Page 15 of Families and Other Enemies

CHAPTER SEVEN

ANHOURLATER, the prep kitchen was empty except for Ralph and Sophia, and Kellen, who used a scrub brush under her fingernails, trying to get the smell of onions off. “How did the odor permeate the gloves?” she asked aloud.

“I know.” Sophia wrinkled her nose. “I like soup, but I don’t know if I want minestrone for a while.” She added hastily, “Not that I’m complaining!”

Ralph nodded. From all that Kellen had seen, he was a serious man, not given to smiles or words, but he did lift a brown paper bag and say, “Bridget gave us dinner, so we won’t starve. Not tonight, anyway.”

That was a somber reminder of the hardships Sophia faced.

Ralph and Sophia stood waiting for Kellen, so she put down the brush, dried her hands and walked with them toward the street.

“Good night, Mrs. Soderquist,” Ralph called as they passed her office.

“Good night, Ralph, Sophia, Kellen,” Bridget called. “Take care out there.”

“Always,” Ralph answered.

As they stepped out into the late-summer afternoon, cool gray clouds rolled in off the ocean, and the light had a pale misty tint.

Sophia’s shoulders slumped and she looked down at her feet. The kid was scared.

As she should be. Kellen remembered the fear that homelessness had brought. It had accompanied her every step, made her view every person as a potential threat. A pair of scissors became her best friend. A handout was something to be guarded. She had choices now, but even so, the old habits kept her wary and watchful.

They made their way into the alley. Ralph returned greetings from the other homeless, and they continued back to Ralph’s cardboard box. He crawled inside, dragged out a grubby old bathroom rug and a torn sleeping bag. He placed them like welcome mats, opened the paper sack and put out the roll of crackers, three small cans of tuna, two overripe pears, a carton of wildly colored cherry tomatoes and a wrapped set of plastic utensils. He then gestured to Sophia and Kellen to sit.

One of the men, skinny and dirty, shambled past and asked, “Man, can you...?”

Without hesitation, Ralph gave him a can of tuna and a pear. He watched as the guy walked on, around the corner and down the street.

Sophia, who had been viewing the cans of tuna eagerly, said, “But—”

Ralph said, “He should be on meds. Goes weeks without eating because he thinks someone is trying to poison him. This has been a good week—he’s come by for food every day. Don’t worry.” He pushed the cans of tuna toward her and Kellen. “You can have them.”

Sophia popped the top on one can; the smell of tuna rose to scent the air. “In my family, it’s all for one and one for all.” She handed him the tin and a plastic fork. “We’ll share.”

Kellen and Ralph looked at each other. Damn, she was a good kid, and she deserved better than this.

As they ate, a woman who looked too old for her years came by, and soon they were down to one can of tuna, a few crackers, a pear and some tomatoes. They finished dinner—it didn’t take long—and Sophia asked, “Now what do we do?”

“Usually we try to get some sleep while it’s still light,” Ralph said. “It’s safer than sleeping at night.”

Sophia’s bright eyes widened. “But I’m not sleepy!”

“Of course you’re not.” Kellen was pooped after working all day in the prep kitchen, but she wasn’t sixteen years old with limitless energy.

“I wish I’d brought my book.” Sophia lifted her knee and leaned her elbow on it. “I left home too fast. My mom is probably going to find it and flush it. She always does that when she sees me reading. The librarian is good about helping me get really old books that don’t need to be returned, but she gets mad about the flushing. She wanted to talk to my mom, but I told her no. My mom would beat her up.” She lightly touched a yellowing bruise on her jaw.

At that moment, Kellen resolved to stop whining about her relationship with Aunt Cora. Things could be so much worse.

“What is it about some people? Why do they have kids? It’s not like the olden days when women had no choice. Take my mom. She didn’t have to marry my dad. She didn’t have to have us. She could have slept around with no responsibility. Why didn’t she?”

Kellen looked at Ralph. Did he have an answer? Because she sure didn’t. It was something she’d wondered herself about some parents.

Then she thought about Rae, about her own daughter. “I guess sometimes mothers are selfish.”

“Be selfish before you have kids!” For Sophia, it was so simple. “My mom got us kids, one right after another, three of us. My dad, he was there. He helped. Maybe they made a mistake the first time, with me. But why didn’t they know after one that they didn’t want the other two? They’ve got a family. That was their choice.”

Ralph made a grumbling noise, as if he had indigestion.

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