Season of Blessing (3 page)

C
HAPTER

Four

Cathy Bennet
sat at her kitchen table, her patchwork family feasting on tacos, as if they had never been touched by divorce or remarriage or jail. Having her new family all together was a dream come true.

She didn't know why Mark had chosen to ruin it.

“What do you mean, you don't want to go back to school?” Her taco crumbled in her hand, and she threw it onto her plate. “Mark, I know you had school in jail, but you didn't finish. You still need a diploma. I want you to go to college. I thought you were finally getting your head on straight.”

“I am getting my head on straight, Mom!” Mark chomped into his taco, and shredded cheese and ground beef avalanched out.

“Then what are you talking about?”

Mark swallowed the bite in his mouth without enough chewing. “I didn't say I planned to drop out altogether. I just want to get my GED, that's all. Then I can go to college
or
get a job.”

“A job?” Steve leaned up on the table, studying the boy who sat across from him. “Mark, what kind of job do you think you can get without an education?”

“I
have
an education.”

“A complete education.” Steve wiped his hands on a napkin. “Mark, you have to think of what kind of money you could make without finishing school.”

Tracy tapped her spoon to the side of her glass, drawing all eyes to herself. “If he quits school, I get to quit, too.”

Steve shot his twelve-year-old daughter a disgusted look. “You can think again, buckaroo.”

“Why? In some countries kids are finished with school before they ever get to my age.”

Nineteen-year-old Annie pushed her food around on her plate. Since she'd come back from Nicaragua with Sylvia, she had gone on a health food kick and refused to eat anything that even looked like it had calories. “You should see the kids in Nicaragua, wandering the streets digging through trash for food. They'd kill to be in a school like yours.”

Cathy turned her gaze back to Mark, her blonde ponytail waving with the movement. “Why don't you want to go to school, Mark? I thought after being in jail for a year you'd want to go back to normal.”

Mark dropped his taco and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Don't you see, Mom? I can't go back to normal. I've changed.

I can't go back to public school because the guys I got in trouble with still go there.”

Cathy met Steve's eyes. “Well, at least he sees that.”

Steve leaned up on the table. “So why couldn't you go back to home schooling with Brenda's kids? She's already said she'd take you back. And she needs the money we'd pay her.”

“Man…” Mark propped his face on his hand. “I feel like I've grown up past that. Going to school with little kids and having her hovering over me. I don't have anything against her. I really like Miss Brenda. I do. But I just need to get on with things, you know?”

Cathy started to tell him that he wasn't as grown up as he thought he was, when Rick's cell phone rang, injecting life into the otherwise silent twenty-one-year-old who sat staring at his food. He pulled the phone from his belt clip.

“Hello? Yeah. What's up, man? Nothing much.”

Steve met her eyes in silent encouragement to rebuke him.

Cathy touched Rick's arm. “Rick, could you please take that somewhere else? We're trying to have dinner conversation here.”

He didn't answer, just got up from the table and strode to another room. She watched him leave, wishing she'd made him turn off the phone before they sat down to eat. Since he lived on campus for summer school, he seldom came home to eat with them, and she hated calling him down when he did.

She turned back to Mark. “Mark, let's say you did get your GED. You're only sixteen. You're probably not ready to jump right into college.”

“I told you, I'm not sure I even want to go to college. I'm tired. I need some freedom after being locked up for a year.”

Tracy started drumming her fingers on the table.

Steve reached out and stopped her hand. “But, Mark, there's no freedom in having to work without a college degree. It's hard. Why would you want to put yourself through that?”

“Steve's right,” Cathy said. “Honey, school is the best place for you now.”

“Okay, but where?” he asked. “Do you want me to go to public school or do you want me to go to Brenda's and study with Leah and Rachel and Joseph?”

“And Daniel,” Cathy said. “Don't forget Daniel. He's exactly your age.”

“But he's different, Mom. He's a good friend and all, and I'm glad to have him as my buddy, but he's basically clueless. I've been in jail for a year. I've been around people who are hard to get along with.”

“Then this should be easy for you.”

“I don't want to be baby-sat all day and hovered over. I can take a GED course and get out of school and have some freedom.”

Steve got up and took his plate to the sink. “Mark, you don't even have a driver's license yet. You're kidding yourself if you think this is going to give you extra freedom. And I think you need to define what freedom is.”

“I know what freedom is,” Annie piped in, flipping her dark hair back. “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Cathy smirked. “Thank you, Annie, for bringing the wisdom of Janis Joplin into this conversation.”

Rick came back into the room just then and took his place at the table. “Freedom? Oh, freedom. That's just some people talking.” He broke into singing “Desperado,” and Annie joined in. Mark threw his napkin across the table. Annie deftly caught it in the air and threw it back.

Cathy ducked. “Hey, not at the table. Come on, guys.”

Tracy wadded one of her own and threw it smack into Cathy's face. Cathy caught it in her fist. The girl cracked up at the hit.

“Nice going, Tracy.” Annie high-fived her. “Only I wouldn't recommend you repeat that.”

Cathy waited for Steve to call Tracy down, but his eyes were still fixed on Mark.

“Mark, you must have given this job thing some thought. What kind of jobs are you thinking of?”

“I don't know. Maybe something like an electrician.”

Steve came back to the table. “Electricians are trained. Some of them go to college. If they don't, at the very least they go to vocational school.”

Mark shifted in his seat. “They need assistants, don't they?”

“Well, yeah, but that's a minimum wage job. And you've got a background, Mark. You've got a few strikes against you since you've been to jail. If you offset that with a college degree, people will forget about it and think that maybe you were irresponsible as a kid, but you grew up. But if you don't even finish high school and you get your GED and then try to get a job just a few months after getting out of jail, the chances are that you'll have to take some crummy job that you hate just to make a living.”

“Well, it's not like you guys are going to throw me out in the street, is it? I can stay here for a while, can't I?”

Cathy took Mark's hand. “Of course you can, honey.”

Steve crossed his arms. “You can stay here, Mark, as long as you're working toward something. If you're going to school…if you have a plan…”

Cathy turned to her husband, her eyes lashing him. “Steve, he's only been out a week.”

“Yeah,” Mark said. “It's not like I've been sitting around doing nothing.”

“Honey, I think he's entitled to a few days of rest,” Cathy said.

Steve looked as aggravated as she. “Of course he is, but now he's telling us he doesn't want to go to school, and if he doesn't, then we need to know what the plan is. There has to be a plan, Cathy.”

Cathy turned back to her son. “Honey, he's right. You do need a plan.”

Mark scowled. “I will have a plan, Mom. It doesn't have to be
his
plan.”

Cathy winced and stole a look at Steve. His face had that hard, tight look it got when he was angry. “He didn't mean that the way it sounded,” she said weakly.

“Yes, I did.” Mark got up from the table and shoved his chair back. “I've already talked to my dad about this. He's all for it. He thinks the GED is a good idea.”

Cathy bit her tongue. It wouldn't do to remind him that his father's ideas were usually bad. His involvement in Mark's life had left way too much to be desired. It didn't surprise her that the one time he advised his son on anything, he'd encourage him to drop out of school. Not certain how to proceed from here, she moved her gaze back to her simmering husband. He stared down at the table, the little muscle of his jaw popping rhythmically in and out.

Rick bottomed his can of coke. “Hey, Mark can come stay with me on campus.”

Mark's face lit up. “Can I, Mom?”

“Of course not.” Cathy pinned Rick with a look. “You're not helping matters.”

Rick looked as if she'd slapped him. “Excuse me for trying to help. Excuse me for coming home for a nice family meal. Excuse me for daring to open my mouth.”

Steve's teeth came together. “Don't talk to your mother that way, Rick.”

Rick threw up his hands. “What way?”

Steve heaved a loud sigh.

Rick got up. “I'm finished eating. Can I go?”

Cathy wondered how long it would be before she could get him back again. “I guess so.”

Rick got up and left the house, and Mark took off up the stairs. She heard his door close hard.

Annie and Tracy sat watching their faces, as if anxious for the next round.

“We need to talk about that door slamming,” Steve bit out.

“He wasn't slamming it.” Cathy rubbed her face. “He just closed it too hard. Boys do that. They walk harder, open cabinets harder, close doors harder.”

“I used to be a boy.” Steve grabbed Tracy's plate and dropped it hard in the sink. “I don't do that.”

“Well, he's still learning.” She gathered the rest of the plates and followed him to the sink. “You're used to raising Tracy, and she doesn't slam and make a lot of noise.”

“One time I slammed my door,” Tracy said, “and Daddy took it off the hinges for two weeks.”

“You didn't slam it again, did you?” Steve pointed out.

Tracy grinned and shook her head.

Cathy followed him to the sink. “Please, Steve. Don't do that to Mark. He's had a rough year, and he came home to a changed family. I only want him to be comfortable here.”

“And I'm making him uncomfortable?”

“No, that's not what I said. I just don't want you coming down hard with the rules. Give him some adjustment time. He's only sixteen. He's not supposed to have his whole life mapped out already.”

Steve turned the water on full blast. “I'm not asking him to map it out. School is basic. You must agree with me on that.”

“It is basic,” she said, “but I can see where he's coming from.

I can understand why he doesn't want to go study with Brenda's brood.”

Annie rounded up the glasses and took them to the counter. “If you ask me, he's matured a lot since he got arrested. He's had life experiences…not good ones. It's got to be hard for him, coming back to his old life and everybody expecting him to be the same guy that went away. Only he's a year older and a year wiser. And he's a Christian now. And he just doesn't quite know how to fit his new self back into the old skin. You know what Jesus said, about putting new wine into old wineskins?”

Cathy just stared at her daughter. “I'm not sure exactly what you just said, but I understand the concept.” She looked at Steve. “She may be right.”

“Well, if that's true,” Steve said, “it only means he needs a little more guidance. That's what we're here for. Not just to throw him out in the world to make more mistakes.”

Annie folded her arms. “I'm just saying to cut him some slack. It's got to be frustrating coming back with everything changed. I know it is for me.”