Entertaining Angels (16 page)

Danny carried a birdcage made out of wire coat hangers and adorned with a fake canary, artificial red flowers, and greenery. “I thought you might want to hang this up someplace. The bird is fake, but it’s kind of pretty.”

It wasn’t something she would have picked out if she had a choice, but she’d find someplace for it.

Tommy lifted a silver statuette of a soldier aiming a rifle. “Cool, huh?”

Renee scrunched her face. “I guess so, if you like G.I. Joe.”

He pushed his glasses back along the bridge of his nose and studied the figurine. “What’s wrong with it?” he asked.

If she had a real house, she might use it as a doorstop. “I guess a boy would think it was neat.”

“I told you she would have liked that picture of cupid better,” Danny said.

Kristy gave all the items a once-over. “Where’d you guys get this stuff? I don’t want anyone getting mad at you for taking it.”

“It’s just junk no one wants. We found some of it in our attics, but the army man was in my garage. My mom only keeps stuff she wants inside the house. I think she was planning to give that to the Salvation Army.” Tommy brightened. “Hey, that’s kind of funny.”

“What is?”

“You know, a metal soldier going to the Salvation Army?” He laughed, but no one else did.

Jason held another clock. It was kind of big, and bulky, but it had pretty gold trim. Renee wondered if it was an antique.

“Are you sure that’s just stuff no one wants?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I found it in the junk room in our house. It’s usually all closed up, except the door was open this morning, so I went inside and looked to see if there was anything you could use. And I found this. I think it even works, but it probably needs batteries.”

Renee took a better look at the clock. It had a little wind-up thingy, which was good since she didn’t have electricity. So she gave it a try, and sure enough, it started ticking. “Cool. It does work. Thanks.”

The clock was definitely going to go to the new place, when she got one.

She glanced at the younger boy. “Hey, aren’t you going to get in trouble for being out here again?”

“Nope. I’m staying with Danny till my mom gets back from getting her car at the car place, and he’s being babysat by Walter, who said I could come on the Bushman Trail. So if she gets mad, she’ll have to get mad at a grownup.”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “Walter’s cool. He’s kind of old, and you’d think that he probably forgot what it was like to be a kid. But he still remembers lots of neat stuff he used to do when he was a boy. And he thinks the canyon is a good place for us to play.”

As Renee started up the tree with a handful of stuff, her sandal slipped off the step. She lost both her grip on the
wooden frame and her balance, then fell to the ground, landing on her butt with a thump.

Her eyes widened, and her hands immediately went to her stomach. She hoped she didn’t hurt something—or jar the baby loose.

“Are you okay?” Tommy asked.

“I hope so.” She was planning to go to the clinic at the end of the week or after she got a job, but maybe she’d better go sooner. Some girls her age might be happy to have something go wrong and miscarry, but Renee wasn’t like the others. She’d grown to love her baby, even if it looked like some kind of alien right now. She’d even begun to think of it as the little girl Jesse had said she was having.

But that probably wasn’t too smart of her. The baby could be a boy.

Dang, her butt hurt. Her stomach, too.

She must have been wincing because Danny asked, “Are you
sure
you’re all right?”

“Yeah, I think so.” She got up and brushed herself off. Then her stomach cramped when she bent to pick up the birdcage she’d dropped in the dirt, and she winced.

“You landed pretty hard,” Tommy said. “And you’re walking kind of funny. Maybe you broke your back or something.”

“I’d still be on the ground if that happened. But I am worried that I might have hurt …”

“Hurt what?”

Aw, man. She really couldn’t tell them. What if they didn’t keep her secret?

But the weird thing was, these guys had kind of become friends—her only friends in Fairbrook. And they’d been nice to her.

Besides, she still had that fake ID in case anyone wanted to know if she was really twenty-one.

“Come into the tree house,” she told them. “I want to tell you guys something. But you have to swear on a hundred Bibles not to tell anyone.”

She started up the laddered steps—more carefully this time because her dumb shoes were so loose—and the boys followed her. Once they were all inside, they sat cross-legged, facing each other.

“What’s the big secret?” Danny asked.

Renee rested her hands on her knees. “I’m pregnant.”

“What’s that?” Jason asked.

“It means she’s going to have a baby,” Tommy told him.

The smaller boy looked at her stomach. In fact, they were all looking at her stomach.

She placed her hands over the bulge, allowing them to see the bump where her baby was growing.

“Does the baby have a daddy?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, but the baby will never know who he is.”

Jason studied his lap and grew pensive.

Danny elbowed him. “Hey, don’t feel bad about that, Jason. I know who my dad is, and it’s not that big of a deal.” Danny looked at Renee. “His mom doesn’t know who his dad is, and he gets sad about that sometimes. But my dad is in prison for getting in a fight with a guy who died. So having a father isn’t always that great.”

Renee reached over and patted Jason on the knee. “Hey, my dad hasn’t been in my life for almost as long as I can remember. And the way I see it, sometimes having a dad can be more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said. “And some kids get stuck with two of them, which is really weird.”

“How’d you get two dads?” she asked.

Tommy adjusted his glasses again, something that seemed to be a habit. “My first dad picked another family over mine, so he and my mom got divorced. And then she got married to Mac.”

“Yeah, but your dad buys you a lot of neat stuff because he feels so crappy about leaving. And Mac is really cool.” Danny turned to Kristy. “His stepdad is a detective, and he’s got a gun and a badge and everything.”

Whoa. She hadn’t realized Tommy’s stepfather was a cop. That could be a problem, especially if there was a law against people living in trees. And even if there wasn’t, what if he asked her age, then checked out her ID? It was a good fake, but it might not be good enough to fool a detective.

She was suddenly sorry she told the boys her secret, but it was too late now.

“That’s kind of neat that you’re having a baby,” Tommy said.

Renee looked at the boys, all listening intently and staring at her like she was one cool kid, when she was really scared and dumb and not at all sure where to turn.

All she’d ever wanted to be was
somebody
and to belong somewhere. And here she was—almost sixteen years old, a high school dropout by default, and living in a tree.

“Don’t worry about us telling,” Danny said. “You’re our secret. Right guys?”

They all nodded.

“Well, I’ve got another problem,” she said. “I need to find a job, and no one seems to be hiring right now. They keep telling me to check back in the summer, but I can’t wait that long.”

The baby was coming in July, as best as she could guess. And even with the rent only costing a dollar-fifty each day, she’d probably be out of money by then. And she’d still be living in a tree. What kind of mother brought her baby home to live in a tree?

“Barbara isn’t going to work for us anymore,” Jason said, “and my mom needs someone really bad.”

Renee perked up. She could clean house or iron or something. “What kind of work did Barbara do?”

“She babysits me and looks out for my grandmother.”

“What’s wrong with your grandmother?” she asked, thinking maybe she was going a little goofy, like some of the old people who’d lived at the Regal Arms Apartments.

“She can’t walk,” Jason said, “so she’s stuck in bed unless
someone puts her in the wheelchair and takes her in the living room. But she kind of likes staying in her room.”

“It’s hard work,” Danny said, “‘cause his grandma needs help to go to the bathroom. I wouldn’t want to have a job like that.”

“And she gets cranky sometimes,” Jason added.

Right now, Renee was desperate. Besides, she was used to people being mean, especially old people. “Well, I’m definitely interested, Jason. So tell your mom that you know someone who would like to apply for the job.”

“Okay.” He brightened. “It’d be cool to have you as a babysitter, Renee.”

Before she could respond, a woman’s voice shouted into the canyon. “Jason! Jason!”

“Uh-oh. I’d better go.”

The boys got up to leave, and Renee watched them go, hoping she hadn’t made a big mistake in sharing too much personal information with them. She’d never actually admitted to them that she was living in the tree and not just using it sometimes. But she figured they had to know.

“Don’t forget to tell your mom that I’d like the job,” she called out to Jason.

“I won’t!” he said, before scampering off.

Kristy stood at edge of the canyon, hands on her hips. She didn’t care that Walter Kleinfelter told the boys it was okay to play on the Bushman Trail. Jason knew she didn’t approve, and he should have spoken up.

She was going to have to chat with him about this as soon as they got home.

“Here, I am!” Jason called out, the other boys trailing behind him.

Maria, Danny’s mother, thought the canyon was pretty safe. But Kristy worried about Jason something fierce. He was only six, and the other boys were much older. Maybe when he was their age, she wouldn’t be so fussy. And then, maybe she would.

There were probably snakes in the brush, not to mention that this world just wasn’t as safe as it had been when she was a kid.

As the boys approached, she assumed her best stern expression. “I’ve told all of you that I don’t like Jason down in the canyon.”

“Yeah, but Walter said—”

“I don’t care what he said. You should have told him that Jason isn’t allowed down there. He would have respected my wishes.” At least, she hoped he would have.

She placed her hand on Jason’s shoulder, then guided him toward the house.

“Hey, Mom,” he said. “I forgot to tell you, but I know a nice lady who needs work. And she’d make a cool babysitter. I think Gram would like her, too.”

Kristy’s steps froze. “You met her in the canyon?”

Jason’s eyes widened, and he seemed to consider either her question or his response. “No. I met her the other day.”

“Where?”

“She was … She was coming out of her house.”

“Is she one of our neighbors?”

“Yeah, she lives pretty close.”

At least that was convenient. “I’d like to talk to her. Why don’t you point out her house, and I’ll go to see her.”

“I… uh … can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because he doesn’t remember exactly where she lives,” Danny interjected. “But I do. How about I go and tell her you want to talk to her about a job, and then she can come to your house and talk to you.”

“Well, that would be better for me. Thanks, Danny. I’d appreciate that. I have to work this afternoon, but if she has time to talk to me this morning—”

“I’m sure she does.” The bigger boy took off like a shot, taking the path down to the canyon.

“Where’s he going?” she asked Tommy.

“To the lady’s house. She lives kind of by the park, and he’s taking a shortcut through the Bushman Trail.”

Twenty minutes later, while Kristy was doing the dishes and Jason was hanging out in the living room, peering out the window and waiting for the lady to show up, the doorbell rang.

“She’s here, Mom!”

Kristy dried her hands on the dish towel, then strode into the living room, where Jason had already let the “lady” inside. She studied the young blond teenager with long, stringy hair.

“Hi,” the girl said. “I’m Renee.”

Was she the one Jesse had mentioned?

Kristy introduced herself and reached out a hand in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Renee tucked a stringy piece of hair behind her ear and smiled. “Danny said that you needed a babysitter.”

“Actually, I need a nurse, too.”

Her expression drooped. “Well, I don’t have that kind of experience, but I can cook and clean. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes. Except maybe give shots or something.”

“How old are you?” Kristy asked.

“Twenty-one.” The girl, who was wearing a pale pink sweat shirt and a pair of jeans, reached into her pocket. “I’ve got an ID, if you want to see it.”

Kristy was used to carding people at Paddy’s, not when it came to hiring someone, but she found it hard to believe that Renee was that old. She glanced at the ID, saw the photo. But she didn’t study it too long.

“I’ve got references, too,” the girl added.

“Where did you work last?”

“Actually, I’ve been volunteering my time at the soup kitchen with Dawn Randolph and her husband, Joe. I’ve also worked with Pastor Craig. I don’t know if you know him or not, since he’s kind of new.”

“Actually, I
do
know him.”

Renee smiled, her blue eyes glimmering with hope. “I’ve
been helping out at the church in my free time, but I really need a job that pays. So maybe I could work for you for minimum wage or whatever to start. And then, if you like me, you could pay me more.”

Well, she was definitely cheaper than Barbara. And if she was volunteering down at the church, that was a good sign. Kristy didn’t know Dawn Randolph, but she would talk to Pastor Craig, of course. But without a dependable and responsible sitter and caretaker, she wouldn’t be able to work, and even though she’d found the money, it wouldn’t last long. So she was a bit more desperate than she wanted to be.

“I’ll tell you what,” Kristy said. “If you’re available on Friday night, I’ll try you out. And we’ll take it from there.”

“Cool.” Renee brightened. “What time do you want me?”

Mrs. Delacourt had said dinner was at six. So Kristy figured she’d want Renee here a lot sooner than that so she could show her around and get to know her better. “How about five o’clock?”