Chapter Fifteen: Confusion
Chalk
After Lucy and I were busted, I had some explaining to do to Sarah. The first conversation didn’t go over so well. “You know Mom lives near the hospital. It’s closer to her work. She can’t just come and live here now. She has to do her job.”
“Why? She’s here all the time. She can bring her toothbrush here. Can’t she? We have to get a toothbrush for her, Dad, so she can brush her teeth.”
“Why do you keep talking about this toothbrush thing? I don’t even know what show this was on. You’re still talking about it.”
“Dad, don’t be silly, she should come here. Mom was in your room. She can sleep in your room. Or she can sleep in mine!”
“Ah no, she can’t, sweetness. She’s staying right where she is. It’s okay, you can see her on the weekend. Come on, I need to get you to school. You have that science project you’re getting ready to do next week, so you wanna be ready, right?”
Sarah nodded her head firmly. “Sure do. I want to do a project on frogs. Did you know there are five different species of frogs in Holbeck? Did you know that, Dad?”
I stared at my kid in awe. Every day she got a little bit smarter, and that made me anxious. She was too smart sometimes. “Wow. I did not know that. That’s amazing.” I picked up her book bag and dropped her lunchbox in, then we went out the door. As always, the threat was there. I was on the lookout for whoever thought it was okay to show up at my door. No sign and I was beginning to think I saw a ghost.
“Love you, Dad. See you after school.”
I waited in the car, watching her meet with one of her other playmates linking arms and skipping in. Get inside. Get inside.
Every morning my muscles bunched up tight, coiled and ready to strike should I need to. I touched my gun. Still there. My eyes clocked the cars on the street.
A dark sedan was parked a few blocks back and a man with an olive complexion was leaning out of the window.
I stuck my key in the ignition with gritted teeth, so I could drive over and get a closer look. My heart knocked in my chest as I watched the guy throw a cigarette butt out the window.
One of the teachers saw me and waved, jogging over to the car.
Dammit! The very same teacher who tried to tell me what to do about my kid the last time. Don’t come over here. Don’t come over here.
The teacher came over anyway.
I felt obligated to roll down my window. I leaned over from the driver’s side.
She poked her head in with a nosy smile. “I just wanted to tell you that your daughter is doing really well now. She seems so much happier. I don’t know if anything changed, but she is doing super well.” The teacher pumped her fist as if I was one of the kids and she was about to feed me an apple.
“Thank you, I appreciate it.”
“Any reason for the change?” She pried.
I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction and my pride was getting in the way. “Nah, you probably just caught her in bad timing is all. Kids and their phases.”
“Ah, I see. Have a good day.”
The way she smirked at me led me to believe that maybe Sarah had been flapping her gums at school and talking to her teachers about her Mom. Why wouldn’t she? If I was a kid and I hadn’t seen my mother in two to three years, I would definitely want to talk about it. I would be happy. Looking up, I saw that the car with the man was gone.
With a sigh, I drove off to Wheelz. We were all about to meet Angie and see the article she was about to produce before it went out for publication in the morning. The Holbeck morning traffic wasn’t too bad. It was bearable, but the threat of a hot sweltering heat wasn’t. It was barely after nine, and sweat was forming in droplets on the back of my neck already.
I saw Smoke and Bear ahead of me and drove up to idle beside them. “Hey, you grandpas, what are you doing? Speed up.”
Smoke, who was on my left side, gave me the middle finger and stuck out his tongue as I parked in the Wheelz parking lot.
I got out at the same time as Smoke and Bear. Both of them nudged me in good fun as I walked in the door.
Smoke ribbed me. “What’s going on, are you a real biker or what? You’re in the car now?”
“Yep. I had to do the school drop off run with Sarah. I don’t know if she’s ready to ride on the back of the bike with me yet. I’m a little scared to take her. Lucy only just got on there last week with me and that was her first time.”