A Hole in the Universe - Mary McGarry Morris [170]
Jada held the glasses in her lap and stared out the side window. Delores asked if there was anything else she needed before she brought her home. Annoyed with her silence, she asked again.
“I don’t want to go home.”
“Where do you want to go? It’s got to be quick, though. I’ve got tons of stuff to do at home,” she said, but Jada only grunted. “Well? You gonna tell me?” She slowed down. “We’re almost there.” Delores kept glancing over at her. Sweat ran down the girl’s face, and she grunted again. “What? What’re you saying?” She turned onto Clover Street.
“No. Don’t. Don’t bring me home. I can’t. I can’t go in there. No, don’t stop!”
Delores drove past the house. “Why? What’s wrong? Why can’t you go home?”
Jada wouldn’t answer. At first Delores thought she was trying not to cry, but now Jada seemed to be gagging. Was her mother mad at her? Was her mother okay? Was she there? Or had she taken off again?
“She’s dead.”
Delores listened as Jada described the terror of these last few days, not knowing what to do, afraid to tell anyone. She had considered running away but couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her mother alone like that, because even if Polie or Feaster found her, they wouldn’t do anything. They’d just leave her, too.
“Oh, Jada, honey.” She reached out for her arm, but the girl cringed back. “You’ve had such an awful time. I’m so sorry for you. I am. I really am. And I’m going to help you. I promise. I swear I will. I’ll talk to people. We’ll find you a good home, a place where you—”
“I want to live with you.”
“Oh, no. I can’t. It wouldn’t work.”
“Why? I could, like, clean and help with the cooking and stuff. And I’d go to school, I would. Like, I’ve even got these, the glasses, now.” She put them on, and they were as crooked as her smile. She hugged herself, shivering.
“Honey, look, I can’t. But I’ll make sure you’re with really good people.”
“Yeah, in some home again for a few months until they say, ‘Pack up. It’s not working out,’ or I don’t fit in, or the foster mother’s gonna have a baby and they need my room, or the foster father goes and tells his wife I’m, like, tryna come on to him or something, when all the hell I’m tryna do is make him like me. That’s all, that’s all I ever try to do,” she said, teeth chattering. “And you, you like me. You already do, right?”
“Yes, I know, hon, but you see, I’ve got a little girl coming and—”
“Well, when she leaves, then.”
“No, she’s going to live with me. She’s coming from China. She’s going to be my child, my daughter.”
“But you don’t even know her. You already know me, and what if you don’t like her, then what?”
“I’ll like her.”
“What if she doesn’t like you? You can’t, like, just send her back, like you could me.”
“Jada.”
“It’d be a lot easier with me. The whole thing. You just call the caseworker. Sometimes they come right out, a couple hours, even, if it was real bad, if you wanted me out fast.”
“Look, Jada, this isn’t even the time for that. We’ve got to take care of other things first, your mother.”
“No! I gotta know about me first. You don’t fucking get it, do you? I’m all alone now. You know what that fucking feels like?”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, you don’t. No. I know you don’t.” Jada’s mouth twitched as if to suppress a smile. “I know who killed that old lady.”
“Who?”
“Let me with live with you, please.”
“Tell me who, Jada. Please.” Barely able to breathe, she eked out the words. “If it would help Gordon . . . oh, my God, that poor man, if you know something, please. I’ll do anything, please, I promise, just tell me.”
“I got proof.”
“What kind of proof?”
“These.” She held out two small statues.
“Hummels?” Her hands were slick on the wheel. Gordon had told her about Mrs. Jukas’s collection.
“They’re from her house.”
“Who gave them to you?” she asked, then suddenly understood, saw it as clearly as if she were there watching it happen. “It was him, wasn’t it? That guy Polie, the one on the porch. That’s what he wanted. That’s why he was so upset. No wonder you wouldn’t go out, you must’ve been so scared. And your mother, he gave her those