT?” Lenny yells again, but he doesn’t even wait for an answer. He’s barreling up the stairs and into the trailer to see for himself what’s inside—and what isn’t.

  Bryce and Aurora pile down the stairs right past him.

  I pull open the back seat door, hurl in the car seat, pluck Hector into it, and thread the seat belt through it as quick as I can. I may be goo on the inside, but octopuses are basically made of goo and I’ve got all eight tentacles in motion. Aurora is suddenly filling the back seat with chants of “KITTYKITTYKITTYKITTY!” Bryce has thankfully left the lamp on the stoop and appears with Aurora’s booster seat that I left lying on the ground.

  I buckle them both in practically at the same time. I am a full-on octopus. I squeeze out the opposite door and climb into the passenger seat next to my mom who’s still frozen at the wheel.

  But as soon as I do I see Lenny coming toward us, gripping the lamp in one hand.

  “WHOSE CAR IS THAT?”

  My mom’s knuckles are white from gripping the steering wheel.

  His eyes. He’s shaking.

  But he’s just a screaming monkey.

  I put my hand on my mom’s and squeeze. “Drive, Mom,” I say. “Drive now.”

  And then just like she used to, my mom slams down on the accelerator, and we shoot down the road.

  There’s a muffled crash as the lamp is thrown right into the side of the car.

  That wasn’t our lamp anyway.

  CHAPTER 27

  Our first stop is the courthouse to file for the emergency protective order. The process takes a long time—but when my mom calls Connor at the restaurant to see if he needs his car back I can hear him through the phone, insisting that we darn well better keep the car as long as we need it and that if we try to bring it back too soon he’ll refuse to take the keys.

  And then when my mom finally gets in front of the judge, he immediately issues the protective order.

  Just like that.

  My mom takes an extra copy of the paperwork she had to fill out, and the first thing she does when we get to Crystal’s apartment is to put it down on the kitchen table. “You should do this, too. For you and for Fuchsia.”

  “Let’s just remember that I’m the one who’s letting you stay in my apartment,” Crystal says, glaring at my mom. “I didn’t say anything about letting you be the boss of me.”

  Still, when my mom’s not looking I catch Crystal folding up the forms and stowing them in the back pocket of her jeans.

  Fuchsia is out somewhere, but Jane Kitty is still around and Aurora disappears into the bedroom after her. Bryce won’t let go of my leg. I keep rubbing his back.

  My mom turns to me. “I’m going to drive Connor’s car back to the Pizza Pit and stay on for my dinner shift. Can you … ” She trails off and looks at Bryce.

  “I’ll get us all settled in,” I say. “But can I have some money so we can get something for dinner?”

  My mom takes the stack of ones out of her pocket and counts out five bucks for me. Then, she plunks a bunch of it down on the table for Crystal. “For rent,” she says.

  Crystal counts it and then pockets it. “Better than nothing.”

  My mom hands me Hector and heads out, and I look up to find Crystal eyeing me. “This place isn’t baby-proofed, you know,” she says.

  I nod. “I’ll just watch him real well to make sure he doesn’t get into anything.”

  It’s so awkward to still be standing near the door. But there’s only one chair and Crystal is sitting in it. And it’s not like I can move with Bryce suctioned onto me.

  Was this really my idea?

  Bryce tugs at my jeans and whispers, “Where are we going to sleep?”

  I glance at Crystal. If she heard his question, she’s not showing it.

  “Well,” I start, “it’ll probably be more crowded than before.”

  Bryce looks around at our trash bags of stuff that are lined up in front of the sink.

  And then he bursts into tears.

  “Bryce … ” I say. I detach him from my leg, so I can kneel down and wrap my free arm around him. Hector squirms out the other side of me, and even though I just said I would keep a close eye on him, I don’t chase after him. Instead I wrap my other arm around Bryce, too. I don’t even bother to ask him what’s wrong, because what’s
the point? What isn’t wrong?

  Hector is crawling toward the radiator. He’ll find out soon enough that it’s hot, and he won’t want to touch it again. Just don’t start licking the lead paint. It’s too bad we didn’t have time to grab his ExerSaucer. There isn’t much in the kitchen to distract him with.

  Bryce is sobbing so hard that I feel his wet tears through my shirt, and I hug him harder. “I’m right here, Bryce,” I whisper. “I’m always going to be right here.”

  Bryce’s whole body shudders with sobs. His head is buried in my shoulder, and I try to rest my head on his, but instead he pulls away to look at me. “But it’s—” He gulps with the force of a sob before he can say anything more. “But it’s—” His eyes are so scared.

  “But it’s not here!” he finally cries, waving frantically at the three trash bags in a line. “The last trash bag. IT HAD MY LIGHTSABER IN IT!”

  I close my eyes. “Oh, Bryce, I’m so sorry.”

  “And I need that lightsaber,” he cries. “I need it! I need it! I need it!”

  His buries his face back into me again.

  “We’ll find you another one,” I murmur into his hair. “Don’t worry.”

  I look around to see Hector sitting happily on the linoleum floor, playing with some take-out containers. Then another container is dropped right in front of him, and I realize Crystal has been washing them out in the sink and giving them to him. Her face is hard to read, but she doesn’t look annoyed. More like curious.

  “But I need it.” Bryce is still whimpering into my shoulder. “I need it … ” His chest shudders. “To fight off the bad guys.”

  My breath catches in my throat. I grab Bryce by the shoulders and hold him so I can see his face. “You don’t need your lightsaber anymore. You’re safe from bad guys here, okay? Do you understand me? You’re safe.”

  Bryce is watching me with his puffy red eyes like he doesn’t believe me.

  “You’re safe here,” I repeat, and I pull him back into my chest.

  And no one here is going to tell you not to cry when you’re sad.

  A few minutes later, Fuchsia comes through the door. She’s a bit out of breath. “I found an extra mattress down in the basement, but I need help getting it up the stairs.”