Gold Hill (49 page)

Mack stopped short at the
end of the hallway, turned around, and ran back to them. Blane
leaned down and picked him up.

“
What were you looking
for?” Tink asked.

“
I feel kind of dumb now
that we’re here but . . . ” Heather
started.

“
We can adopt a child out
of foster care,” Blane said.

“
Why not get a baby?” Tink
shrugged. “That’s what everyone does.”

“
I’m having another,”
Heather put her hand on her belly.
“And . . . ”

“
It’s something we both
wanted,” Blane said. “We wanted to make a home for an older
kid.”

“
Specifically a teenager,”
Heather said.

“
I was on my own at that
age,” Blane said. “I know what it’s like. The office said we could
meet kids who were eligible for adoption and see if they might fit
into our family.”

Blane looked at
Heather.

“
We were so excited to be
approved, we wanted to get going right away,” he said. “But boy,
now that we’re here, it feels weird.”

“
Like the stock show?”
Tink asked. “Yeah, that’s how they are at the office. They show us
off like cattle to raise money. Don’t get me wrong, whatever works,
and showing us off seems to work, it’s
just . . . ”

“
Feels weird,” Heather
said. “We were going to cancel today, but Delphie told us we needed
to come
today
.
The guy’s not here and . . . Maybe we
should . . . ”

“
I can introduce you to
kids who are up for adoption,” Tink said.

“
You know who can be
adopted?” Blane asked.

“
We all know,” Tink said.
“Mostly because, well, most of us are. I mean, I am, but it’s not
likely that I would get adopted.”

Blane glanced at Heather.
She closed her eyes in a kind of nod.

“
Why?” Blane
asked.

“
I’m not super cutesy and
I have a lot of medical problems,” Tink said. “I still have
seizures from . . . well, I guess you know about all
of that. I’ve never done really well in school. And I need
counseling and stuff and . . . You know what? It’s
okay. I’m really glad to be here. I’m getting better and I’m going
to school and I have good friends like Sissy and Wanda
and . . . ”

“
Your parents terminated
their rights?” Blane asked.

Tink scowled to cover the
sorrow on her face. A fat tear dripped from her eye.

“
See,” she pointed to her
tears. “I’m a mental case.”

“
What happened?” Heather
asked.

“
They got another baby,”
Tink said. “Named her Tiffanie, like they’re redoing their mistake
– me.”

Heather hugged
Tink.

“
Oh great, you made it,” A
handsome young man said as he reached them. They turned toward
him.

“
I was just showing them
around,” Tink said.

“
That’s nice of you.” The
young man gave Tink the kind of saccharine smile some people dole
out to those they think are pathetic. She sneered at him. “I
arranged for . . . ”

“
I think we’re okay,”
Blane said. “Thank you though.”

“
What do you mean?” The
young man looked surprised. He gave Tink a hard look and she
shrugged.

“
We’ve figured out what we
want to do,” Blane smiled at Heather. “Haven’t we?”

“
I think so,” Heather
nodded.

“
What . . . ?” The young man gave Tink
another hard look.

“
Who would we have to
speak with to have a child spend the weekend with us?” Blane
asked.

“
Why . . .
uh . . . ” The young man looked
confused.

“
You’d talk to their
counselor,” Tink said. “Did you pick someone?”

“
We did,” Heather
said.

“
That blonde boy sitting
next to me at the computer lab?” Tink asked. “I figured he’d get
adopted right away.”

Heather shook her
head.

“
Who?” Tink
asked.

“
You,” Blane
said.

“
What do you mean?” Tink
asked.

“
We were wondering if
you’d like to come to live with us,” Heather said. “If it works out
for us and you’re happy, we could be a permanent family. I mean, we
have Mack and you know he can be a handful. I’m pregnant again so
we’ll have another baby in a little more than six months. And you
know that Blane is ill.”

“
You’d have to work and
help out at home,” Blane said. “But you would have your own room
and . . . ”

Blane looked at Heather and
she smiled.

“
What do you think?” Blane
asked.

“
But I have lots of
medical problems and . . .
and . . . ” Tink started. Her eyes welled with
tears. “Are you messing with me?”

Heather and Blane shook
their heads.

“
You’re sure?” Tink asked.
“Because I couldn’t really handle it if you were joking or
whatever.”

Heather and Blane
nodded.

“
Really, I don’t
think . . . ” the young man stepped in front of
Tink. “You need to think very carefully
before . . . ”

Heather stepped around
him.

“
Thank you for your
thoughts,” Blane shook the young man’s hand. He used his body to
effectively block the young man from their conversation.

“
I can call my counselor
right now,” Tink said. “He’s on call this weekend.”

Tink ran to the office.
Heather, Blane and the young man followed her. While they waited
for Tink’s counselor, they played with Mack and the young man
pretended he had set the whole thing up. The counselor helped them
fill out the paperwork, gave them Tink’s weekend medication, and in
what seemed like a blink of an eye, they were standing in the
parking lot.

“
You know what’s happening
tonight?” Heather asked.

“
Sissy said there’s some
kind of a wedding and a big party,” Tink blushed.

“
Would you be okay to go?”
Heather asked.

“
I don’t have anything to
wear,” Tink said. “Sissy gave me some of her old clothes but that’s
all I have.”

“
Why don’t you two go
shopping?” Blane asked. “I’ll take Mack and head to the
Castle.”

“
Jill’s on baby duty
because she can’t really do anything else,” Heather
said.

“
I could take care of the
babies,” Tink said.

“
No you can’t,” Blane
smiled.

“
Why? I like babies and
they like me.”

“
He means that you’re
coming with me to get some things to wear,” Heather
said.

“
Don’t forget the basics,”
Blane said to Heather. She nodded.

“
Really?” Tink
asked.

“
Really,” Blane said. “We
can’t say anything for sure, because we need to give everyone time
to see how it works, but how about if for today you think of us as
your parents? If it doesn’t work out, we were just your interim
parents like . . . aunts or uncles.”

“
Or Godparents,” Heather
said.

“
You’re sure?” Tink
asked.

“
We’re more than sure,”
Heather said. “Come on Tink.”

Blane and Heather hugged
goodbye. He got Mack situated in the back of his car and took
off.

Two hours after she and
Mack had arrived at the shelter, Heather was sitting in her Subaru
with her soon-to-maybe-be her very own teenage daughter. She knew
that Sandy had become a mom overnight, but she never thought she’d
be so lucky. Heather smiled and glanced at Tink.

“
What?” Tink
asked.

“
I’m happy we found you,”
Heather said. “Now do I call you Tiffanie? Or Tink?”

“
Tink. I like that
better.”

“
What will you do when
you’re forty?” Heather pointed to Tink’s seatbelt.

“
Well hopefully, I’ll be
married and have my own kids and they’ll just call me Mom,” Tink
pulled on her seat belt. “Maybe I’ll come here and find a kid who
needs a home too.”

“
I’m not forty,” Heather
said. “I’m not even thirty.”

“
You seem old,” Tink
said.

Heather laughed and started
the car.

~~~~~~~~

Friday afternoon — 6:25
p.m.

“
Sorry,” Sam said to Honey
as he came into her office. “I know it’s late. I was hoping you
could take a look at something.”

“
I was just about to head
home,” Honey said. “What’s going on?”

“
I’ll explain on the way,”
Sam said. “That is, if you don’t mind.”

“
I don’t mind at all,”
Honey said. “I didn’t drive though. MJ brought me. I was supposed
to call him when I was done here.”

“
Great,” Sam said. “We
don’t have to work out cars. You can just come with me.”

“
Sure Dad,” Honey said.
Sam seemed so worried and weird that Honey hurried. “See ya tonight
Bambi.”

Honey waved to her boss as
they passed her office.

“
Wouldn’t miss it for the
world,” Bambi nodded to Sam who waved.

Sam helped Honey into his
truck. He took her wheelchair, stuck it in the back and got in the
driver’s seat. They drove in silence for a while before Honey shook
her head and looked at him.

“
What’s going on?” Honey
asked.

“
What do you mean?” Sam
glanced at her.

“
You said you wanted me to
look at something,” Honey said. “I assumed we were going out to the
big site by DIA. I heard Rodney’s site managers are a little
restless.”

“
They’re worried,” Sam
said.

“
Worried?”

“
DeShawn? Do you know
him?” Sam asked.

“
I’ve met him at our Site
Manager assistant trainings, but I don’t know him well,” Honey
said. “Why? What’s wrong with him?”

“
He used to be a big drug
dealer on Capitol Hill,” Sam said.

“
Yeah, he worked Pearl
Street, I think,” Honey said. “Is he dealing again?”

“
No, of course not,” Sam
said. “At least I don’t think so. Do you?”

“
No,” Honey smiled. “You
were talking about the site and DeShawn.”

“
Oh right,” Sam smiled at
her. “DeShawn was pretty good at his business, I guess. Never got
caught.”

“
I thought he did jail
time,” Honey said. “Has a felony. We’ve had to do all this fancy
footwork to make sure he’s not around anyone else with a
felony.”

“
He turned himself in when
his ‘woman’ got pregnant,” Sam chuckled. “I can tell you Celia
would have had a fit if I called her my ‘woman.’”

“
Delphie too,” Honey
laughed.

Sam gave a mock shiver.
They drove in silence for a while.

“
What’s wrong with the big
site?” Honey asked.

Sam took the York off ramp
from I-70. He stopped at the light by the Purina Pet Food factory
and the car filled with the chalky odor of dog food.

“
Oh right,” Sam said. “I
was just imagining calling Delphie my ‘woman.’ Got distracted by my
own terror.”

Honey laughed.

“
DeShawn thinks there’s
something wrong,” Sam said. “Jason too.”

“
What’s got their backs
up?” Honey asked.

“
They’re not sure,” Sam
said. “Something about us leading the project for the other
contractors. They think we’re being set up ‘like
punks.’”

Sam said the last words in
an imitation of DeShawn. Honey laughed.

“
Why is being a punk a bad
thing?” Sam asked. “When Jake was a kid, he listened to that punk
rock music. He was a punk.”

“
In prison culture, it
means getting gang raped,” Honey said.

“
That doesn’t sound too
good.”

“
I thought Aden
said . . . ”

“
You know about that?” Sam
asked.

“
He talked to me about
it,” Honey said. “Since Bambi and I are moving out to the site in a
couple weeks, he thought we could keep an eye out. He thinks that
because we’re women, we might see something others
won’t.”

“
That’s what Rodney said
about DeShawn and Jason,” Sam said. “Sounds like we’re all on
edge.”

“
With good reason,” Honey
said.

Sam turned down Eighteenth
Avenue.

“
Are we going home?” Honey
asked.

“
Home?” Sam glanced at
her. “Yep, that’s where we’re going.”

“
What’s going on?” Honey
asked.

“
I know you know about the
‘celebration of love’, that’s what Delphie’s calling it, tonight,”
Sam said.

“
Rodney and Yvonne are
getting married again,” Honey said. “A vow they don’t have to
break.”