by Rob Edwards
Delton stood. “That’s Danna. She finally got over her hissy-fit and decided she wanted to see me again.”
Taysha stood and walked out with him. “I’ll go get some coffee while you two talk. I’d like to be around if Miss Higgins makes the phone call.”
Delton followed the guard out of the room, down several corridors, and into the visitation room. Scanning the area, Delton looked at every table but did not see his sister.
“That guy over there.” The guard pointed to a table to the right. There was a middle-aged black man with glasses sitting there. He wore a Detroit Tigers jacket and had his arms folded in front of him. “He’s the one who came to see you.”
Delton walked over to the table. The man looked up at him, smiled, and stood when he got closer. “You must be Delton. I’m Reggie Fountain.” He held out his hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
Delton shook. “Likewise.”
Reggie waved at the seat. “Please, have a seat and let’s talk.”
Delton sat down, slowly. He was unsure of this man and was waiting for some unseen shoe to drop.
“I am Danna’s foster father,” Reggie said.
“Oh. Okay,” Delton said, looking around the room. “So where’s Danna?”
“Well,” Reggie said, his hands up. “Unfortunately Danna couldn’t make it today because she’s grounded. She was…”
“Grounded?” Delton said. “What you talkin’ about?”
“Yes, grounded,” Reggie said. “Since your last phone call with her she’s been very agitated, and even quite disrespectful to Rosalind, my wife, so we grounded her.”
“But don’t ground her from seeing me. I’m her brother. I’ll talk to her. Tell her to be more respectful.”
Reggie rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands. “It’s like this. As her foster father I am completely responsible for her. Nobody else is.”
Delton sat back and crossed his arms. This was starting to seem like that unseen shoe he had been expecting, was getting ready to drop.
Reggie said, holding up a finger to make his point, “And as I mentioned, it was after her last phone call with you that things started to go bad. When we asked her about it she refused to tell us anything. She just became belligerent. So I came to meet you and assess the situation. If I leave here feeling that you are a bad influence on her, then we’ll have to end this relationship.”
“End this relationship?” Delton said. “You can’t make me not her brother.”
Reggie shook his head. “No. I can’t do that. But I can and will end these visits and keep you out of her life.”
Delton jumped to his feet. Reggie jumped up as well and the two men stood face to face, noses nearly touching. Two guards rushed over.
“You know why she became agitated?” Delton said. “Because she found out I was going to be in here at least another three months and she couldn’t be with me. That’s what got her so upset.”
“C’mon, Hayes,” One of the guards said. “Let’s go before you do or say something you’ll regret.”
“So by you grounding her, and threatening to keep her from me, you’re just making matters worse for yourself.”
The guards grabbed his arms and pulled him back.
“She’s my sister and I’m her brother. Ain’t you, or anybody else ever going to break that bond.” Delton pointed at him. “Shame on you for wanting to break a family apart.”
“Let’s go, Hayes.” The guards dragged him back.
“Shame on you.” Delton cried out. “Shame on you.” He was dragged from the room.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Come, Noah. It’s dinner time.” She placed a plate of macaroni and cheese with cut-up hot dogs mixed in, along with a big scoop of apple sauce, on the table next to his glass of milk.
Noah had been watching Spider-Man on TV. He came into the kitchen, quietly slid into his chair, picked up his fork and started eating. Judith sat down with her plate when the doorbell rang.
She opened the door to see Rena and Dr. Fitzpatrick standing on her front porch. “We didn’t hear a word from you today,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. “So we thought we should come and check in on you two.”
“We’re fine,” Judith said.
“Miss Higgins, can we talk for a minute?” Rena said.
Judith could see the concern in the young girl's eyes. She stepped aside and let them in. Rena mouthed “Thank you,” as she passed.
They saw Noah sitting at the table eating. He did not acknowledge them; he never took looked up from his plate. Rena noticed the bruises around both eyes. “The poor little guy.” She turned to Judith.
“Is he all right?” Dr. Fitzpatrick asked. “I mean, aside from the black eyes?”
Rena clutched at Dr. Fitzpatrick’s arm. “Doctor, if you don’t mind, I’d like to say some things.”
Dr. Fitzpatrick nodded and stepped back with a squeak.
Rena turned to Judith. “I understand what it looked like when you walked back in there yesterday, but I want you to try to do something for me. I want you to picture the same room without the guard holding his gun. What I want you to picture is Noah not beating at his face, because he is being held firmly and safely by Delton. It’s true, Delton was out of his element. He’d never witnessed an autistic meltdown before, and it caught him by surprise. I won’t deny that. But if you saw how well he handled it, you wouldn’t be scared of having Noah in his presence. You’d be proud of Delton, and you would feel secure that Noah was safe, and well cared for.”
“Well cared for?” Judith pointed toward Noah. “Does he look well cared for? What you don’t see is the bump on the back of his head, from beating it against the floor so hard. How am I to ever take Noah back there, and feel like he’s well cared for?”
“In all fairness, Miss Higgins…” Dr. Fitzpatrick said.
“Doctor, please.” Rena stepped in front of him. “Do you believe in your program?”
“Why, yes. I do,” He said, standing tall.
“Then you’ve just said all you could possibly say to help out the situation,” Rena said. “Please let me take it from here.” Dr. Fitzpatrick did not hide his hurt ego very well, but Rena didn’t care. She turned back to Judith. “Miss Higgins, I get that. Those bruises can’t be explained away, or excused either. They happened because an overzealous guard took it upon himself to intervene in something he clearly didn’t understand. But the fault doesn’t lie with him. It lies with those of us who helped set up this program. We made sure all the participants had all the information necessary, but not those in charge of running the facility. In his defense, he thought he was trying to keep your son safe from harm. He did not know his actions would harm him more.”
Judith looked at her son, and back at Rena. “Are these dumbass guards aware now?”
“They are,” Rena said. “We all spent last night making information packets about our children, their special needs, and what guards could expect to see. This way they won’t be caught by surprise again.”
Judith sighed. She stepped over to her son, and ran her fingers through his hair. He made a grunting noise and pushed her hand away. Judith looked up to Rena. “My gut is telling me not to take the chance again.”
“Can you do one more thing before you make your decision?” Rena asked. “Can you call Delton, and talk to him about it. I think once you realize that he knows what he’s doing, you’ll feel better about things.” She pulled her phone out of her purse and held it up.
“You really think he can pull this off?” Judith said.
“You said yourself that you felt like there was something there.”
“That was before he fell asleep for the rest of the afternoon.” Judith walked around the table and back to Rena. “Those feelings pretty much faded away when that happened.”
“Well, I think we can rekindle those feelings again.” She held her phone out to Judith. “Just press redial. They already know to get Delton when you ask for him. Taysha is with him no
w so he’s ready for your phone call.”
“Oh, you were pretty confident I’d do this, eh?”
Rena smiled. “Just a hunch.”
Judith smiled back. She took the phone and hit the dial icon on the screen. The phone rang once and then was picked up. “Two Rivers Correctional Facility,”
“Hi. My name is Judith Higgins, and I’m calling an inmate there by the name of Delton Hayes.”
“Yes, Miss Higgins,” the woman’s voice on the other end said. “We were told to expect your call. Please hold.”
Judith looked at Rena. “Very nice. They were expecting my call.”
Rena smiled and shrugged.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Fuming, Delton was led back to the room where Taysha was waiting. She recognized the anger in him the moment he set foot in the room. “Oh son, what happened?”
Delton paced back and forth. “Danna didn’t show. It was her foster father. He grounded her, and told me that I shouldn’t see her because I may be a bad influence on her.”
“Oh, Delton,” Taysha said. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want sorry,” Delton snarled. “I want out of here.” He picked up the folding chair and with a scream, threw it against the wall. It clanged loudly to the floor.
The door burst open and two guards rushed in, guns drawn. “That’s enough, Hayes. On the floor.”
“Oh, did you think that was him?” Taysha stood and rushed over to stand in front of the guards, chuckling. “That wasn’t him. That was me showing him what I’d do to his head if he stepped out of line with me. I’m so sorry I startled you all.” She shooed at them. “Go ahead and put those guns away, and get out of here, and let me put the fear of God in him.”
“Lady, what do you take us for?” One of the guards said.
“What do I take you for?” Taysha stepped in front of him. “I’ll tell you what I take you for. I take you for a man who truly loves his family. In fact he loves his family so much he would probably lay down his own life for them. So a man like that could completely understand exactly how frustrating it would be if something bad happened to one of them, and he was somewhere else knowing there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.”
The guard looked from Taysha to Delton, and back to Taysha. He nodded, and holstered his gun. The other guard did likewise. “I feel you, Hayes. Could you do this nice lady a favor, and pick up that chair she flung across the room.”
“Thank you, gentlemen.” Taysha said, smiling. “I’ll try to keep the furniture on the floor from now on.”
They turned and walked out, closing the door behind them. Taysha walked over to Delton, grabbed both his arms and looked up into his eyes. “My boy, I need you to look at me, and listen very closely. You can help Danna. You can help her by not losing your head. You can help her by keeping calm, staying steady, and getting out of here. I know you don’t like hearing this, but it don’t matter if you don’t talk to her one more minute before you get out. But once you’re free of this place, ain’t nobody can keep you from your family. Do you understand me?”
Delton looked from the floor to her. He nodded, almost imperceptibly.
The door opened again. “Hayes, you got a phone call.”
“Oh God,” Taysha said. “Delton, the last time you spoke, after you were upset about your sister, it was a complete disaster. I need you to pull yourself together and be the best Delton you can be right this very moment. Can you do that? Can you think about how it will help Danna to keep your head on your shoulders right now?”
Delton looked at her and narrowed his eyes. “I got this.” He turned and let the guard lead him out of the room.
Transcript from phone conversation from Two Rivers Correctional Facility between HAYES, DELTON, B. (576684-GT) and Judith C. Higgins, mother of one of the children from the Marmont State College cooperative project. June 5, 20xx.
DBH: “Hello”
JCH: “Delton. It’s Judith.”
DBH: “Hey, Miss Higgins.”
JCH: “So, I have Rena and the doc here. They’re telling me that you were actually doing a good job yesterday before I got there, and it was the guard who screwed everything up for you.” — “Hello?”
DBH: “I’m here.”
JCH: “Did you hear what I said.”
DBH: “Yeah. That was nice of them.”
JCH: “Do you agree with them?”
DBH: “I don’t know.”
JCH: “So, you don’t think you were doing a good job with Noah?”
DBH: “Well, I didn’t handle it as well as you did.”
JCH: “That’s not what I asked.”
DBH: “Look Miss Higgins, I’m gonna be straight with you. I was totally not prepared for your son to go completely off the nut like he did. I did my best at the time. Did I do a good job? Well, if you’re saying ‘he did a good job for someone who didn’t know what the hell he was doing’ then I guess, yeah, you could say I did a good job. But if you’re saying did he do everything right? Then no. I can’t say that.”
JCH: “Wow. I appreciate your honesty.”
DBH: “Right now, honesty is about the only thing we got between you and me, because I think I screwed up your trust in me.”
JCH: “If I’m being honest…”
DBH: “I know.”
JCH: “Rena and the doc are telling me you’re ready to have another shot at this.”
DBH: “Tell them they’re wrong.”
JCH: “What?”
DBH: “I ain’t ready yet. But I’m getting there. See, I read the file on Noah before I started the project, and a bit of the stuff they gave me, but I didn’t realize all I needed to know about autism. So I went to the library and got some more books, and I’m doing a lot of reading on it now. So, Miss Higgins if you and them can give me till Monday, I’d like to finish my studying, and come in with a real game plan next week, so I’m prepared for any more crazy shit that comes up.”
JCH: “You continue to surprise me, Delton Hayes.”
DBH: “Thank you, but I seen something in you yesterday, and I have an even more important job now.”
JCH: “Did you say you saw something in me?”
DBH: “Yes ma'am. After watching you yesterday, handling Noah and all, I realized that what you really want is just to be a mom, and because of this thing your boy has, you can’t. Take it from someone who really didn’t have a mother who gave a shit, it’s nice to see one who does. I think you’d be a great mom. And in the short amount of time I have with you and your son, I’ll do what I can to help you out.” — “Hello?”
JCH: “I heard you. I…uh…Thank you, Delton.”
DBH: “Don’t thank me yet, Miss Higgins. I ain’t done shit yet. But do you think we could have till Monday?”
JCH: “Yes. You’ll have till Monday. I’ll let them know.”
DBH: “Thank you. And does Noah like things like M&Ms?”
JCH: “Ummm…Skittles. Noah’s not really a chocolate lover.”
DBH: “Skittles it is then.”
JCH: “Good luck with your studies, and I’ll see you Monday.” LINE DISCONNECTED
DBH: “Thank you, Miss….Hello? LINE DISCONNECTED
Chapter Twenty-Four
Monday morning, Judith pulled into the parking lot with Noah. It no longer seemed as busy as it had the previous Monday. By now people knew where they were going, what they were supposed to be doing, and what to expect.
The only assistant waiting outside when she pulled up was Rena. Just like she had the week before, she walked to the car and greeted them. “I’m so glad to see you both again.”
Judith unbuckled Noah, took him by the hand and helped him down. As they walked into the building, Rena gave her an update. “It appears Delton has a complete strategy mapped out today. He has asked for a few specific things, including two glasses, one filled with water, a big bag of Skittles, and a large beach blanket.”
“What’s the beach blanket for?”
“I did
n’t ask,” Rena said. “He seems so determined, I’m just trusting he’s prepared and giving him the encouragement.”
“I’m not sure I’m as trusting,” Judith said. “At the risk of pissing off my boss even more, I took today off to observe once again. You know, for peace of mind.”
Rena opened the front door and held it. “I completely understand. That’s probably a good idea.”
Dr. Fitzpatrick was in the lobby, talking to a couple of assistants. He smiled and waved as Judith passed through. She walked Noah straight to their room. Delton jumped to his feet when they entered, rushed over to Noah, and knelt down. He took Noah’s hand, curled it into a fist, and before Noah had a chance to pull it back, performed a fist bump. “Hello, my man,” he said, and let go.
Noah put his hand behind his back and turned his head to his mother’s leg.
“So what’s the plan here?” Judith asked.
Delton stood smiling. “The plan is that I’m going to insert myself into Noah’s life.”
“You’re going to what?”
“I am going to be a part of Noah’s every move. He is going to have to get used to doing something with someone all day, every day.”
Judith eyed him suspiciously. “You told me you knew what you were doing.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing,”
“He won’t like that.”
“Not at first,” Delton said, smiling. “But he’ll get used to me.” He knelt back down. “Noah and Delton are going to have lots of fun together.”
Judith sighed and shook her head. “Just so you know, I took the day off work. I’ll be here to see this.”
