It was Allie’s first Saturday at New Beginnings, about four days later, when she walked into her shared bedroom to find Brick lying on her back on the bed counting money. More money than it looked like a girl in this place should be able to have. Twenties. Allie couldn’t see exactly how many. At least five or six.
Brick looked up into Allie’s face and smiled an unsettling smile. Allie said nothing. Brick began to hum a vaguely familiar tune. Some ancient song from long before the turn of a couple of centuries. One of those tunes everybody more or less knows whether they were alive back then or not.
Allie sat briefly on her bed, hoping the humming would end soon. She hated any kind of distraction like that. Humming, singing. Foot tapping. She couldn’t remain in her own head, her own thoughts, and block out other stimuli.
A twitchy moment or two later she got up and left the room to shake the annoyance. Just as she was moving down the hall she realized what the tune was. That old song about being in the money again, after the Great Depression.
Allie trotted downstairs, thinking it would be nice to sit out in the sun in the backyard.
It was a sprawling, messy patch of yard, a mix of concrete and chin-high weeds. Allie whacked through the weeds with the backs of her hands, looking for a suitable spot to sit. When she found a small clearing, it was already occupied. Jasmine was there, hugging her drawn-up knees and smoking a cigarette. The tips of her long, straight hair touched the dirt.
“Shh,” Jasmine said, drawing out the sound. She held one finger to her lips. “Don’t tell on me.”
Smoking was one of the transgressions that could get a girl ejected from New Beginnings. One of many.
“I won’t,” Allie said.
Without even asking first, she sat cross-legged in Jasmine’s tiny clearing. Because if she had asked permission she might not have gotten it. Allie missed having friends, such as they were. Having anyone. Not being the only person on her lonely, solitary planet. She wished she could call Angie. But she had no money and no phone. Besides, Angie’s cell phone number was on Allie’s phone, at home. She didn’t know it by heart.
Jasmine did not seem to object.
“I’m really not a person who tells on other people,” Allie said. “I mean, especially if it’s none of my business like this. I only said that because . . . well, I didn’t know what to say. Somebody takes your things like that and asks what you’re going to do about it. And there’s not a damn thing you can do, but you don’t want to say that . . .”
“The less you say to Brick the better.”
“Other than you, she’s the only one here who even talks to me.”
“Don’t take it personally. It’s just that they don’t want to get on the wrong side of her. They’re mostly okay, the girls here. With maybe one or two exceptions. But nobody wants trouble, you know? So they just keep their heads down. They don’t want to seem like they’re taking sides.”
“I guess.” Allie wondered what she would do in their situation. Would she stand up for the embattled girl? She hoped so. “You didn’t just keep your head down.”
“Ah,” Jasmine said, and flicked her ashes off into the weeds. “I won’t be here much longer. I’m about to take off again.”
“You mean . . .”
“Do I mean what?”
“Never mind. None of my business.”
“Yes. The answer is yes. I mean take off. As in, without official permission.”
“And go where?”
“I have a boyfriend.”
“Then why even be here to begin with?”
“Well, you know. I’m sixteen. I’m not supposed to be living with him. If I get in trouble I’m back on the radar and then I end up here. If I can lay low I can be there. Just depends on how things go.”
Allie listened to the silence for a moment and nursed her disappointment.
“Too bad,” she said. “One girl in the whole place who talks to me . . . and isn’t crazy . . . and you’re leaving.”
“Come with me.”
It was a statement so out of place that Allie actually backed up some. As much as possible while sitting cross-legged. Her upper body leaned back, in any case.
“You don’t even know me.”
“You seem okay.”
“I’m sure your boyfriend would be thrilled if you brought a stranger back with you.”
“He’d be totally fine with it. But it’s okay. I get it. You think you have a better chance here. I used to be like you. Just be careful. This feud you have going with Brick could cost you.”
“It’s not a feud. I think we found a way to keep out of each other’s faces.”
“So you’re not pissed that she sold your suitcases?”
Allie opened her mouth. Nothing came out but an embarrassing sputter.
Allie pushed open the door to her shared room and found it unoccupied. No Brick. She stood a few moments, breathing deeply. Breathing out more fear than she’d known she was holding.
She crossed over to her bed, dropped to her knees, and looked underneath. She was not surprised to see nothing there.
She found The Elf in her office. An office of sorts, anyway. At one time it had apparently been a small den, but now housed a huge, cheap-looking desk overflowing with papers and files.
Utter chaos, Allie thought. How can people work in such chaos?
The Elf was staring at an old computer monitor. Close up, as though her eyes were bad.
No wonder she misses so much of what goes on around here.
“What can I do for you, Alberta?” The Elf asked, the first sign that she had noticed the presence of someone in the room.
“I have a problem.”
“Take a seat, then.”
Allie did. And waited. For a bizarre length of time. Long enough that she began to wonder what she was waiting for. Still The Elf stared at her monitor, her eyes just inches from the screen.
Allie was finding it hard to sit still. Her mood felt like electricity firing off little charges in her muscles. She wanted The Elf to do something. To help her not feel this way anymore. But she knew it was highly unlikely The Elf had anything nearly so useful up her sleeve. Nothing was going to make this all better.
Finally The Elf broke off her attention and turned to face Allie.
“Talk to me.”
“I’m having trouble with my roommate.”
The Elf sighed. “What sort of trouble?”
“She stole my suitcases and sold them.”
For a moment, nothing. No reaction.
Then, “See, this is why sometimes it’s better not to bring things of value into a home like this.”
“You’re seriously blaming her stealing my suitcases on the fact that I have suitcases?”
“No. I guess not.” Another big sigh. Another long wait. “It’s a serious allegation. How do you know it was her?”
“Because she told . . . everybody . . . what she did.”
Allie had no idea how many of the girls Brick had told. She knew only that she didn’t want to bring Jasmine into this mess. She didn’t even want to mention her name.
“What would you like me to do? Do you want me to talk to Lisa?”
“She’s not going to change her ways just because you talk to her. And even if she did, that isn’t going to get my suitcases back.”
“We could discuss it with the social worker who oversees this home.”