Page 23 of Breathless
“Olivia was right about you,” Hannah said. “You have a strong character. You’ll make a good social worker. I think you should come with me back to my office for the rest of the afternoon. Josie, go to the girls’ dorm and stay until evening meal. Roger can’t get at you there.”
“Okay, if you think that’s best,” Josie said. “Thank you again, Chaney.”
“You’re welcome.” Chaney followed Hannah to her office and sat before her desk. “Have I done something wrong?” she asked.
“Absolutely not. I’m sorry if I gave you that impression. I wanted to give you a place to collect yourself after that encounter with Roger,” Hannah said. “Do I need to call for Rawlins?”
“I’m okay,” Chaney assured her. “There’s no need to bother him, especially if he’s busy…”
“While I applaud you for what you did, I do want to caution you from making this a habit. You are only a volunteer here. Not a counselor, Chaney,” Hannah said. “Even our counselors try not to antagonize the teens by getting in their faces that way. They talk to them as Lydia had Tom do with Roger. And he provided Roger with another counseling session.”
“But did that work?” Chaney asked. “As soon as Roger had the opportunity, he was right back trying to get at Josie again.”
“I understand what you are saying,” Hannah replied. “Unfortunately, Roger has a temper. And even though he has been cautioned and we’ve warned him that he’ll have to leave if his behavior doesn’t improve, Josie begs us to be understanding with him. Believe me, we have tried. And if it wasn’t for the fact that I fear what might happen to him on the streets if we were to turn him away, I really don’t think we can continue to tolerate him under these conditions.”
Chaney nodded.
“He’s putting Josie as well as the other residents at risk.” Hannah looked down at her hands and took a deep breath. “In the six weeks he’s been with us, we’ve exhausted our resources. Before I came outside, I had just had a conversation with a director at another facility and I think I finally found him an all-male program that will work better for him. They can focus on cases like his where we can’t here.”
“That is wonderful,” Chaney said. “Maybe once he gets the help that he needs he can focus his time on finding a job that is right for him.”
Hannah nodded. “Jobs are hard to come by when you are homeless, even using the youth shelters address puts up a red flag with employers. They want to know why you are here and not with your parents. For Roger, that just sets him off when questioned.”
“It’s a downhill spiral. A losing battle,” Chaney guessed.
“Exactly.”
“Josie said she wants to study for the GED. What about Roger? Would that help him find a better paying job if he put his mind to it? Maybe even go to a community college to further his studies?”
“If he’d buckle down and work toward it,” Hannah said. “Our counselors have talked to him about it, but he isn’t interested. However, that could change once he goes to this other program.”
“What about focusing on skilled labor instead? Electrician? Plumber? Construction? The work force needs day labor as much as they need white collar workers. Perhaps that is where Roger would fit in better,” Chaney suggested.
“I’ll make a suggestion to Tom to bring that subject up to him and see if anything sparks an interest,” Hannah said. “Perhaps if he can focus on that when he goes to the other facility it will give him a good start.”
A knock at her door interrupted them, “Come in,” she called.
The door swung open, and Rawlins stepped inside. “Rawlins, what can I do for you?” Hannah asked.
“Sorry to intrude, but someone just told me that Chaney was in a confrontation with a resident,” he said, his features tight with concern.
“She was, but there is nothing to worry about. She held her own,” Hannah explained.
He knelt before Chaney. “What were you thinking?”
“That Roger was going to hurt Josie. You wouldn’t have stood for it and neither did I,” she said.
“But he could have hurt you,” he protested, his face flushed, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. “Really hurt you.”
Chaney heard the emotion in his words and saw the concern in his eyes. Despite his clear displeasure over what she’d done, she was thrilled. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t be acting this way. That meant he had to like her. He had to more than like her. He had to really like her.
Inside, her heart was doing flip flops at the prospect because she really liked him. Instead, she tried to keep her head about her and pointed out the obvious about what happened.
“Roger is all blow to someone who will stand up to him,” Chaney said. “He might hurt Josie because she cares about him and is afraid of losing him, but not me. I don’t give a fig about him, and he knows it.”
Rawlins chuckled at her response, then stood, and turned back to look at the director. “I received a text from Hank Patterson. The equipment he ordered has been shipped. It should be here in a few days as well as the guys who will be installing it. This is much sooner than originally anticipated.”
“That is wonderful,” Hannah said. “I can’t tell you how grateful the shelter board and I are that the Brotherhood Protectors have taken an interest in our group to provide us with a security system to keep our residents safe.”
