Custody of the State (8 page)

Mary Sue hesitated, and she pursed her lips as she struggled with her decision.

“My brother Tommy is a good man—he's not a Christian, he follows the old Lakota religion—but he is a trustworthy man. I will pledge my life on that,” Andrew said. “And I think you will like Katherine—and Danny too. But it's your decision.”

Mary Sue finally agreed to go with them, though she still felt a healthy measure of caution.

They took Andrew to the motel across from the airport in Atlanta. He was scheduled to fly to Minneapolis the next day—he had left his car there after attending an educational conference. Since he was still on sabbatical from his small college in New Mexico, he planned on driving from Minneapolis to Tommy's place in South Dakota, where he would visit for a few weeks.

On the way to the airport, Andrew probed the background of Mary Sue's problems with Social Services. He listened intently, asking pointed questions that Mary Sue was quick to answer.

Suddenly Andrew remarked, “I heard on the radio, just before we saw your truck, that a farmer from some city—a city with an ancient-sounding name…oh, what was it—Delphi, that's it. The man was arrested for child abuse.”

“Delphi?” Mary Sue said, her voice rising.

Andrew nodded quickly. “They said they were looking for the mother and a child.”

“That's Joe. Father in heaven, they've arrested him,” Mary Sue said, her eyes closed and her voice trembling.

Andrew suggested that perhaps he could give some encouragement to her husband. Perhaps he could visit Joe in jail—rent a car and drive over to Delphi—before his flight left.

Mary Sue approved—and asked Andrew to make sure to tell Joe that Joshua was fine, that she was in good spirits, and that she loved him. Then they dropped off Andrew at the Airliner Motel.

The drive to South Dakota was tense at first. Mary Sue tried to engage the group in conversation, as Joshua dozed off and on in his car seat. Gradually, after a few hours, she started feeling more at ease.

She learned that Andrew and Tommy and their sister, Katherine—a midwife with some nursing training—had come to Georgia to secure custody of Danny. Many years before, Danny had suffered a head injury on a construction site and had been left mildly brain-damaged. But for reasons that were too complicated for Mary Sue to understand, Andrew and Tommy had had to wage a several-year administrative battle to gain Danny's release from the state institution and into their care.

Because of their mutual nursing interests, Mary Sue was quick to relate to Katherine, whose warm, quiet voice and round pleasant face were set off by an infectious smile.

On the other hand, Tommy seemed angry—and he was fiercely protective of the political rights of his tribe and of the Native American religion that he practiced.

During the long ride to South Dakota, Tommy vented his anger in long diatribes about—among other things—General Custer, the breaking of treaties by the American government, the squalor on American reservations, discrimination against Indians in American movies, the failure of American Indians to coalesce into a strong political force, the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and the uprising by Indian activists at that same site in 1973, and finally, his distrust of white police officers.

Mary Sue concluded that it was this last grievance that must have motivated him to help out an unknown woman and her sick child.

On the other hand, she found Danny to be a delightful person. His relaxed, smiling demeanor was a welcome contrast to Tommy's angry political speeches. Danny was fond of reading the highway signs, reciting them with glee. He also had a remarkable knack of hearing an advertising jingle on the radio only once and then repeating it in toto, complete with mimicked
intonation—sometimes even songs. Clutching a crystal-blue yoyo in his hand—which he played with expertly—he kept Joshua entertained for hours in the back seat of the Suburban.

That trip to South Dakota now seemed, not days, but years away. They had arrived at the ranch, and it hadn't taken Mary Sue and Joshua long to settle in.

Tommy's ranch consisted of several acres of horse enclosures and a few houses. The main lodge housed Tommy, his sister, Katherine, and her husband. There were two other smaller cabins fifty yards down the road. One was a guest cabin left open for visitors—mostly relatives of theirs. The other was Andrew's when he came to stay for a few weeks at a time.

The lodge and the two small cabins had been built by Andrew and Tommy by hand—fashioned from split logs that had been cleanly cut and varnished. The houses were on high ground, up from the floor of the canyons near them, so that during the occasional torrential rainstorms they were never in danger of being flooded.

Today, Mary Sue and Joshua were walking through the canyons.

As they strolled, Mary Sue mused on how she and Joshua had come to be there—and why. And she also thought about Joe, locked in a jail cell, alone and separated from her. When she thought of that, she had to struggle not to cry.

The October air had turned chilly, and Mary Sue closed up the neck of the thick red blanket jacket that she had been given by Katherine. Mary Sue's attachment to her had grown quickly. She loved her Indian name, “Walking Song,” and she had, in just a few days, learned much about life on the reservation from her.

Mary Sue had even learned a few words in the Lakota tongue. The family, she was told, was of the Sioux
tunwan
—“nation.”
Within that group, they were also of the
oyate,
or tribe, of the Lakota. And within that, they were also of the Oglala “band,” or
tiyospaye.

As she walked with Joshua, she stopped and pulled the strings tight on the hood of his snow jacket. The little coat was vinyl, with a torn sleeve and an elbow mended with a brown leather patch. Katherine had donated that too.

Mary Sue glanced at her watch. In a few minutes she would meet Katherine, who would drive her to the pay phone five miles down the highway next to a gas station. She wanted to call Will Chambers' office and check in with him. She knew there was a chance that Will might not have returned from Delphi yet, where he was going to interview Joe in jail. But she had to call. She needed the reassurance of being in touch, perhaps being able to find out even the smallest morsel of information about the criminal charges that had been filed against her and her husband.

Joshua was holding Mary Sue's hand and trying to kick the stones that littered the canyon with his small feet. He was even breaking into an occasional silly rhyming song. Mary Sue was happy because he'd gone an entire day without throwing up after eating. Yet she knew she would soon have to get him to a doctor and pursue a diagnosis for his mysterious medical condition.

But at that moment it was enough that she was safely out of reach of the authorities, that her little boy was happy, and that the two of them were hidden within the canyons of the Badlands.

Mary Sue and Joshua went back to the small guest cabin after their walk. She had given Joshua a very light breakfast, which he had been able to keep down. She thought she would wait to feed him lunch until after their trip to the phone booth.

After they'd waited only a few minutes, Katherine pulled up in her station wagon. They strapped Joshua into the car seat and headed down the long road that led to the highway. Katherine
smiled at Mary Sue, but said little on the drive to the phone booth.

Deep in thought, Mary Sue was wondering what news Will Chambers' office might have. They pulled up to the phone booth, which stood alone along the highway at the corner of a small gas station with a lone pump. Next door was a small grocery store. Katherine pulled the car off the highway and parked in front of the gas station.

She turned to Mary Sue. “You make your phone call. Joshua and I will stay here in the car. I want to work on the new clapping game I've been teaching him.”

With that, Joshua started clapping his hands furiously from the back seat and giggling. Mary Sue got out and walked over toward the phone booth, looking down the highway in both directions. No signs of traffic in either direction. She paused to feel the crisp breeze against her face and gazed out to the stark, rolling brown hills that stretched out to the horizon, broken only by a few pockets of dead vegetation and scrub.

After dialing Will Chambers' number, she heard Hilda's voice. Hilda explained that Will had not yet returned from Georgia where he was working on her case. She connected Mary Sue to the office of Jacki Johnson.

“Mary Sue, I am one of the other attorneys in Will's office,” Jacki explained. “He has told me a little bit about your case. He was planning on talking to the prosecuting attorney after he talked to your husband. But he hasn't returned yet, though he did call back once to brief me on the case.”

“Did Mr. Chambers tell you how Joe is doing?” Mary Sue asked.

“His spirits are high. He says he wants to fight this all the way—that he'd rather rot in jail then confess to something he didn't do, particularly when it comes to little Joshua.”

“That's just like Joe,” Mary Sue noted.

“There is one little technical glitch,” Jacki went on.

“Glitch? What's the problem?” Mary Sue said, suddenly tense.

“Will decided that he can't represent both you and Joe at the same time. It presents a potential conflict of interest—and with everything else going on in your case, you don't want to invite that kind of problem. So Will decided that he is going to represent only you, and Joe is going to get his own lawyer.”

“Oh—I don't feel good about that,” Mary Sue responded. “Joe and I are together on this. I don't like being split up.”

“I'm sure it won't be a problem. Will is used to working with other attorneys on a team basis. I'm sure he will help Joe get good local counsel—someone he can work with while still officially representing you.”

“Has Mr. Chambers gotten to the bottom of this—why they are making such a crazy allegation against me? Saying that I am actually poisoning my son? Where are these lies coming from?”

“He's not sure yet,” Jacki said. “As he works further on the case he'll get discovery from the prosecutor. I'm sure those questions will be answered at that time.”

“And what about the court appearance later today?”

“Joe has his bail hearing this afternoon—possibly with his new attorney, whoever that happens to be. And at the same time, Will plans on entering an appearance in your case.”

After a pause, Jacki added, “You know, Mary Sue, you are going to have to tell us where you are. And eventually you will have to give yourself up. The law is going to require it. I'm sure Will has talked to you about that—and if he hasn't, he probably will.”

There was silence for a moment. “Miss Johnson?”

“Yes?”

“Are you married?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Have you ever been a mother?”

“No, not yet. But I do look forward to that. Howard, my husband, and I would like to have a baby. Why?”

“Just wondering,” Mary Sue said, looking over at the station wagon where Katherine was playing a patty-cake game with Joshua.

Then she continued. “Talk to me about turning my child over to Social Services when you've carried a baby under your heart for nine months. When you see him born—and nurse him when he's got a temperature of a hundred and three. When you're the last thing he sees at night and the first thing in the morning. After you hold your child when he is scared and kiss his tears away—then come to me. Then talk to me about what the law requires, Miss Johnson.”

11

W
ILL WAS SITTING
in the attorney's bench in a Delphi courtroom—that of Judge Wilbur Mason. At the front, the bailiff was chatting with another court worker. Except for a couple in the back, no one else was in the room.

After glancing at his watch, Will looked around the courtroom. In the back row there was a blond woman in her forties, well-dressed, who looked mildly familiar. Next to her was a younger man in a denim shirt, with hair that had an orangish tint to it. He had an MTV look about him.

It was now 1:15
P.M
. The hearing in Mary Sue's case had been scheduled to start at 1:00.