Someone gives me a chocolate milk with a straw already in it. “The police took me away from Gloria because she wasn’t taking good care of me. But Krystal with a K stayed in the apartment because I hid it in the—”
I stop talking. In my brain I see everything that happened all over again. Then I remember that Crystal with a C found my Baby Doll.
Everyone looks confused.
“Maybe you should tell Mrs. Lomos,” says Kayla Zadambidge.
“Mrs. Lomos already talked with me. She says it explains a lot that my Baby Doll is a real baby,” I say. “It was born on November 16th, you know. Did all of you write that down?”
Larry and Kayla Zadambidge start looking through their bags for pencils and papers. Brenda Richardson takes a bite of her cookie. “I have a sister, too,” she says. “Her name is Peg.”
“Did you carry it around when you were little and take care of it?” I say. “That’s what I did with mine.”
“Peg is older than me,” says Brenda Richardson.
“I want to take excellent care of Krystal with a K,” I say. “I want to wrap it up in my quilt again and give it lots of human milk. Not breast milk. That’s different. It can sleep in my bed under my arm like before.”
“Babe, I know you love your little sister, but I think you should stay here with all of us. You don’t want to move away, do you?”
I pick up the chocolate milk again and take a drink. Then I put it down.
“I don’t know why the social workers are letting it stay with Gloria,” I say. “Gloria doesn’t know how to take care of babies. Plus she gets mad and—”
I stop talking again.
“Is Gloria your mom?” asks Brenda Richardson.
My brain pushes me back up into the conversation. “Don’t you know I already told you that?” I say. “Gloria is my Birth Mom. She’s the only Birth Mom I’ll ever have.” I pick at my fingers. “And Rick is my Birth Dad. He wants me to come spend a weekend at his house after Christmas. He says it will be good to give everyone a break. Plus my Forever Mom doesn’t like me anymore because she thinks I’m a crazy girl. Last night I heard her say to my Forever Dad that she can’t wait until I’m gone. Then they can all breathe again.”
I try to think but I don’t know what to think anymore. Ms. Carol writes something down in a notebook.
“Ginny needs another beverage!” Kayla Zadambidge says again.
Larry puts his hand on my shoulder. I recoil but he just slips out of his arm braces and kneels down and sings to me about a little surfer watching on the shore. Alison Hill giggles. But I can’t pay any attention to Larry. I sink back into my brain. The social workers don’t understand that Gloria can’t take care of my Baby Doll. They don’t understand that she gets mad and hits. They don’t understand that Crystal with a C spent a few hours with them every day.
Which means I have to make sure Patrice tells them not to leave Gloria alone with it. Gloria needs someone with her all the time or my Baby Doll will suffer serious abuse and neglect which is what happened to me.
Someone pushes me another carton of milk from across the table. This time it’s white. I take the straw out of the chocolate milk and drink the whole thing.
51
EXACTLY 2:48 IN THE AFTERNOON,
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST
My Forever Dad isn’t home. He is supposed to be here when I get off the bus but I don’t see his car in the driveway. He stopped working after the kidnapping so that he could take care of me. Maybe he is at another doctor’s appointment. He goes to the doctor’s all the time now.
I want to tell him that I need to talk with Patrice again. Just on the phone. I need to talk with Patrice now so that she will tell the social workers that Gloria gets mad and hits. I need to tell her that they can’t leave her alone with my Baby Doll.
The bus pulls away behind me. I go inside. I put my backpack down in my room and go to the stairs. And listen.
I hear my Forever Mom’s door close.
I don’t want to go up there but I have to. My Forever Dad said it’s for the best if I just leave my Forever Mom alone. But I have to ask someone to call Patrice. My Baby Doll isn’t safe.
I walk up the stairs as quiet as I can. I stop in front of the door to the bedroom. I knock.
She doesn’t say Come on in or Wait just a minute or anything. I don’t hear any sound at all.
So I open the door.
She is on the bed holding Baby Wendy. Her eyes are thin slits. “Ginny, get out of here!” she growls.
“But I need to—”
“Now!”
I take a deep breath. I have to stay calm. “I need to—” I say again but this time she interrupts me.
With a yell.
“Ginny, get the hell out of here! Stay away from me and my baby!”
So I close my eyes and yell back, “I need to talk with Patrice!”
Then I hear Baby Wendy crying. Right there in front of me.
I step forward. I know how to help a crying baby.
My Forever Mom jumps up fast.
I back up.
But the crying is getting louder so I start saying, “Ush, ush, ush.” I put out my hands to pick up the baby.
Something hits my face. It knocks me onto the floor.
The crying gets softer. It is far away. My head hurts and I hear footsteps. I hear the front door shut. I get up on my knees. My Forever Mom is gone and Baby Wendy is gone and I don’t hear the crying anymore but then I hear the car. When I stand up and look out the window I see it backing up. It backs onto the street and zooms away.
52
EXACTLY 1:58 IN THE AFTERNOON,
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4TH
It snowed last night. We are at Wagon Hill and I am going sledding with my Forever Dad. I don’t know what time it is exactly because I am wearing gloves and I can’t see my watch. I’m wearing my big sunglasses over my regular glasses and when I get out of the car I say, “I know what you’re thinking—I am the spitting image of Michael Jackson.”
And he says, “You’re right. That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Wagon Hill is a lot of fun in the winter because it’s a great place to go sledding. We went sledding here last winter too before my Forever Mom knew she was pregnant. It is the best sledding hill in the world. It is longer than the football field at the high school except it’s slanted. You can go really fast on it. It is extremely distracting which is great because things were a little intense yesterday at the Blue House. That was what my Forever Dad said when he told me we were going sledding. Then I said I had to talk with Patrice and he said he would call her right away. And he did. He even let me talk with her on the phone and she said not to worry, the social workers were already visiting Gloria every day. Even on the weekends. So I was happy. Patrice said she will give me an update when I go to see her on Wednesday and that I should try not to obsess so much about it.