Page 46 of Revenge At Raleigh High
“Issues with authority.”
I smirk at that. I s’pose she’s right. She wanders through to the kitchen again, checking for the third fucking time that the stove actually ignites, and hot water comes out of the tap when she turns it on. “Not long now, anyway,” Maeve calls to me. “It’ll be your birthday soon, and I won’t have to pay you anymore of these visits.”
“Yeah. Right.” Don’t I fucking know it. My birthdayiscoming up soon. Five months and change. April twenty-seventh. That piece of shit, Gary Quincy, always used to tell me that they must have gotten my date of birth wrong by a month. He loved to sneer that I was the biggest April fool’s joke of all.
“I visited Ben last week,” she says, walking back into the living room. “He told me Jackie was taking him on vacation to Hawaii after Thanksgiving. That’ll be nice for him, don’t you think? She’s going to home-school him there until after Christmas. Can’t remember the last time I managed to get away.”
I just stare at her blankly. Jackie and I are hardly on great terms, but we do communicate from time to time about Ben’s well-being. She hasn’t mentioned that she’s planning on taking him to Hawaii. She sure as shit hasn’t told me she was taking him away for six fucking weeks. It’s supposed to be my year to take Ben on Christmas Day. Something sour and cold pinches in my chest.
“No fucking way.”
Maeve perches herself on the edge of the coffee table, sighing deeply. She was bright and sunny a second ago, telling me how great it is that Ben’s being taken away for the holidays, but now her mask has slipped, revealing the truth beneath it: she knew I was going to react badly to this news.
“Come on, Alex. You don’t need to cause a stink. Think of Ben. Six weeks in the sun, getting to play on the beach every day? Jackie said she’s signed him up for surfing lessons. Regular kids with regular families aren’t lucky enough to get a vacation like that these days. For a kid in foster care, it’s basically unheard of. Can you imagine any of your old foster-carers shelling out to treat you like that?”
“No,” I answer stiffly. “They were all too busy trying to burn me with their cigarettes.”
Maeve’s a good coordinator and she’s great at filing her paperwork. She’s not very good at the emotional side of her job, though. She gets uncomfortable when people like me tell her the raw, unadulterated, bare facts of life. If she could have it her way, she’d spend her days believing that kids placed in the care system are fussed and adored over like cute little puppies and nothing bad ever happens to them.
Idealists should never be placed in roles where society will probably let them down; eventually, Maeve will be so jaded by the things she sees and hears in this job of hers that she’ll probably end up moving to a cabin in the woods and she’ll forsake humanity altogether. Or it’ll all get to her so badly, she’ll end up snapping and killing someone.
She pulls on a tiny thread that’s worked free from the hem of her pencil skirt. “Look. Okay. Jackie asked me to tell you about Hawaii. I told her I thought it would be better if it came from her, but she was worried about you causing a scene when you take him out on Friday. She said in exchange for Christmas, you can have Ben for Easter.”
“I’ll already be Ben’s legal guardian by Easter. And fuck Easter, anyway. Why would she try and trade Christmas forEaster? Some bullshit religious holiday—”
“Christmasis a religious holiday.”
I give her an arctic look. “Don’t pull that shit. Christmas is about presents, candy and food to kids these days. It’s special. Easter’s just a week off in the middle of the fucking semester.”
Maeve splays her hands. She looks remorseful, but she isn’t going to do anything about the shitty situation. I already know what she’s going to tell me. I stare up at the popcorned ceiling while she spews out the usual bullshit lines. “Alex, you can accept this gracefully, or you can create problems. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you take it. Youareentitled to spend time with your brother, but when is entirely up to Jackie. She’s Ben’s legal guardian, and if she wants to take him on vacation for six weeks then there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop her. My recommendation?”
“Let me guess. Lie down like a little bitch and take it? Let Jackie walk all over me?”
Maeve is not impressed. “If you’re still dead set on trying to get custody of your brother, then let Jackie have this one. If you act like a mature adult instead of throwing a temper tantrum, then that can only reflect well on you when the time comes to present your case before the family law court.”
I glare at the side of her head. “Why do you people keep on saying shit like that?”
“Like what?”
“IfI’m still determined on taking Ben. There is no ‘if’here. It’s happening.”
Maeve takes a deep breath. She opens her mouth, about to say something, but then she stops herself short. Her words seem to have upped and left her. Her gaze dips, her eyes settling on the record player on the other side of the room. “All right, Alex. This is probably the dumbest thing I will ever do in my entire career, but you’ve convinced me. I’ll help you get your application together for custody of Ben. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure this works out for you.Ifyou don’t lose your mind over this Hawaii thing.”
I study her, searching for the lie. She’s not supposed to get involved with things like that. She’s certainly not supposed tohelpme. I can’t find the deception in her eyes, though. As far as I can see, she’s telling the truth. I may not like Maeve very much. I may not think she’s right for her job, but that doesn’t mean I don’trespecther. Like I said, she’s a great coordinator, and she can file a fucking form like no one else. She was the one who kept me out of prison after the whole Gary Quincy exhumation and subsequent desecration incident. If she says she’ll help me put together my case, then my chances of being awarded custody of Ben just went from thirty-five percent to a solid seventy. That’s a significant improvement in odds.
“Why? Why would you do that for me?”
Maeve shrugs halfheartedly, a weary look on her face. “Well. Youareturning eighteen soon. Once that birthday rolls around, everything changes, doesn’t it? You’ll be an adult. And I get the feeling you’re going to need the responsibility of looking after Ben to keep you on the straight and narrow.”
Even though she doesn’t say it, I hear what she’s really implying. She thinks the responsibility of looking after Ben will be the only thing that keeps me out of fucking prison.
I haven’t said shit to Maeve about Silver. A girlfriend might complicate things where CPS are concerned. But it isn’t just the prospect of taking care of Ben that’s keeping me on the straight and narrow now. I haveherto think about, too.
“I need to get moving,” Maeve says, picking up her purse from where she dumped it on the end of the couch when she arrived. She gets up slowly, heading for the door. “I’m supposed to file this paperwork by the end of the week.” She holds her clipboard, loaded with her secret forms, aloft in the air. “You know what would look really good on this form, though, Alex?”
“What?”
“A better address. With a separate bedroom for a little boy to sleep in every once in a while.”
