At Risk of Being a Fool (27 page)

“Tell me the rest of it.” The flat statement lay there, inert, a challenge.

“Brynna’s finally improving her attitude—”

“Tell me the rest of it. There’s more to this than GED. Isn’t there?”

Jeanie opened her mouth and closed it. “Yes, there is. But it’s confidential. You’ll have to trust me.”

“Trust you? You barge into my life, badger me, and tell me I must do this, or mustn’t do that? And I’m supposed to trust you? Turn it around, Jeanie McCoy. Do it, I dare you. Trust
me
.”

“It’s not my story to tell.”

“It’s got to be either Brynna or Sorrel. I could find out in half an hour on the phone if I wanted to. If I cared.”

“But you don’t. I care for them.”

“You
think
I don’t. You quoted one of them to me. Was that a true quote? All right, then. I create a wall of safety around those girls. They don’t appreciate it, and they don’t need to. I am a barrier between them and temptation. If, for the rest of their lives, they’re living so as not to wind up in my care again, that’s exactly what I want. What do you think the justice model is, Jeanie? You saw my article. Did you actually read it?”

“Yes.”

“And you agreed with none of it.”

“With parts of it, Estelle, but not the rigidity, the power-play stuff you pull on them.”

“Are you always the perfect teacher? Nor am I the perfect correction supervisor. Nonetheless, I am reasonably good at what I do, and that is to provide a bridge for juvenile offenders back into mainstream society, with a clear understanding of consequences for their actions.”

“All right. You’re right. It’s a difficult job, and it’s one I couldn’t do.”

“As I could never teach. You want my help and you want me to do things your way. I cannot. We can, however, collaborate for the best interests of our mutual charges. To do that, you must trust me.”

“You could throw them both back into Corrections for another two years.”

“I will agree not to do so based on any information you give me in this conversation. Further than that, I am not prepared to go.”

Jeanie spun her wedding ring on her finger. If she gave Estelle more power over Sorrel’s life, the results could be horrific. Not only that, but she’d be breaking her promise of confidentiality. She could ruin Sorrel’s confidence in her.

“It was good of you to come by,” Estelle said with difficulty. “To keep me company. Thank you.”

Jeanie heard every one of the multiple layers. Estelle offered closure to the hospital visits, with more grace than Jeanie thought she had possessed. She’d also sacrificed a piece of her own pride. Perhaps, after all, Estelle did understand what she was asking.

“Sorrel’s pregnant.”

“When?” Estelle snapped, instantly tense.

“Not on your watch. I figure it happened when she was sneaking out of Esperanza.”

“Does Randy know?”

“Randy knows that something’s going on, and has chosen not look too closely. Dolores doesn’t have a clue, and we’re keeping it that way. Sorrel wants to hide the pregnancy until she can get out of Bright Futures. I arranged the community service to keep her out of Dolores’ eyesight. And before you ask, I doubt very much she had anything to do with the bomb that took off your foot, but I can’t prove it, and I could be wrong. If she goes back to Corrections,” Jeanie concluded, “the baby might wind up with her mother.”

“Foster care is more likely, at least to begin with.”

“She doesn’t want an abortion. She wants to get out, have her baby, and help her mother raise both children.”

“Abortions are preferable in dysfunctional families. In my opinion.”

“Have you seen Tiffany? With Sorrel?”

“Yes.” An exasperated sigh. “Yes, I’ve seen them together. But the family is dysfunctional. You can’t deny that.”

“Sorrel can learn.”

Estelle pursed her lips. “Here, take your cat.”

“Where are you going?”

“To find a phone.”

“Estelle!” By the time Jeanie got Rita in her carrier, Estelle was halfway down the hall to the nurses’ station.

“I need a phone with an outside line,” she demanded.

“There’s a phone in your room,” Jeanie interjected. “Let’s—”

“A
phone
, young woman.” Estelle slapped the countertop.

The nurse puffed up, affronted. Jeanie caught her eye, shrugged, mouthing “Sorry.” The nurse softened, lifted the handset, punched two numbers, and rotated the phone towards Estelle.

“You’ll need to make it fast.”

Estelle and the nurse traded frosty glances as Estelle dialed a number. “Mrs. Torrez here,” she announced. “Please connect me with Mrs. Cuthbert immediately. Thank you.”

“Estelle, if you say anything—”

“Dolores? Mrs. Torrez here. I have not received an RB-359 since I was hospitalized. Where is your progress report? Yes. Verbal will do for the moment, but please forward your notes as soon as we finish. Yes. I see. All seven of them? How can you justify that? Come now, Dolores, transportation woes are eternal. If you are unable to cope—”

Estelle’s skill with the cut-and-jab interview technique had not dulled with her accident. Jeanie listened with guilty pleasure, sharing a rueful smile with the nurse. The nurse snapped her fingers, and a man in a blue lab coat moved up to join the fascinated eavesdroppers.

“
...
matter of the work-release girls. There are two of them, I believe, in the program with Miss Sandoval. Their job performance reports were satisfactory, but I don’t believe that teacher, McCoy-somebody, has submitted an L-23 on their studies. Have Mary Mahoney press for an official report when she drops the girls off for their classes today. No class. Why on earth not? Pitiful. I certainly hope that woman intends to continue on a home visit basis, or I’ll have a few things to say about breach of contract. In fact, give me her phone number, and I’ll call right now
...
Oh. You think so. Please be certain of it. Now, Randy Firman informs me that Sorrel Quintana is required to perform community service, and that he’s lined something up. I had a few things to say to him, I can tell you. Imagine not clearing it with me first, incredible. However, be that as it may, we are required to comply. I gather he arranged transportation? Good, I would have insisted, in any case. Anything else? All right, I’ll be expecting your RB-359 no later than tomorrow morning, nine a.m. And of course, you’ll attach the explanatory addendums for your deviations from protocol. Each of them. Of course. Thank you, Dolores, and good day.”

Estelle put down the phone, and bridled at the admiring looks of Jeanie, the nurse, and the lab technician. “Thank you,” she said icily, “for the use of the telephone, if not for the privacy generally accorded to personal conversations.”

“It was too good to miss,” said Jeanie. “Beautifully done.”

“Humph. Now, you,” Estelle jabbed a finger at the nurse, “call my doctor immediately—”

“Estelle, hush.”

“I
beg
your pardon.”

“Hush. Thank you.” Jeanie smiled at the nurse. “My friend would appreciate it if you could contact her attending physician so she can discuss prosthetics and occupational therapy with him, if you would be so kind. That was what you were going to say, wasn’t it, Estelle?”

“Roughly,” said Estelle, grudgingly. She started to speak, but Jeanie distracted her by dropping the cat carrier into her lap. The nurse grinned back at her, and raised a thumb in the air as Jeanie wheeled her away.

~*~

“Jeanie, can’t we take a day off for once?” said Brynna in disgust.

“You want a day off?” asked Sorrel. “Cuthbert’s got Josie scrubbing all the paint off the inside of the shed. Josie was complaining about the roaches. Go ahead, give her a hand, why don’t you?”

“God, no,” Brynna said. She grabbed the science book off the top of the stack. “Looks better already.”

Ordinarily, Bright Futures used its conference room for meetings with parole officers, social workers, and lawyers. Therefore, it had better furniture than the girls did. More importantly, Jeanie could lock the door. Rita was unaffected by the tension. She was busy pursuing a ball of paper across the floor.

Jeanie said, “How are things going these days?”

“Worse,” said Sorrel. Brynna nodded. “Torrez had a million regs, but at least we knew what they were. Cuthbert comes up with new ones all the time.”

“Like yesterday,” Brynna said. “When all of a sudden we’re separating the trash different. She told morning cooks, but not evening cooks, so then she’s breathing down our necks, screaming at us, like we did it on purpose. Two fuckin’ demerits each.” She shot a glance towards the door, flushed red, and shut her mouth tightly.

“What I figure is,” said Sorrel, “she’s trying to prove she’s as good as Torrez, get herself a promotion, so she’s changing stuff. Kherra said something about new brooms yesterday, made a lot of sense.”

“What about the brooms?” Brynna said apprehensively. “Are there new ones?”

Sorrel glanced at Brynna with more tolerance than usual. “No, Bryn. I mean Cuthbert’s setting herself up as competition, so Torrez can’t come back again.”

Brynna looked at Sorrel in undisguised horror. “Oh, God. Jeanie, can she do that?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Brynna, not yet. Mrs. Torrez isn’t out of the hospital yet, and even when she is, she’ll have physical therapy, and occupational therapy. It will probably be weeks before she’ll know if she can come back. Of course, she may not want to.”

“Torrez was a bitch,” said Brynna, “but we knew what was going on when she was around.”

“You should have seen breakfast today. You’d have puked,” said Sorrel.

“It’s probably easier to slip out now, isn’t it?” said Jeanie, testing the waters.

Both girls turned on her with identical looks of suspicion.

Jeanie sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m not good at this. Look, I don’t want to give you ammunition on each other, but there’s something I’d like to ask.”

Brynna and Sorrel exchanged glances. “Go ahead,” said Sorrel.

“I was at Esperanza yesterday. Linda said they’d had problems sometimes, with residents sneaking out for drugs, or to meet friends.”

Sorrel’s lip quirked. “Like me, huh?”

“Yeah, like you. So you were bounced back to Corrections, and then got placed here, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Same for you, Brynna?”

“I came here from Corrections. Didn’t go anywhere else.” She studied her fingernails, bitten to the quick as usual. “If I thought I could get away, I’d run. At least, sometimes I would.”

“Where would you go?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m just sick of being locked up.”

“So what I understand is, if either of you is slipping out, you’re coming back right away, and no one knows it.” Jeanie watched Rita instead of the girls. “But, I hear that Quinto’s place is like a fortress. No way anyone could get out of there.”

Sorrel laughed. Jeanie looked at her inquiringly.

“A guy I know says it’s harder to get in than it is to get out.” There was a mocking lilt to her voice.

“They thought Rita was a dangerous criminal,” offered Jeanie. Rita played with Brynna’s shoelaces, managing to choke herself.

“Anybody can get out of anywhere,” Sorrel said, “if it matters enough, and you’re smart enough. What matters to me now is my family, and I’d lose them. So I wouldn’t run.”

“I would,” Brynna whispered. “But I’d get caught, I know it. They’d bump me back to Corrections. I get scared, so I don’t risk it.”

Brynna twisted her hands together, and looked at her knotted fingers. Sorrel rested her hand on Brynna’s for a fleeting moment, unaware of having stunned both women.

“Running is dumb,” Sorrel said. “At least, if you’ve got a chance to get out the legal way, it’s dumb.”

“So if someone wanted to get something,” Jeanie pursued, “or to pass a message, slipping out of these places is possible.”

“Phones are easier,” said Brynna. “Call ahead, get something dropped to you at a bus stop or something.” Brynna chuckled weakly. “I’ve thought about it some. Running, calling a friend to fly the Five, get me away. They’d catch me sure if I stuck around. I’d hop a bus, be long gone, that’s what I’d do. Damn, I wish there was trains running back of this place, like you got, Jeanie. I’d be out one night, and on it like a flash.”

“It would be a temptation,” said Jeanie. “Sometimes, I look out, and want to jump on, myself.” She heaved a sigh. “What’s ‘flying the Five’ mean?”

“
Portland
’s so close,” said Brynna, “when you drive down I-5 to
Salem
, that’s what you call it, flying the Five.”

“Ah, makes sense. Well, I brought your textbooks, Brynna. Sorrel’s already got hers, but Mrs. Cuthbert didn’t know that.” She gave the girls a conspiratorial look. “Think you’re up to studying today?”

The girls exchanged a glance, and chorused, “Roaches.” Jeanie laughed, and left them the textbooks. The girls transferred to the study desks in the main room. After a while, Brynna felt Sorrel’s gaze on her.