At suppertime Valyn was able to sneak him in a milkshake. He’d never had one of those before. Davy liked his, but when given a drink of Dad’s he wanted a malt the next time. When the nurse brought him in his dinner, she fussed at Dad for spoiling his dinner.
After they all went to bed, right there in the room with him, Connor thought about today. He wasn’t sure if he should believe his good luck or not. No one had ever been nice to him and Davy, not even the teachers at the school they’d been going to.
He looked over when Mom touched his hand.
“Can’t sleep?” He said he was tired, but his body wasn’t. “That’s the shock of what happened to you. We were all very lucky yesterday. I’ve never been frightened like that before. That driver, he wasn’t paying attention like he should have been.”
“Is he all right? Valyn said that there were other cars in the accident. Are all those people all right too?” She told him that the driver had died from his injuries, and one of the passengers from one of the other cars was ejected from it because they’d not had on a seatbelt. “That’s a shame. All those people have been hurt or killed because someone wanted to go too fast.”
“I wanted to talk to you about some things, if you don’t mind.”
He thought that she was going to tell him she’d changed her mind and that she didn’t want them. He started thinking of ways to change her mind back. Connor started crying and telling her that they’d be better if she’d not let them take them. And that he’d make sure that he and Davy were bathed every night. He said that he’d even eat yucky food if she’d only let them stay. Please.
“Connor, I’m not giving you away.” He asked her if she was sure. “Yes, I’m very sure. I love you, and I don’t.... Why, I don’t think I could give you away under any circumstances. You and your brother are our children, and we want you to stay forever if you wish it.”
“I want to stay. I want to be your son, and I want you to give me hugs all the time.” He wiped at his tears. “I’ve never had anyone around me that didn’t hit or beat me with a belt. I remember my mom. She would do just about anything to keep from being around us. I think that’s why she left us. My dad said it was our fault that she did.”
“I don’t know why your mom left you there—I could never do that. But whatever her reasons were, it’s her loss and our gain to have you in our lives.” She took his hand into hers and kissed it. “I wanted to talk to you about school. And if you wanted to go back to the same place or not.”
“I don’t. They were mean to me and Davy because they said we smelled. I tried to clean us up the best I could, but they still didn’t like us. Davy didn’t want to go to preschool anymore because he said his teacher made him sit far away from the other kids.” Mom asked him her name. “Mrs. Dufrene. She was the meanest of them all. And the principle made us stand in the hall sometimes when the other kids would make fun of us. Her name was Mrs. Cochran.”
“You won’t have to worry about them then. We’ll put you in a different school as soon as you’re able.” She smiled at him, and he was sort of afraid of her for a minute. “I’ll take care of Mrs. Dufrene and Mrs. Cochran.”
Connor almost felt sorry for the other two women. His new mom, she sure did look like she could take on the whole school and come out on top. He sure hoped she did—he was getting used to having a full belly and warm feet.
Chapter 11
Beth was let out of the truck about ten miles from the little town. The fucker wouldn’t even give her the money to make a fucking call to her daughter. Told her that he’d had enough of her sucking up his air and breathing out that nasty shit she’d been eating.
Beth moved along the road and saw the lights of a city up ahead. Oh, to be warm and full again. To be high wouldn’t be remiss either. That had been the word of the day on Margo’s calendar, remiss. And she’d been able to use it twice now. As she trudged through the snow to who the fuck knew where, she thought about all the things she was going to say to Jenny when she saw her. And if that didn’t work, she’d go see the husband. He must have been a real wiener to be marrying her daughter.
The snow was building up now and she could no longer feel her feet. She thought that she’s read someplace that if you couldn’t feel your feet, then you were frosted. Or something like that. She only knew that she was fucking freezing and she wanted to sit down.
The car came out of nowhere, and she had to leap out of the way of it or be run down. The son of a bitch had nearly killed her, and then he turned and flipped her off. If she had a gun right now, she’d blow his fucking head off. Dangerous drivers made her sick. And she’d broken the heel off her boot. Mother fuck, could this get any worse? she thought.
The little town came into view about the time she was going to give up. There couldn’t be any kid that was worth all this. But the money certainly was. Walking again, she had a thought; what if her daughter wasn’t even home? Rich fucks went on vacations where it was warm when this shit started coming on. Pissed now, she stomped her way into the little stop and go store, just waiting to take it out on someone. But the smell of sizzling hot dogs had her mouth watering and her belly waking up in protest. Beth couldn’t remember the last time she’d had anything to eat.
Lucky for her, or not, the woman behind the counter was too busy playing on her phone to give her any kind of look. Walking to the aisles that were furthest away from the counter, she pulled open her purse and put about half a dozen candy bars in it. Strolling around the other aisles, she picked herself up a few cookies, a lighter, as well as some kind of energy drink, thinking she could walk faster that way.
Phone watcher asked her if she needed anything. “Nah, I’m looking for a certain brand of candy bar, and I’m trying to jog my memory what it was by looking at them all.”
The woman must have believed her because when she sat down this time, her phone plastered to her face, she had her back to her. Hurrying over to the hot dog roller, she grabbed up a bag of the buns and eight or nine of the dogs. Pulling herself a drink out of the cooler, she figured she was set to go. Beth was nearly to the door when a cop in his cruiser pulled up in the front of the store.
“Hello, Mable. You having a good night?” Phone watcher just grunted at him, and Beth worked herself closer to the door when the cop stood in front of the counter. “I’ll have three of them donuts and some coffee. I’ll get it if you wrap me up the fresh ones.”
He turned his back to her and Beth hurried out the door. She was nearly down the block before she thought she was far enough away to pull out something to eat. The dogs tasted like heaven to her, and she ate three of them while walking. Christ, this was more excitement than she’d had in a month of Sundays.
Now that she had her belly full and the pop drank, she was feeling sleepy. What she wouldn’t give for a hit or two about now. That would mellow her out enough that she could sleep about anywhere. But since there wasn’t any on her, she had to settle for sleeping in the garage that had been left open.
There were a couple of old blankets on the top shelf of a rack. Pulling them down on top of her nearly knocked her out when something heavy come tumbling off onto her. After making sure that she wasn’t bleeding, Beth laid one of the blankets on the floor and the other one across her. It wasn’t perfect, but she was out of the cold and snow and in the town, she hoped, that Jenny was in.
Morning came all too quickly for her. In fact, Beth hadn’t seen a morning in more years than she hadn’t. She wasn’t a morning person. And without something to tide her over, she was a bitch too. When she heard voices on the other side of the car, that woke her ass up. She covered herself from head to toe in the blanket and hoped they weren’t that observant.
The two of them, a man and woman, must have said goodbye to each other a million times. It was to the point that she was going to get up and tell him to get out of here, for Christ’s sake. When he did pull out, finally, she heard the door go down. Good thing she’d not tried that last night or she would
have woken everyone within a block up. When it hit the concrete on the floor, she was plunged into complete darkness.
Sore and stiff, she worked out the kinks in her body a little at a time. She figured that since there was only one car in the garage she didn’t have to worry about the woman coming out sometime and finding her. Beth ate two more of the hot dogs, stone cold now, as she contemplated her fate.
She had to find Jenny. That had to be a priority. Then she had to get her to hand over money. And a great deal of it. There wasn’t any point in her having to come back here every few weeks for more. In fact, she thought that Jenny should just give her one of the credit cards she was sure that she had. Smiling, Beth liked that plan.
The side door to the garage wasn’t locked, so she opened it quietly and looked around the garage for something to hock for some cash. She hadn’t seen any taxis around, and wondered if this little burg even knew what they were. Finding nothing of value, she left the garage. But not before letting the people of the house know that they’d had a guest in their garage.
Beth hadn’t spray painted her name on the art work, as she’d done before. That shit was what got her caught. Something about defacing some monument or some shit, Beth couldn’t remember. She’d had to wash every drop of paint off of it before they’d let her go, too. And she was never to return. Not that she wanted to or anything, but she was more careful now.
Walking in the daylight had its advantages as well as disadvantages. For one, she could see where to avoid the puddles of water that seemed to be everywhere. Then there was the trouble with being seen around. Being vagrant, as she’d been called before, could get her a night or two in jail. She’d just as soon avoid that if she could.
Beth hadn’t known anything about the town when she decided to come here. She figured that it was a one-horse town where everybody knew everybody’s business. There was no way for her to tell about the latter of the two, but it was a pretty little place. Even the store that she’d been in last night looked good with the sun streaming over it.
Figuring that the rich fuck lived outside the town, she walked away from the library, not having any idea why, but she thought that she’d have luck going that way. She was nearly out of the town, to where there was nothing but fields of snow-covered broken stick-looking things, when she knew she’d made a mistake. She had to retrace her steps and head back in the other direction.
The houses did get bigger the more she walked. Some of them had long driveways and gates at the entrance. Big letters—she supposed it was their last name and that they were giving people a hint as to who might live there. It didn’t help her; she couldn’t remember the rich fuck’s last name at all.
The biggest house of all was right in front of her, up one of them long assed driveways. She had no idea why she knew it was her daughter’s, but Beth knew that it was. She watched the man at the gate, to see when he’d not be looking around. But the guy was either a statue or he was taking his job very seriously. He never looked down at all, even when he answered the phone. This was going to be tricky.
The need to get through the gates was something that she’d not thought of. Who the hell gated their driveway, unless they were drug dealers or pimps? Since she had no idea what the rich fuck did, she had to give him some kind of job, she thought, and gave him all kinds of notorious jobs just off the top of her head.
A car came down the drive and she backed away from it. There was a man at the wheel and a woman on her side of the car. She got a good look at her and was stunned when she finally realized it was Jenny. Christ, she had turned out better than she’d thought she would. She was beautiful.
When the gate started to close behind the car, she nearly missed her chance to go in without being detected. The guard was putting his trash in a can, she’d only just noticed, and she darted in as the gate was closing. By the time she was at the trees that lined up like soldiers along the drive, she was exhausted and a little sick to her belly. The hot dogs were not agreeing with her at the moment. All this running around was also giving her a major headache.
There wasn’t a drop of snow on the driveway, like it was frowned upon to have snow there. She laughed, nearly falling over with it when she started talking in a posh voice and making exaggerated gestures with her hands. Stopping when she stood before the house, she could only stare.
“Christ almighty. She’s hit the fucking jackpot. Look at this place.” No one was around to catch her, but she didn’t care. The house was what little girls dreamed up when they were thinking about a Prince Charming. Like there ever was one.
The huge assed wrap around porch had baskets of Christmas greenery on each of the poles that separated the railing, which seemed like it was made from glass, it was so beautiful. There were rockers as well, four on each side of the double doors at the front. She imagined that she’d find the same on the back, and more than likely a big pool too. The windows along the front, four on each side, were all topped with stained glass pictures, which she was too far away to make out.
A six-car garage that wasn’t attached to the house looked like it had an apartment or something over it. She might even talk her daughter into letting her live up there for a time. It would be nice to have something that nice for a change.
Moving closer to the house, she noticed that not only was there greenery on the porch, but big barrels that would hold flowers, she’d bet, in the summer months. Pressing her face against the first window she came to, she could see furniture that was well maintained, as well as a big fireplace. She’d love to be sitting in front of that about now.
Careful of where she was, making sure that the guard hadn’t figured out that she was here, she walked around the big house to see what was in the back yard. The pool that she’d imagined was there, but much bigger than she’d thought. And she saw a large house that had smoke coming from the stone chimney. A house for the cook, no doubt, she thought. Figures—her kid’s help had more than she did at the moment. Beth wandered back around to the front of the house, pissed off now.
“I’m gonna have to make her see reason. She can either give me some cash or I’m going to go the newspapers around the area and have them slander her.” Beth wasn’t sure that was the right way to put it, but she knew what she meant. “Then we’ll see how well she takes care of me. It doesn’t matter none that I left her by the road. She did all right, didn’t she? Bitch will be paying me, that’s for damned sure.”
Hiding in the trees on the opposite side of the cook’s house, she decided that she’d take herself a little snooze in the garage. The trouble was, it was locked up tighter than anything she’d ever seen. After trying every door twice, she went back to the trees and sat on the ground, unmindful of her pants getting soaked.
Beth was pissed now. And when she was pissed off, she did stupid things. She knew this. It’s what got her into trouble all the damned time. Getting up, she planned on busting out a window or two, so she could get in where it was warm, but she heard someone coming up the drive. She hid again. It wasn’t the right time, she told herself, to be meeting her daughter.
~*~
Jenny fussed over Connor all the way back to the house. He finally told her to leave him be. Turning around, she had to smile. She had been bothering him too much. It was fun to see him try to be nice and tell her off at the same time. She loved these kids.
Jenny had never dreamed of being a mom. She’d had the worst of the worst, and the thought of messing up even a little with one of her own was just too much to bear. Now she wondered what she’d thought all the fuss was about. But then, she hadn’t birthed these two—maybe that was it.
“When we get home, after I get you all settled, I have to go to the compound. It’s my turn to train the Protectors.” Jenny asked Valyn what it was he was teaching them. “Mostly it’s the things that people say that make no sense to someone who might take what they say literally. Say, ‘shut your mouth’—you don’t mean for them to actually do that, but it’s something that
they might not know. Another one, and this one tripped me up once, is ‘talk to the hand.’ When I did that, the person took offense, like I was making fun of them.”
“That’s makes perfect sense to me. I can see where things like that would mess someone up that hasn’t been here long. Even people from other countries have a bit of difficulty in figuring out what we’re talking about.” He said it was much the same way. “I’ve been put on medical leave for the time being. I was astonished to find out that they were paying me. Did you know that?”
“I think it might have been mentioned. Boss said that you were worth every penny of it too.” She huffed, something that she had picked up from Janie. “You do that well. Not as well as Janie, but you’re getting there. Does that mean you’re displeased?”
“Sort of. But I guess it’s all right. I’m going to put the money in the bank for the boys. You know, for school trips or something.” He pointed out to her that they had plenty of money, she should use it for herself. “I am. This is what I want to do. Make them very happy that they’re with us.”
Davy was asleep when they arrived at the house. Valyn carried him into the house and she helped Connor. He was doing much better, she’d been told, better than they had expected. She was glad. It would be a long time before she was comfortable traveling that way again.
The man that had hit their car wasn’t intoxicated; he had been simply driving too fast in the icy weather and had lost control of his car. And when he’d hit them, it had caused a chain reaction of other cars hitting them as well as each other. Most of the other people had been able to walk away from the accident, but there were others that were still recovering. It would be a long while, she thought, before it was all sorted out.
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