Asking For Trouble (23 page)

"Thanks, little man, can you show me where
she is?" Beau asked looking around at the filth that was the home
these kids lived in. Garbage was strewn around on the floor and
dirty clothes covered the furniture. The smell was atrocious and he
fought the urge to cover his nose.

The kid led him across the small living room
and down a hall to a bedroom on the left side of the hall. He
pointed to it and said, "She's in there."

Beau pushed open the door and walked inside
the darkened room. The curtains were pulled over the windows, so
very little light showed through. What did show through the window
landed on the back of the girl's thighs and Beau could see whelps
that looked a lot like belt marks there. She was sobbing into a
pillow on the unmade bed.

He walked a little closer and said softly,
"Lucy?" She didn't look at him or respond, so he called her name
again, then walked a little closer so he could inspect the marks on
her legs. Yep, they were definitely whelps from a belt, and quite a
few of them.

"I'm here to take you to your violin lesson,
Mrs. Jackson asked me to come and give you a ride. Are you sick,
sugar?"

She nodded her face in the pillow and said,
"Yeah..." in a choked whisper.

"Have ya'll eaten today, darlin'?" Beau
asked, because that could be why she was feeling bad, along with
the whelps.

"I haven't cooked anything for us yet, I
didn't feel good," she told him.

"Your mom didn't fix you anything before she
left?" Beau was getting a very bad feeling here, and his anger
ramped up about fifteen notches.

"They went out last night and haven't been
back since...they'll probably be here soon," she said as if it were
a common thing for her parents to be AWOL.

"I tell you what, I'm going back in the
living room to wait for you. You get dressed, and then I'm going to
take you and your brother out to breakfast, and then to your
lesson...does that sound good?"

"They'll be mad if we're not here when they
get back," she said fearfully, but pushed up to sit on the bed. Her
face was a splotched mess and if he wasn't mistaken there was a
bruise on the side of her jaw. Beau swallowed down the bile that
rose up in his throat.

"I'll deal with that, Lucy...you just get
dressed, okay?" Beau was going to deal with this all right, he was
going to call social services and ream them a new asshole for
leaving these kids in this situation. "What's your brother's
name?"

"He's not my real brother, he's my foster
brother...his name is Robbie," she told him then stood up from the
bed and flinched. He knew those whelps had to be hurting her badly.
He might need to throw in a trip to the hospital to get her checked
out. That would probably be for the best anyway, because she was
probably not going to be able to sit down for the lesson.

"Okay, sugar...I'm going to help Robbie get
ready, and I'll meet you in the living room in a minute." Lucy
nodded and Beau walked out of the room and closed the door behind
him. Robbie was sitting on the couch, and he didn't have the TV on,
which was strange for a ten-year-old boy.

Beau walked around the sofa and smiled at
the boy, then said, "Hey Robbie, I'm taking you and Lucy out to
breakfast, won't you go get some clean clothes on and wash your
face."

His eyes lit up for a second, but then
sobered, and he said, "They'll be home soon, and they'll be mad if
we're gone." Beau heard his stomach rumble, and the kid put a hand
over it and pinched his lips.

"Just get dressed, I'll take care of talking
to your parents." And a lot more, Beau thought in disgust. Robbie
got up and ran down the hall to the bedroom beside Lucy's and went
inside. Beau took the opportunity to go into the kitchen, and got
even more disgusted.

There were dishes piled in the sink a mile
high, and pots with who knew what molding in them on the stove. His
stomach lurched at the smell, and he decided this must be the
origin of the pungent odor he smelled when he walked in earlier. He
walked over to the rusty old refrigeration and looked inside. A
twelve pack of beer, half a bag of chips, and a moldy block of
cheese was all that was inside.

Next, he walked to the small pantry beside
the stove and opened the door. There were a few cans of vegetables
in there, a couple of packs of ramen noodle soup, and a sack of
potatoes that had grown sprouts. He wondered how often these kids
had a decent meal.

Robbie walked into the kitchen, and he'd
changed into a pair of jeans with the knees blown out and a t-shirt
about two sizes too big for him. "You ready champ?" Beau asked him
and forced a smile. The kid nodded and smiled a gap-toothed smile.
He took Robbie's hand in his and they walked into the living room
to wait on Lucy.

After a minute or two, her bedroom door
opened and Lucy met them in the living room. He noticed she'd
changed into a long skirt, probably the only thing she owned that
wouldn't rub those marks on her legs.

"You ready, sugar?" he asked her, then took
her hand with his empty one, and led them to the door. They went
outside and Beau helped Lucy get up into the truck, then Robbie
hopped up and sat beside her. He told them to put on their seat
belts, then went around the truck and got in himself.

"So, you guys in the mood for pancakes,
eggs, grits, toast, hash browns and about a gallon of milk?" he
asked with a chuckle as he cranked the truck and pulled out.

"Yeah!" Robbie shouted with excitement, and
Beau saw Lucy elbow him in the ribs, and he settled down and
dropped his chin.

"Good, because we're going to a buffet I saw
over by the school, and ya'll are gonna eat like there's no
tomorrow. I'm hungry too, so we'll just pig out and get our money's
worth," Beau said infusing his own tone with excitement.

Lucy looked up at him and in the light now,
he saw that it was definitely a greenish tinged bruise on her
pretty face, not new like the whelps on her legs had been. She'd
done her best to cover it with makeup about three shades too light,
but it didn't work. Sickness punched him in the gut, along with the
urge to put his fist through whoever had done that to her. Beau
just pretended he didn't see it for now, he knew it would probably
embarrass or scare her if he mentioned it.

"I'm going to stop by the school first and
let Miss Jazzie and Mrs. Jackson know where we're going, so they
don't worry. Is that okay with you guys?" he asked trying to get
them to talk to him.

"Okay," Lucy said and stared out the window.
Suddenly, he saw her body stiffen and her face pinch with fear.
"Duck Robbie--quick!" she said and shoved his head down then leaned
on top of him. Her body was trembling and her voice not quite
steady.

Beau looked around the street, but didn't
see anything unusual, so he asked, "What's wrong, Lucy?"

"
They
just passed, and I didn't want
them to see us," she said with fear in her tone, then sat back up
on the seat and let Robbie do the same.

Beau shook his head, and just kept driving
until he got to the school and pulled into the lot. He killed the
engine and told them to come inside with him, because he wasn't
going to leave them outside alone. When he walked inside the gym,
Beau flinched and wondered if his ears were bleeding, because the
large room amplified the screeching sound of the kid's sliding
their bows over the strings of the shiny violins each had to their
chin.

Jazzie just walked behind each one and
helped them make corrections to their posture, or position of the
instrument. When she got to the last kid on the row, a lanky girl
of about thirteen, she took the instrument from her, and slid the
bow across the strings, then listened, adjusted knobs a few times,
and tried it again, before she handed it back to the girl with a
smile. Mrs. Jackson was sitting in a chair on the floor below the
stage listening and watching.

Beau walked up to her and leaned down near
her ear and said, "I'm back...but we have a problem...can I talk to
you for a second?"

She turned her head and looked at him with
concern, then stood. The kids were standing behind him and she
glanced at them then back to him with a raised eyebrow. Walking
around him, she put her hand on Lucy's shoulder and told her,
"Lucy, have a seat in the chair where I was and listen to the
lesson for a minute, your brother can listen too...ya'll stay here
and I'll be right back, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," they said in unison and Lucy
went over by the chair, but didn't sit down.

"She can't sit down," Beau told her gravely
in a lowered voice, then took her arm to lead her across the gym,
where the kids wouldn't overhear him.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Jackson asked
him.

"She has belt marks on the back of her legs,
pretty substantial ones, and there's a bruise on her face, did you
notice it?"

"I saw the makeup, but didn't realize it was
a bruise," she said, then asked, "What happened at that house Beau?
And why do you have her brother with you too?"

"It was absolutely deplorable, ma'am...the
worst thing I've seen in a long time, and trust me I've seen a lot.
And the parents hadn't been home since last night...Lucy said they
went out. I don't think the kids have eaten since yesterday, if
they even ate then," he told her in a choked voice, then finished,
"I'm taking them to the breakfast buffet down the road, and I'm
calling social services. I think Lucy needs medical attention
too."

Mrs. Jackson groaned and swiped a hand on
her forehead to wipe away the beads of sweat there. "I don't know
what they're going to do with Lucy...this is her third foster home
this year, and she's going to fail seventh grade, if she has to
transfer again."

"Why has she been in so many different
foster homes?" he asked curiously.

"She ran away from the first one, and they
said they didn't want her there anymore, their biological son was
terrorizing her, that's why she ran away. The second one, the
mother got pregnant and they decided they didn't want to foster
anymore, and now this..."

"This is really bad, Mrs. Jackson...she's
being abused...both of them are being neglected," Beau told her,
then asked, "Do you know who her social worker is?"

"Yes, all the teachers have her name and
cell phone number, one second..." she said then pulled out her cell
and scrolled down until she found the number and gave it to
him.

Beau plugged it into his phone and told her,
"If the parents by some strange circumstance come here looking for
her, you haven't seen us. I need a little time..." She looked
hesitant about lying, so Beau begged, "Please Mrs. Jackson, I want
to help them."

"Okay, I haven't seen them...but you need to
leave now, because I don't want a scene here, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am...can you tell Jazzie what I'm
doing? If she finishes before I get back, please have her ride home
with the agents...tell her I'll see her in a little while."

"I'll tell her," Mrs. Jackson said, then
they walked back over to Lucy and Robbie.

"Okay, guys, let's go eat!" Beau said and
Robbie grinned, then grabbed his hand. Lucy gave him a soft smile
and followed Beau and Robbie back to the truck.

***

Jazzie was pleased with her first lesson,
the kids were rough, but they were excited about the music, and
that was the most important part. Technical skill could be
improved, if you had passion for what you were doing.

She walked back to the podium and told them,
"Okay everyone, we're going to play the song from start to finish
now, without stopping. You know how to read the notes on your sheet
music now, so follow along. I'm going to play with you this time.
Let's have some fun," she told them with a big grin and picked up
her violin.

"One, two, three and," she said then slid
her bow across the strings to start the tune, and then she turned
so everyone could see her play, how she was holding the instrument,
how she was holding the bow, and her finger placement. Learning to
hold the bow correctly, and proper posture were the most important
things to making the notes sound better. Most of the morning had
been spent on that and the kids were doing good, except for the
occasional screech.

All twelve of her students were focused on
the music stands in front of them, and although they were stiff
trying to get everything just right, they managed to play the song
through. When they finished the last note, she tucked her violin
and bow under her arm then gave them a round of applause. Mrs.
Jackson who was sitting in the chair on the gym floor, stood and
joined her in her applause.

Jazzie grinned and pumped her voice up with
enthusiasm when she said, "That was fantastic! You guys are fast
learners, Mrs. Jackson was right!"

"Thank you Miss Ramos for teaching us," a
shy boy at the end of the first row said quietly.

"Did you have fun, Sam?" she asked him and
walked down there.

His head flew up and he pinned her with
sparkling eyes, "Oh yeah, that was awesome!"

"Okay, I have a surprise for you...I've
rented these instruments for you for a month, so you can take them
home and practice your scales and the song we learned. But you have
to promise me that you'll take very good care of them, and don't
leave them laying around, or let anyone else use them..."