Firestone (7 page)

“
Angel?” Yvonne
smiled.

“
I was praying and
praying, like they say in church, for a nice person to help me.”
The boy nodded. “And you showed up. You’re my angel.”

“
Well, thank you.” Yvonne
smiled. “There’s going to be a lot of people here soon. Probably
the police too.”

“
The police?” the boy
asked. “Do I have to go to jail?”

“
No,” Yvonne laughed. “But
I’ll tell you what.”

“
What?”

“
I’ll be right here with
you the whole time,” Yvonne said.

“
Like an
angel?”

“
Sure,” Yvonne said. “Now
rest.”

The boy nodded. After a few minutes, he
started to play in the water. He gave each of his hands voices and
they swam through the water. The two of them were so caught up in
his play that they didn’t hear the elevator come up to the condo.
When the door opened, they both yelped with surprise.

Dionne and Bumpy stood in the doorway. The
moment the boy laid eyes on Bumpy, his entire demeanor changed. He
squealed with laughter. Bumpy walked past a stunned Yvonne over to
the boy. He lifted the wet boy from the bath and held him
tight.

“
You found me,” the boy
said over and over again. “I prayed and prayed and you found
me.”

Dionne put her hand on Bumpy’s arm, and he
looked at her. Bumpy smiled, but did not let go of the boy.

“
Is
that . . .?” Dionne asked in a low voice.

“
He says he’s Jeraine’s
baby,” Yvonne said. “Says he’s from Atlanta. He was waiting at the
elevator. His mother put him on a plane to Denver.”

Dionne looked so angry Yvonne thought she
could see steam coming from her ears.

“
We’ve been fighting to
get a chance to spend time with this child
for . . .,” Dionne’s eyes sparked,
“ . . .years. His mother’s on Real Housewives or
First Wives of Hip-Hop or some stupid reality show. There was no
way she was going to let us . . . Bumpy writes him a
letter every week to tell him that we love him. Jer’s other son,
too.”

“
She’s not going to have
much to say very soon,” Yvonne said. “I called Tannie’s friend
Heather. She’s coming over with her social worker and the
police.”

Dionne looked at Yvonne, and she nodded.
Dionne grinned.

“
Let’s get him dried off,”
Dionne said. “There’s going to be a mess of people here soon. We
need to check him to see if he’s physically all right.”

Bumpy took the towel from Dionne and dried
the boy. The police arrived just after Bumpy got started. They let
Bumpy examine the boy. Bumpy helped the child get dressed in the
tattered clothing from his plastic grocery bag before the police
talked to him. Heather and Risa arrived with food. Yvonne took the
boy to the kitchen to eat so the police and social worker could
talk with Dionne and Bumpy.

The IRS chose that exact time to come to
take the apartment and keys. They were nice enough, but the entire
affair was more family drama than the IRS inspector wanted to deal
with. They had just reached the street when Jeraine ran down the
sidewalk from where he’d parked his car. Seeing Jeraine, the boy
took off running.

“
Daddy! Daddy!
Daddy!”

Yvonne trailed close behind. She had almost
caught the boy when Jeraine picked him up and twirled him around.
Yvonne heard the boy talking a mile a minute and saw the tears on
Jeraine’s face. Smiling, she turned around to delay the police,
social workers, and even Dionne and Bumpy. Her little friend had
come all this way to see his father. He deserved a minute.

When she turned back, she saw that Jeraine
was ready to fight for his son. She gave him a nod and moved aside
so the police could do their work.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday evening — 6:32 p.m.

Katy skipped up the walkway to the Castle’s
side door with Paddie right behind her.

“
Hey, wait for us!” Colin
called from the car, where Julie was getting Conner from the car
seat.

Paddie and Katy pretended not to hear
him.

“
Paddie! Katy!” Colin
caught up with them at the door. He held the door closed until
Julie and Conner were there. “We’d like to go in together so you
don’t . . .”

Colin opened the door. Paddie took off
inside the Castle. Katy ran after him.

“ 
. . . get
lost,” Colin finished his statement. He scowled.

“
They only get lost to us
grown-ups,” MJ said. He hugged Colin.

“
We promised Jill we’d
care for Katy,” Julie said. “She took care of
Paddie . . .”

Their attention turned to Katy and Paddie
laughing and spinning in circles.

“
Don’t worry about that
kind of thing,” MJ said.

“
It’s hard not to,” Julie
said.

“
I know,” MJ laughed. “I’m
just telling you what they tell me.”

Julie smiled. They went into the Castle
living room and joined the hustle and bustle of pre-dinner.

“
Katy!” Jill said as she
came into the living room from the kitchen.

Katy ran to her mother and threw her arms
around her. They held each other for a few moments before Paddie
joined their hug.

“
My two favorite people.”
Jill knelt down and kissed each of their cheeks. “Do you know why
you’re here tonight?”

“
I live here.” Katy
nodded.

“
I live here too.” Paddie
nodded. “Sometimes.”

“
That’s true,” Jill said.
“Tonight, we’re welcoming Ivy and Keenan to live with us. You
remember Ivy, don’t you?”

Jill gestured to the kitchen where Ivy and
Nash were helping Delphie finish dinner preparations.

“
Uh-huh,” Katy
said.

“
And you
remember . . .” Jill gestured to where Keenan was
talking to Sam. His skin was now milk-chocolate brown, his eyes
were amber-brown like Fin’s, and his hair was in small
brother-dreads. He wore a standard kid uniform of new jeans and a
T-shirt. Feeling their eyes, Keenan turned to look.

Katy gasped.

“
But
that’s . . .” Katy leaned forward to whisper to her
mother.

“
He’s going to live with
us,” Jill said.

“
Why?” Katy
asked.

“
Because he needs a nice
place to grow up,” Jill said. “Not like before
when . . .”

Jill gave Katy a knowing nod, and Katy
wrinkled her nose.

“
I know you,” Keenan said
to Katy. His voice had a slight almost-British accent, which made
him sound formal. “I had a dream about you.”

Katy nodded.

“
You were my princess,”
Keenan said.

“
She wasn’t
your
princess.” Paddie
moved between Keenan and Katy. He stood up to his full height. Even
at four years old, he was almost as tall as the thin, small Keenan.
“Katy’s nobody’s princess.”

“
I belong to me,” Katy
said.

“
And me,” Paddie
said.

“
And Paddie,” Katy said.
“He’s my best, best forever friend.”

“
Oh.” Keenan looked
confused and embarrassed. “Um . . .”

“
You could be our friend
too,” Paddie said. He gave Keenan a big smile.

“
I could?” Keenan looked
relieved.

Katy nodded.

“
How come you aren’t a
princess?” Keenan face fell in sadness. “I thought you were a
princess.”

“
We don’t have princesses
here in America,” Jill said. “We belong to ourselves and each
other.”

Jill gestured to the adults and children
standing around talking. Keenan turned to look at Jill. She smiled
at him. As if taking her in, he looked at her for a while.

“
Katy’s is your little
girl,” Keenan said. “And Paddie is her knight.”

“
That’s right,” Jill
said.

“
And you are our friend,”
Katy said.

“
I am?” Keenan looked down
at the ground. “Are you sure? I
feel . . .”

“
Of course you’re our
friend,” Paddie said.

Keenan looked at Katy and then at Paddie. He
scowled.

“
I feel like I did
something really bad and hurt you
or . . .”

“
You didn’t hurt me,”
Paddie said.

“
You didn’t hurt me,” Katy
said.

Jill gave him an assuring smile. He smiled
at her.

“
Maybe you haven’t had
friends before,” Katy said.

“
I think that’s right.”
Keenan nodded.

“
We have lots of friends,”
Paddie said. “My daddy has lots of friends and my mommy has lots of
friend and Katy’s daddy has lots of friends and Katy’s mommy has
lots of friends. Now
you
have lots
and
lots
of friends!”

Paddie beamed at his logic. Keenan grinned.
Jill reached out her arms and scooped all three children up in a
hug. She kissed each of their cheeks. Keenan put his hand over
where Jill had kissed him and smiled.

“
Come on,” Paddie said. He
held out his hand to Katy and to Keenan. “Let’s go get a good
seat.”

The kids ran to the dining room.

“
They worked it out,”
Delphie said. She held out her hand and helped Jill up.

“
Paddie,” Jill said. “He’s
a charmer.”

“
You think there will be
friction between Keenan and Katy?” Delphie’s eyebrows furrowed with
worry.

“
I doubt it,” Jill said.
“Katy’s pretty involved in her own life. Keenan has so much on his
plate — learning to read, getting settled here and at school,
eating and growing. He won’t have time for much trouble. I mean,
I’m no psychic. Thank God.”

“
Were you speaking of us?”
Anjelika came toward Jill with the boys. Jill smiled, and Anjelika
laughed. Jill took her sons from her mother.

“
Let’s eat!” Delphie
said.

Everyone moved toward the dining room. Jill
stood next to Delphie.

“
Do
you
think there’ll be trouble
between Katy and Keenan?” Jill asked.

“
No,” Delphie said. “I
think everything is going to work out just fine.”

“
Me too,” Jill
said.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday — 10:32 P.M.

“
Hi,” Sandy said when Aden
came into their bedroom.

He gave her a partial smile before going
into their bathroom. He came out a few minutes later and went to
Rachel’s crib.

“
You can get her,” Sandy
said.

He looked at her.

“
She’s been taking
sleeping lessons from Katy.” Sandy smiled. “She’ll stay
asleep.”

“
Nice of Katy,” Aden said.
He leaned over the railing to pick up Rachel.

Sandy smiled.

“
How are you?” Sandy
asked.

“
Sore. Tired. Disgusted.”
Aden held Rachel near his face to smell her baby scent. She was
sound asleep.

“
How did it go today?”
Sandy asked.

He looked at her for a moment.

“
You can tell me.” Sandy
patted the bed next to her.

He gave a kind of nod and went around the
bed to his side. Still carrying Rachel, he got into bed.

“
She’s getting big,” Aden
said. “She looks like a real . . . kid, you
know?”

“
She’s not a newborn
preemie anymore,” Sandy said.

Aden nodded. They heard footsteps upstairs,
and Aden looked up.

“
Jake’s home too?” Sandy
asked.

“
He came home with me,”
Aden said. “I don’t know how he’s still standing. He says he’s been
awake for two days, but . . .
this . . . and . . .”

Sandy watched him for a moment.

“
How can people be so
selfish?” Aden asked. “We risked life and limb to save people.
We . . . and they . . .”

“
What’s happening?” Sandy
asked. “I thought the state cleared Lipson
Construction.”

“
The state and county,”
Aden said. “We had zero to do with the site when all this crap
happened, but of course, those
bastards . . .”

Rachel opened her eyes when Aden’s voice
became terse. She gave her father a little yawn before falling
asleep again.

“
She’s really beautiful,”
Aden said.

Sandy smiled and waited. Aden sighed.

“
The oil company is going
to investigate, and those bastards that took over from us are
paying for an ‘independent investigation,’ which only implies that
Jake and Sam paid the state and county.”

“
What does Jake say?”
Sandy asked.

“
He says not to worry
about it,” Aden said. “We’ll sort it out. We have enough on our
plate with the financial cut back
and . . .”

“
The state’s still not
giving you back the road contracts,” Sandy said.

“
Of course not,” Aden
said. “Everything that was true Thursday is true today. We’re all
broke, and these guys say it’s our fault the earthquake happened.
Makes me crazy.”

Sandy gave him a soft smile.

“
I don’t know, Sandy,”
Aden said. “Seems like doing the right thing only gets you into
trouble.”