“Anyway, I hope you’ll stay. We’ll be in high school next year. High school lasts four whole years. It’s going to be a blast. You don’t want to go to high school somewhere else, do you?”
“No,” I say. Because I don’t want to go to any high school at all. I want to go to Canada to take care of my Baby Doll. Or stay somewhere else with it. Anywhere. Five years is a long time and now that Crystal with a C is in jail I have to keep it safe from Gloria.
“Well, that’s good. Sometimes I think you just can’t stand it here. It’s like you’ll never be happy. There’s some good stuff here for you, you know? Like me. I’ll do anything for you. Don’t you know that?”
“I know,” I say. And I will remember it.
48
EXACTLY 11:41,
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH
Rick is in my room right now. With me and my Forever Parents. My Forever Mom is in the doorway and my Forever Dad is sitting on my bed. Thanksgiving was yesterday so today he came over to visit. He will stay for lunch. My Forever Parents said they wanted him to see how I am at home. They want him to see how I set my room up so he can get ready for our respite. They are with us right now but when they leave I’ll ask him to bring me up to Canada and to tell Gloria to come meet me there.
“What sorts of things do you like for breakfast?” says Rick. He is looking at my Michael Jackson posters and my calendar. “You sure do like to keep track of birthdays.”
“Mostly eggs and cereal and pancakes and French toast,” I say. “And toast with butter and bacon and oatmeal. And nine grapes. With a glass of human milk.”
He bends down to look at all the books in my bookcase. Then he looks at my pictures. All the frames are red. “Do you know how to cook? It’s no problem if you don’t.”
I nod my head yes. “Crystal with a C taught me how to make scrambled eggs,” I say.
Rick straightens up. “You always call her Crystal with a C,” he says. “I wonder how the heck else people spell Crystal. With a C-H, maybe?”
I shake my head no. “With a K,” I say.
“With a K? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone spelling Krystal with a K.”
“That’s how we spell my Baby Doll’s name,” I say.
My Forever Mom’s eyes get as big as Ms. Carol’s.
“Ginny, did you just say your Baby Doll has a name?” my Forever Dad says.
I nod my head yes.
“And her name is Krystal with a K?”
I nod my head yes again.
“Who called it that?”
“Gloria.”
“But you always call it my Baby Doll,” my Forever Mom says.
“Krystal with a K is my Baby Doll,” I hear myself say.
Krystal with a K. The words sound funny when I say them because I’ve never said them before. Because in my brain my Baby Doll will always be my little baby just like Crystal with a C said. Gloria is the one who lies and Crystal with a C is the one who tells the truth.
“Wait,” my Forever Dad says. “Your Baby Doll has a real name. Who named it Krystal with a K?” One of his eyes squints and his mouth turns sideways.
“Gloria named it Krystal with a K to tell the difference from Crystal with a C,” I say.
“Ginny, are you saying that...that your Baby Doll is actually a real baby?” says my Forever Mom.
Everything stops. Everything freezes. Because they get it. They finally, finally understand.
I nod my head yes and I try to say yes with my mouth but the word is stuck. I can’t make it come out. My brain can’t let it go because it never called my Baby Doll Krystal with a K even though that’s its name. Then all at once the word pops out by itself and I hear my voice say, “Yes.” And then “Yes!” again.
Because that’s what I’ve been trying to tell people for five whole years.
“Holy shit,” says my Forever Dad.
“There is a real baby and Gloria named it after your aunt? After Crystal with a C?” says my Forever Mom.
“Yes!” I say.
Rick is shaking his head back and forth and moving his hands in the air. “I don’t know anything about any of this,” he says, “but Gloria always looked up to Crystal. They were really close. Crystal looked out for her a lot when they were younger. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she named a baby after her.”
I nod my head yes.
“So why did you call it my Baby Doll?”
I think. “Because it was my job to take excellent care of it,” I say. “Plus I didn’t know how to spell. Plus—”
“I need to make a phone call,” my Forever Mom interrupts me. “I need to make a phone call right now. Rick, we’re going to have to cut this visit short.” She leaves the room fast.
“But I just got here,” he says. “If we’re going to make this work, you guys are—”
My Forever Dad’s voice gets louder. “Rick,” he says.
“All right, all right,” says Rick. “Ginny, I’ll send you an email tonight, okay?”
“Rick, please leave. We need you to go!” my Forever Mom yells.
Rick shakes his head. “You people,” I hear him say. And then he gets his coat and leaves.
49
EXACTLY 4:17 IN THE AFTERNOON,
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29TH
“A lot has been going on in your life,” says Patrice. “Again.” She is sitting in the flower chair.
“Mmm-hmm,” I say because my mouth is full of graham crackers.
“Do you like spending time with your Birth Dad? With Rick, I mean?”
“Mmm-hmm,” I say again.
“That’s good,” says Patrice. “Before you know it, you’ll be going to visit him at his house. The plan is to have you go there for a weekend after Christmas break. Everyone is hoping you’re comfortable with him. They’re hoping you might want to stay with him. Maybe even go live with him, if you like him enough. He seems to really like you, even if he doesn’t get along perfectly with your Forever Parents.”
I nod my head yes and take another bite of graham cracker.
“You know, I made a call to Social Services after your Forever Mom called me,” says Patrice. “I asked them to go to the apartment to visit Gloria. She was the prime suspect when the kidnapping investigation was going on, so she was used to having police and other people come to ask her questions. But she wasn’t expecting Social Services to come visit her again. They brought a policeman with them, too. Can you guess what they found when they went to the apartment door?”
“A Maine coon cat?” I say.
“No. Your little sister. They found your Baby Doll.”
I stop chewing and listen.
Patrice makes a loud breathing sound and then she is quiet but I hear a loud ringing in my ears getting louder and louder. I can feel every single hair on my head like it is electric.