I nodded, but I didn’t hold out much hope. Then I thought of something else. “What about Ma?”
Donny’s gaze dropped away from me. “Yeah. That. I got a call yesterday that she’s well enough to leave the hospital today, so after I deal with Stubs, I’ll go see your mom and talk to her about taking the plea deal. Then I gotta get back to the city to focus on my paying clients.”
Something about how my uncle wouldn’t meet my eyes when he talked about Ma bothered me. “What?” I asked him. “What’s bugging you about Ma taking the plea deal?”
He picked up our dishes and carried them to the sink. “I want your ma to choose you, Maddie. I want her to finally find the strength to enter rehab and choose you over her addiction.”
I felt something fragile inside me crumble a little. “You don’t think she will.”
Donny stared out the small window over the sink. “She may not, kiddo. And if she doesn’t, then you and I are gonna have to have a serious talk about where you’re going to live. I haven’t pushed the subject as much as I could’ve in the past because I saw Cheryl’s deathdate on the drawing you made when you were little, and I’ve always known the both of you realize she doesn’t have a lot of time left, but, Maddie, enough is enough, and I’m not leaving you up here alone to fend for yourself.”
What Donny didn’t realize was that I’d pretty much been fending for myself ever since Dad died.
After school Donny called to say that he’d be home late, but he had two pieces of good news for me: Ma had agreed to enter rehab, and that day at noon Stubby had been released from jail.
I’d barely hung up with Donny before I was out the door and racing over to the Schroder’s. Panting hard, I rang the doorbell and bounced from foot to foot, so anxious to see Stubs that I could hardly stand it. “Maddie!” Mrs. Schroder exclaimed when she saw me. “Oh my, please come in!”
I entered and looked around the corner, expecting to see Stubby sitting on the couch, playing a video game on his Xbox. But the living room was empty.
“He’s upstairs,” his mom whispered. “He’s resting.”
“Resting?” Stubby never rested. He wore everybody else out.
Mrs. Schroder was smiling, but it was forced and her eyes were pinched with worry. “He’s been through a very difficult time, honey.”
“Can I see him?”
She looked up the stairs, as if she were wavering. “All right,” she finally said. “But, Maddie, you should know that Arnold isn’t quite himself. As I said, he had a terrible time in that prison.”
I promised I wouldn’t upset him, and hurried up the stairs. Stubby’s door was closed, so I knocked. There was no answer. I knocked again, and still nothing. “Stubs?” I said, knocking a third time and trying the handle. I opened the door a crack. “You in here?”
The room was silent, and I wondered if he had his earbuds in and couldn’t hear me, but as I took a peek into the room I found him lying on the bed facing away from me, and no sign of his iPod. “Stubs?”
“What, Maddie?”
His tone was flat and lifeless. If I’d heard him talk that way on the phone, I’d have no idea who it was. “I came over to say hi,” I said, unsure about going into his room.
“Okay. You said it.”
I stood there stunned and not sure what to say or do. For several seconds I simply looked at him, lying there but shutting me out. “I…I missed you.”
Stubby didn’t reply, but after a moment he rolled over to face me, and my breath caught. He had two black eyes, and his nose was so swollen it didn’t even look real. Also, the fingers poking out of his cast were purple with bruises.
“Oh, God!” I gasped. “Stubs…”
“I’m tired,” he said, his tone still lifeless.
I felt tears sting my eyes, and I blinked furiously to keep them at bay. “Yeah. Okay. I heard you got out, and I—”
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said, rolling over again—away from me.
I nodded even though I knew he couldn’t see me. Still, I wanted to try to break through to him…to show him that we were still best friends. “I’ll pick you up for school tomorrow,” I said, then hesitated to see if he’d reply. When he didn’t, I backed out of the room and shut the door quietly.
Mrs. Schroder met me at the bottom of the stairs. Wringing her hands she said, “Did he talk to you?”
I was too choked up to speak, so I simply shook my head and prayed she’d let me go before I lost it.
Her own eyes misted. “Oh. All right, Maddie. Maybe he’ll be better tomorrow.”
I swallowed hard, nodded, and hurried to the door.
The next morning I set out early to pick Stubs up for school. When I arrived at his house, however, his mother answered the door and said, “I’m sorry, Maddie, but Arnold isn’t up for going back to school quite yet.”
“Oh,” I said, taken aback and wishing I could talk to him again, but Mrs. Schroder was standing protectively in the doorway like she was guarding Stubby from the whole world—even me. “Maybe Monday?”
“Of course, honey, but call first, okay?” And then she shut the door in my face. I was pretty stunned to be staring so abruptly at the closed door, and it took me a second to let it go as nothing more than Mrs. Schroder being overly protective. As I got on my bike and wheeled it out to the street, I happened to pass the Schroder’s trash can, set out for garbage pickup. Sticking out of the top was Stubby’s prized skateboard.
I paused to stare at it, and then I turned and looked up toward Stubby’s window. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw a flicker of movement behind the curtain. With a heavy heart, I headed off to school.
I tried calling Stubs after school, but his phone went straight to voice mail, and then I remembered that Faraday and Wallace had confiscated my old phone and hadn’t given it back yet—maybe they still had Stubby’s phone, too.