Mike gave Charlie a wilting look.
“Charlie would be happy to help you and your family,” Mike said. “Do you want to call your parents?”
Tim shook his head.
“About dinner,” Mike said.
“Oh,” Tim said. “Sure.”
“Why don’t you call your parents and invite them too?” Mike asked. “There’s always plenty.”
“I think they would like that,” Tim said. “And then could we go . . .?”
Mike put his arm over Charlie’s shoulder. Charlie looked at him.
“We’d love to,” Mike said. “In fact, we’ll all go. Right Charlie?”
“Sure,” Charlie said. “Everybody gets involved in everything at our house.”
“When’s dinner?” Tim smiled. Charlie realized it was the first time he’d seen the kid smile.
“We’re eating at seven,” Mike said. “We have to wait for Sissy to get home.”
“Sissy Delgado lives with you.” Tim blushed.
“She’s my sister,” Charlie said.
“She’s just . . . beautiful,” Tim swallowed hard.
“She’s my sister.” Charlie’s voice was a little sinister and Tim jumped.
“One thing at a time,” Mike said. “Why don’t you go home and talk to your parents? Let us know about dinner. If tonight doesn’t work, then another night will.”
“But we can go tonight right?” Tim asked. “To the place where . . . you know? Right?”
“Sure,” Charlie said.
“It’s all set,” Mike said. “We have to go. Charlie’s on an ankle monitor. If he’s not home in ten minutes, the cops come.”
“Okay,” the boy said. “See you later.”
The boy smiled and rode off on his bike. Mike gave Buster’s leash to Charlie.
“That was very nice of you, Charlie,” Mike said, and set off with Sarah and Scooter.
Charlie scowled after him.
“Are you coming?” Mike asked. “We’ve got to hurry.”
Charlie ran to catch up with Mike.
~~~~~~~~
Wednesday evening—5:45 p.m.
Sandy opened the side door to the Castle and stepped into the main living room. She smiled at Delphie who was leaning against the back of the couch.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Delphie asked.
“Sure,” Sandy said. “I need to get the kids ready for dinner. Is Aden home?”
“Aden, Jake, and Sam are meeting with the site managers,” Delphie said.
“I thought that was happening this morning.” Sandy hung up her coat.
“They couldn’t work it out.”
Delphie gave an impatient nod. Sandy grinned at her impatience.
“What’s up?” Sandy asked.
“It’s about Ivy,” Delphie said, and then clammed up.
Sandy smiled, but Delphie didn’t say anything else.
“What about Ivy?” Sandy looked up to see Honey wheeling across the living room with Maggie in her lap. Honey pointed to the kitchen and Sandy nodded.
“Ivy?” Delphie asked.
“Are you feeling all right?” Sandy asked.
“Me?” Delphie asked. “Fine. Why?”
Sandy smiled. When she first moved here, she’d found Delphie’s conversation to be very disturbing. She’d finally asked Sam about it. He told her that until Delphie met Celia, she’d never had a conversation about herself. It was very difficult for her to talk about what was going on with her. She simply needed prodding to even remember what she wanted to talk about.
“Would you like to talk about taking care of Ivy?” Sandy suggested.
“Yes.” Delphie pointed at Sandy. “That’s it. Who’s going to take care of Ivy?”
“What do you mean?” Sandy asked.
Delphie shook her head and started to walk toward the kitchen.
“Do you want to take care of Ivy?” Sandy asked.
“Yes.” Delphie turned back to Sandy. “But I can’t.”
“How come?” Sandy asked.
Delphie shook her head.
“You don’t want to?” Sandy asked.
Delphie shook her head.
“You don’t know how?” Sandy asked.
Delphie nodded.
“Hmm,” Sandy said. “I see your dilemma. I’m glad you decided to talk to me about this.”
Delphie smiled.
“I bet you feel like you should take Ivy in because she’s your family,” Sandy said.
“You took in Charlie and Sissy,” Delphie nodded.
“You took in Nash and Noelle,” Sandy said.
“That’s different.” Delphie’s voice rose with frustration. “That’s not the same thing. You don’t understand at all.”
“No, no,” Sandy said. “I get it. That’s different because Nash and Noelle had daycare and a father.”
Delphie nodded.
“But you took care of Nash and Noelle a lot,” Sandy said.
“They went home,” Delphie said. “I don’t have . . .”
She raised her arms as if in a hug. Her hands moved to her chest and out.
“Hmm,” Sandy said. “You feel like you don’t have enough mothering capacity to help a little girl who’s been hurt so much. That is tough.”
“And bad.” Delphie looked crushed. “Broken.”
Sandy hugged her.
“Not broken,” Sandy said. “Just different. We all have different gifts.”
Sandy smiled at Delphie.
“You taught me that,” Sandy said.
“But every woman should know how to . . . do . . . that,” Delphie said.
“Says who?” Sandy smiled. “I think it’s awesome that you know this about yourself. That’s what makes you great.”
Delphie scowled.
“First off,” Sandy said. “Not every woman knows how to be a mother. My friend Heather is a great mom, but she was an only child. She doesn’t have a lot of patience for . . .”
Sandy pointed upstairs where they could hear Nash and Noelle yell at each other.
“You handle that stuff with ease,” Sandy said. “We’re all different.”
“What do I do?” Delphie asked. “I was just like Ivy until . . . and Celia took me in, but I’m not Celia. I am not. Valerie could take Ivy. She said she would, but she’s leaving at the end of the week for her premiere, and then a month in LA. Ivy would be gone like Jackie.”
Delphie let out a big sigh.
“I’m going to miss Jackie so much.” Delphie nodded.
Sandy smiled.
“Tell you what,” Sandy said. “I’ll talk to my friend Heather and see what she thinks. Maybe Ivy could live with them.”
Delphie nodded.
“I also think that Ivy had an aunt,” Sandy said. “She was in Afghanistan when her mother died. That’s why she didn’t take Ivy. I bet she’d want some time with Ivy.”
Delphie nodded.
“Would you like it if I found out what’s possible?” Sandy asked.
Delphie nodded.
“I’d be happy to,” Sandy said. “Now I’d better get upstairs before they kill each other.”
Delphie nodded. Sandy touched Delphie’s shoulder and left for her apartment. Lost in thought, Delphie stayed in her spot against the couch.
“Delphie?” Honey called from the kitchen. She rolled into the doorway to the living room. “Mike just called to say that Charlie’s bringing a family home. I was going to make a quick pot pie for the kids with the left-over chicken from last night. Where did you put the puff pastry?”
“I think the boys made something with it.” Delphie smiled. This was something she could do.
“Crap,” Honey said.
“How ‘bout if I make the crust and you make the inside?” Delphie stood up.
“Deal,” Honey smiled.
Delphie put her arm over Honey’s shoulder and they went into the kitchen.
~~~~~~~~
Wednesday evening—6:00 p.m.
; “Ready?” Sam asked.
Jacob nodded. Aden pushed open the door to the large conference room and followed the men inside. The tension in the room was thick.
The female site managers took up the far end of the table while the black men sat closer to the front. The white men sat across from them and the Hispanic site managers stood in the back.
Once a cohesive group, the site managers now wouldn’t even look at each other.
“I’m going to cut to the chase,” Jacob said. “We’re pulling out of the site near the airport.”
As if on fire, the site managers erupted with rage.
“I told you so,” Rodney’s replacement site managers screamed at the top of their lungs.
The women had a loud conversation across the table with each other. The men along the back wall argued with each other in Spanish and the men along the side looked smug.
“Settle down,” Aden said.
The white men got up and turned their backs on the rest of the room. A woman got up and knocked one of the chairs over. The men at the back were yelling, and Rodney’s replacements fell quiet, almost too quiet.
“Enough,” Sam said.
Everyone stopped moving.
“That is enough,” Sam said.
The site managers turned to look at him.
“Get your rear ends in a chair,” Sam pointed to the men in the back of the room. “Ladies—make some space for them. You—along this side. They don’t have cooties. Move over. And you men! Turn your chairs around.”
“But Sam!” Started a man who’d turned his chair away.
“Stuff it,” Sam said. “Now means do it now.”
He pointed to the black men.
“Wipe those looks off your faces,” Sam said. “You’re scaring . . . Jake.”
Bambi chuckled. Her chuckle moved around the room until everyone was smiling. The men in the back filtered into chairs around the room.
“Now, mix yourselves up,” Sam said. “We are not the ‘Black Dudes’ vs. ‘Those Honkies’ vs. ‘The ladies’ vs. ‘Those Hispanics.’ . . .“
“Honkies?” Aden looked at Jake, and he looked away to keep from laughing.
“Latinos,” one of the Latino women said.
“Yeah? Did you know what I meant?” Sam asked.
She grinned at him.
“We are one company,” Sam said. “We have a big problem. Everyone needs to put your differences aside and get to work fixing it.”
Every eye turned to Sam.
“Now, I think you know that Jake is friends with that singer Jeraine,” Sam said. “Celia and I’ve known Bumpy and his family for a long time.”
“He’s Rodney’s son-in-law,” DeShawn Jones, one of Rodney’s replacement site managers, said.
“That’s right,” Sam said. “Jake went to his house last night and saw this.”
Sam nodded to Aden.
“Go ahead,” Aden said.
Sam pushed the button and Jeraine’s map came up on the screen behind them.
“Notice anything?” Sam asked.
“That can’t possibly be right.” One of the female site managers stood up. “Nate and I went through those with Aden.”
“Felicia, can you show the rest of us what you see?” Sam asked.
She looked at Bambi, and Bambi gave a “go ahead” nod. She pointed to the cluster of fault lines running under the location of their big work site.
“Now you know,” Sam said. He let the information sink in. When their eyes turned to look at him, he said, “It’s up to us to determine what to do next.”
Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Four
Down by the river
Wednesday evening—8:12 p.m.
“I’m not going.” Ivy screamed. “You can’t make me!”
Tink and Ivy had begged Heather to take them to the Castle to help Charlie show the Logans where their daughter had been attacked. After dinner with Tim and his parents, when the niceties were over, Ivy had become more and more belligerent.
“Okay,” Heather said. “That’s okay. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Tink and Pan are going to help the Logans. They could use your help.”
“No.” Ivy screamed so loud that she woke Maggie. The baby gave a screeching howl. Ivy looked horrified and ran off down a passageway into the Castle.
Tink started after her.
“Stay here,” Heather said to Tink.
Heather looked at Sandy who encouraged her to go. Heather ran after Ivy. They ran down a long passageway and into an area of the Castle that Heather had never been in before. She turned the corner to find Ivy sobbing into her knees at the end of the corridor.
Heather started toward her. Before Heather got to her, Katy sat down next to Ivy. Katy looked up at Heather and smiled.
Katy put her hand on Ivy’s knee and Ivy looked up at the little girl. Almost six years old, Katy and Ivy seemed about the same age. The two girls looked at each other for a moment.
“Are you okay?” Katy asked.
“No. Do I look okay?”
“Not really,” Katy said. “Did something bad happen?”
Ivy nodded. Katy’s head moved up and down in empathy.
“Right now?” Katy looked at Heather.
“No, before.” Ivy’s voice echoed with fear and sadness.
“Hmmm,” Katy said. “Moooooooommmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyy!”
Heather scowled at Katy. The child shrugged. Jill came around the corner.
“Anna-Marie has an owie,” Katy said.
“How did you know my name?” Ivy whispered.
Katy shrugged. Jill leaned down to Ivy. Heather followed Jill’s lead.
“Where does it hurt, Ivy?” Jill asked.
Ivy put a hand to her heart.
“Heather knows just the thing,” Jill said.
“I do?” Heather gawked at Jill.
Jill scowled at Heather.
“Mommy means that Delphie’s making brownies,” Katy said.
“Oh!” Like a light going on, Heather brightened. “Owies of the heart are best fixed with brownies.”
Ivy looked from Heather to Jill.
“I don’ wanna go,” Ivy said.
“You don’t have to,” Heather said. “You can stay here with Katy and Jill.”
“I’ll go with you.” Nash came around the kneeling adults to stand by Ivy. “My friend Teddy’s meeting us there. We’re training to be Ninjas. Our teacher’s going to be there too. We’ll keep you safe.”
Ivy looked at Nash and then at the women.
“You aren’t mad?” Ivy asked.
“About what?” Heather smiled.
“I just . . . and yelled . . . and . . . unacceptable.” Ivy gave a sincere nod.
“We’re like that all the time,” Katy said.
“Katy!” Jill held her arms out, and Katy let her pick her up.
“We are.” Katy gave a conspiratorial nod.
“You’re not unacceptable,” Heather said.
“Not to me,” Jill said.
“Or me!” Katy said.
The women looked at Nash. He flushed bright red and nodded.
“Let’s have some brownies to gather our strength,” Heather said.
She held out a hand and helped Ivy to her feet. Heather hugged Ivy and they started back down the hallway. Jill and Katy walked next to Ivy and Heather.
“Have we met before?” Ivy asked Katy.
“No,” Katy said.
“You’re so familiar to me,” Ivy said.
“That’s just because you know Naomi,” Katy said.
Jill stopped walking to let Ivy and Heather pass by. Nash followed them into the main Castle living room.
“Does she know Naomi?” Jill whispered to Katy.
“How do you think Anne Marie got here?” Katy smiled at her mother.
Jill kissed her forehead. Katy squirmed and Jill let her go. She leaned against the door to watch Katy. Her daughter ran to talk to Ivy and Noelle. Sissy came over and the
girls laughed. In her years of living at the Castle, Katy had gone from being a small, lonely girl to a well-loved, vibrant child. Someday in the not too distant future, Katy would be Charlie and Sissy’s age.
Jill felt a breath of cold air on her back. She shivered and Katy turned to look at her. Katy smiled and Jill left her corner to join the preparations for the trip downtown. All the while, Jill couldn’t shake the feeling that something was coming that would change everything for Katy and the girls at the Castle.
After all that had happened, Jill knew they would get through it. She only hoped it wouldn’t scar them forever.
~~~~~~~~
Wednesday evening—8:42 p.m.
A police officer waved for Mike to stop his Bronco on the Market Street bridge over Cherry Creek and the Cherry Creek trail. Sandy pulled up behind them with Ivy, Tink, Sissy, Noelle, Nash, and Teddy. The Denver police had blocked off Market Street and Fourteenth Avenue all the way to Little Raven. Their forensics team waited for Charlie to lead them to the scene. The darkest corners of the creek and urban trail were lit up by halogen lights and the hum of generators filled the air.
Charlie got out of the passenger seat of Mike’s Bronco and looked over the railing. These few blocks had been home to Charlie and his friends. They would work the parking lots of the Pepsi Center for change. If they had to, they sold sex for money to buy drugs and food. They’d sleep under the railway bridge behind the cement pylon or in the culvert under Market Street. As long as the urbanites in the condos up above didn’t spot them on their morning jog, Charlie and his friends weren’t hassled.
Charlie wrapped his arms around himself.
“You cold?” Mike asked.
Charlie shook his head.
“Come on.” Mike pointed to where Tim and his parents were getting out of their sedan. “They’re waiting for you.”
Charlie turned toward Fourteenth Avenue and saw the mustached cop with the great hair talking to Sandy on the corner. Sandy waved to Charlie. When he got near, she tucked her arm into his elbow and held on. He looked down at her.
“We’ll do this together,” Sandy said, in a low tone.
Charlie let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Sandy always knew when he was freaked out or afraid. He realized for the first time how terrified he’d been the entire time he’d lived down here. When he talked about it, living on the streets sounded like one big adventure. He glanced at Sandy again. Sandy really understood how awful it had been.
Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 Page 14
