A Hole in the Universe - Mary McGarry Morris [161]
“Oh, yeah, you’ve got two kids, right? A boy and a girl. I seen you here before.”
“You’ve got a very good memory.”
“Yeah, phonographic, that’s what my teachers all say.” She grinned. “But then hardly anybody ever comes here. A priest did once. And Delores. You know her?”
The woman said she did. Opening the door, she said she’d better go give her husband a hand.
“Need any help?” Jada stepped closer.
They didn’t, but Lisa Loomis thanked her. They’d come to check the house and pick up a few things for Gordon. She slipped inside.
“How’s he doing?” Jada asked, face at the screen. “Probably not too good, huh?”
“He’s all right. Gordon’s a very strong man. He’ll be fine. I know he will.”
“Lisa!” her husband called from the stairs. “I can’t find any slippers!”
“Yeah, it’s like, how can they do that?” she said as Lisa Loomis stepped away. “How can they arrest him? He’d never do something like that. And he didn’t. I know for a fact he didn’t.”
She came back to the door. “What do you mean? How do you know that he didn’t?”
Her husband rushed up to say he didn’t have much time. His next appointment was in forty-five minutes.
“Because,” Jada said. “Because I know he wouldn’t hurt anybody. Especially an old lady, even though she was a bitch.”
“You shouldn’t say that. That’s terrible,” Lisa Loomis said.
“Will you come on?” her husband snapped.
“Well, it’s true. She treated him like crap, and now look, just because he was nice, they blame him. It sucks. It really does!” she called at the closing door.
She sat on the step, waiting. “Hey!” She jumped up when the door opened. The brother came out carrying a green canvas bag. “I just wanted to ask you,” she said, following them to the car. “Would you tell Gordon I said hi?”
“Yes, I will. That’s very nice of you,” Lisa Loomis said.
“Watch out, them prickers, they really hurt,” Jada warned as Lisa Loomis opened the car door. “And tell him I’m watching the house for him. I’ll keep the freaks away,” she said at Lisa’s window as the car backed out of the driveway. “I won’t let the place get all crappy looking. I’ll keep it nice!” she called as Lisa waved. “Fucking snob, can’t even talk to me,” she muttered.
The office was freezing. Jada stuffed the paper into her pocket, then folded her arms and tried to stop shivering.
“Sorry for that,” Mr. Crowley said when he returned.
Mr. Crowley didn’t look like a mister in his jeans and black T-shirt. He was a young guy with a bony face and closely set eyes that narrowed with doubt whenever she spoke. It was the second time he’d been called out to see someone. The place was a zoo, junkies lined up, waiting outside a door marked MEDS and the waiting room filled with even more of them.
“We’re a little shorthanded today. Now let’s see, you were telling me about . . .” He looked for the paper he had been writing on. He shuffled through the stack to his right, then pushed back in his chair to look down at the floor. “It was right here. Well, anyway.” He ripped a new sheet from the pad. “I remember most of it. Your name is Jana and your mother is addicted to crack and she needs to be placed in one of our programs.” He raised his eyebrows: Was that right so far?
“It’s my aunt. I said mother, but she’s, like, really kind of my aunt.” She had to be careful. What if he’d gone out both times to call Social Services or the cops?
“What’s your last name, Jana?”
“Brown.”
He wrote it down. “And your age?”
“Seventeen.”
He looked at her. “Seventeen?”
“In a couple months.”
He didn’t believe her. “Your address?”
“Why, what’s that matter? It’s not me, I’m not tryna get in rehab. Is that what you think?” He did. She could tell, he thought it was her.
“No, I know. It’s just for our records. Standard procedure, that’s all.”
Yeah, standard procedure; next thing she knew, some social worker’d be banging down the door. “Look, all I wanna do is to get my aunt in. She’s too sick to come down. I told her I’d do this. She has to get on a list, right?” She pointed to his papers. “A waiting list or something?”
“Yes, and right now ours