Chapter 11

Wednesday was similar to the day before. I told Mr. Peterson how long she’d tentatively be out and he asked me if I was okay. I told him honestly that I wasn’t. With my parents separated, I didn’t know how long I had before children’s services tried to intervene even though we had plenty of support and supervision.

“Your father can’t take you?” he asked, concerned.

“He has two bedrooms. Me or my sister. When that decision comes, she needs to go with him.”

“Any other relatives?”

“None closer than California. If I had a way to support myself financially, I’d just ask the court to emancipate me and be done with it.”

He nodded and I shrugged. “I’ve got 6 different adults looking in on me daily, but eventually that’s not going to be good enough.”

“Technically, I’m supposed to report something like this, but since we’re talking off the record, I guess all I can do is hope your mother feels better tomorrow.” He smiled at me and I knew that eventually he’d run into a crisis of conscience.

“Hopefully, some things fall into place this week and I’ll have what I need to get the emancipation.”

“You have an income?” he asked surprised.

“I have a lawsuit pending with the hospital for something that happened over the summer.”

He nodded. “That can sometimes take years,” he pointed out.

“Not this time. It was blatant and I almost died,” I told him. “The lawsuit against the specific doctor is likely going to take years, but the hospital should settle, I hope this week.”

Lunch with Lana and Beck was pleasantly relaxed and I lingered long enough to talk to Tricia and remind her we were getting our costumes fitted tomorrow.

“I know,” she told me. “Dad knows too. He’s not happy about me going to the dance with you, but I told him I was going.”

“Good,” I said with a smile and kissed her cheek before I rushed off to class.

By the time the last bell sounded, I was caught up on lectures, but there were a couple of later ones that I’d watch first thing in the morning.

Lana and Beck accompanied me to the hospital and I stopped at the gift shop to pick up some snacks for her to have for the week before going to my appointment.

“Good,” Dr. Spencer said, seeing the bag I’d brought. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.”

“She’ll appreciate it more if she thinks Lilly packed it. I tucked a note from her in on top of the bag.” I set them down and took my normal seat on the sofa.

“How are you doing this week, Matt? A lot’s happened.”

I nodded. “I’m both better and worse. Finding out what derailed my life has been harsh. Getting Miranda killed made everyone consider me masterminding an abortion to be plausible. It revolted them enough to leave. On one hand, I don’t feel like I deserve that. It’s an unfair comparison. Like blaming me for the Holocaust because I burned a steak. On the other hand, it’s cost me so much that I don’t feel guilty about Miranda any more.”

“Interesting,” she said thoughtfully. “Explain.”

“I’ve lost everything,” I said. “Every relationship I had was destroyed over this. I had no friends, my family turned on me, my girlfriends left me. The only three people I could count on were you, Carl and Emma. I think that’s a pretty high price to pay for a death that everyone tried to tell me I shouldn’t feel guilty about. I guess I feel like I’ve paid enough for it.”

She nodded. “I wouldn’t disagree with your assessment. The direct comparison between getting a girl to have an abortion and turning someone in to the mob is a little unfair, but your family isn’t usually fair to you that I’ve seen. I noticed Monday that two of your former girls were present. How did that happen?”

I shrugged and we went into detail about how I’d been pushed into reconciling with them. “They should have been brought here and gotten counseling, but Charlotte got the brilliant idea that she could use it to get me to forgive them. As much as everyone tried to tell her not to push that agenda, she couldn’t let it go.”

We spent a fair bit of time talking about how I was coping with the girls and what was stressing me. She was pleased with the idea of the lists and cautioned me on getting too close to them if they were that delicate.

Toward the end of our time, we talked about Charlotte and how she was doing. Dr. Spencer said she was making headway, but Charlotte was still fragile. She was careful not to delve too deeply, but she was confident she could recover.

“Now for my next anxiety,” I said glumly. “I know it’s only a matter of time before Children’s Services get involved in this case. Do you have any idea what my options are? Donald has a two bedroom apartment. That’s enough room for me or Lilly. Even if it was an option, staying with Patty and Dan is a terrible idea with Lana and Beck in the state they’re in. All my other relatives live in California or Honolulu and neither of those options will let me participate in the study.”

“That’s a secondary concern, Matt,” she said dismissively.

“Not to me, it’s not. The study has given me a college education, access to help and resources and more importantly, it’s given me purpose. I hold myself together some days just based on what I have on my plate for the study. Without it, I’d have spent these past weeks dwelling on everything I’d lost. ‘Arbeit macht frei’.”

“Work sets you free,” she translated. “True enough. We’re getting distracted though. You’re right. Children’s Services can only be stalled so long before they need to step in. By rights, they should have already, but your father being there probably helped prevent them from checking marital status to see if your parents lived together. It might slip through the cracks, but you’re right. Better to have a contingency plan. I’m no expert, but your parents could appoint a temporary guardian if there’s someone they trust to do the job.”

“My father’s a little TOO trusting,” I pointed out, “and Charlotte’s not particularly good at putting my best interests uppermost in her thoughts.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Then there’s the problem of what adult could they name that would be willing to do the job and I’d trust enough to close both eyes at once. Donald’s a mob accountant. Dress it up all you want, but all his work friends are mob. Charlotte’s been back to work for two months. Patty and Dan are the only names on the list that I trust. At this point, I don’t have good options. Emancipation hinges on the lawsuit settling so I have a means of supporting myself on paper. Living with Donald isn’t really possible without displacing Lilly, Patty and Dan have too much on their plate to take me in. I guess that leaves Foster Care and hope to God I don’t end up placed with a child molester or someone only in it for the government check.”

She frowned at that, but I supposed she had more familiarity with the system than I would. I hoped that didn’t change.

“I’m sure we can come up with some better options. In the short term, your father could move back into the house. That would defuse the whole situation,” she offered.

“Huh,” I said, surprised. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“We mortals have good ideas too, you know,” she teased.

I laughed a little. “I never claimed to be better than anyone else. It just surprised me that the answer could be that easy.”

“Well your parents aren’t yet divorced, so it’s not a terrible plan. It may enrage Charlotte, but I’ll make sure to be gentle with her.”

I rose from my seat since we were getting close to the end and nodded. “I hope she feels better,” I said sadly.

“She will,” she told me confidently. “Someday soon she’ll wake up and things will start to fall into place for her. Until that day, it’s best if we move carefully.”

I opened the door and drew back, surprised to find someone standing there, about to knock. “Dr. Cromwell,” I said calmly, letting him in. “I didn’t expect to see you today? Come to speak to me?”

“Actually, I was hoping to speak to Dr. Spencer about another patient. I wasn’t aware you were here today.”

“I sincerely doubt that Dr. Cromwell. You strike me as the kind of doctor who makes it his business to know what goes on in his hospital. I’m here every Wednesday. I’m guessing you saw my mother’s name on the recent patient intake reports and wanted to ask what happened?”

He smiled. I knew I was patronizing him, Dr. Spencer knew I was and if I’d been five years older, he would have too, but since I was a kid, he mistook my tone for genuine. “I am aware that we’re treating your mother. Formidable woman. Tragic that she’s suffering.”

“We’re all suffering Dr. Cromwell,” I said in a fair approximation of a saddened voice. It wasn’t hard. What I’d said was true, just not related to what I was blaming it on. “I appreciate your concern though. It hasn’t been easy to put everything behind us.”

“Really? I was under the impression you’d recovered fully,” he said, glancing at Dr. Spencer who had remained quiet. I knew she’d told him nothing of the sort.

“Physically, I’m not in a lot of pain any more. The surgery still bothers me some. We were all under so much stress that week though that it’s stayed with us. It’s still tearing us apart. My mother ... well, it’s been particularly hard on her. She was helping me get to appointments, working full time and trying to cope with my lingering symptoms.”

“Still having difficulties?”

“It kind of came to a head this weekend. My girlfriend and I blew up at each other. We haven’t been doing well since...” I shrugged apologetically. “I haven’t been sleeping, having difficulties with relationships. Dr. Spencer said I’d developed a Sexual Aversion Disorder and some other things. It’s been hard on me and that’s been hard on my whole family.” I paused with a frown on my face as if lost in thought. Dr. Spencer was behind him and gave me a nod and a thumbs up. I blinked, as if I’d just realized what I was doing and looked at him. “I’m sorry doctor. You wanted to talk to Dr. Spencer, not me. I should probably go anyway. I have to get home and see to my sister.”

“It’s okay son, but won’t your father see to her?”

“No sir. He works too. He and my mother have been separated for a while, but with her in here, he’s had to move back in to look after us. If you have any questions about me though, feel free to ask Dr. Spencer. I trust her to decide what’s best.”

I shook his hand and said goodbye to them both. “Dr. Spencer, please call me if there’s any news on my mother. Even if it’s late. I’ll want to know right away.”

I kept the look on my face all the way back to the car where I finally broke out into a self-satisfied smile.

“What’s going on?” Lana asked.

“The doctor that came in just before I left is with the administration. I told him we were all still messed up over the last time I was in the hospital and that was a big part of why Charlotte is in there now.”

“Won’t he find out different when he talks to her doctor?”

“Nope. Dr. Spencer is treating her. She’s the one who encouraged us to sue in the first place. She’s going to scare the shit out of him and push him to settle with us.”

“Is that really important?” Beck asked, aware that we were sitting on more than ten times more money than the settlement would be.

“I need the settlement to establish a legitimate source of income. With that, I can take care of a lot of shit that’s about to go bad.”

“Like what?” Lana asked, concerned.

“As of Monday night, Lilly and I are living without a parent. If Children’s Services get wise to that, we get put in foster care. I can avoid that for Lilly by sending her to live with Donald, but then I end up in the system. I can stave that off temporarily by having Donald move back in, but that’s not a permanent solution.”