Chapter 107: Lawyers, Clothes, and Money

Tuesday, April 10, 1984 (continued)

I made it back to near home around seven-thirty, hitting the outskirts of town just early enough to move with the early edge of morning rush hour traffic instead of getting mired in it. The Clarkes, if they were even following, would have no such luck.

I stopped at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac a few blocks from Cammie’s house, then shook her shoulder.

“Huh? No! No, please! I don’t want...”

“Cammie, it’s Steve. You’re fine.”

Her eyes flickered. “Oh ... oh, thank God! I was back in the motel and getting away was just a dream.”

“We’re close. If you do it right, I think you can wiggle into the dress Angie loaned you without getting out of the blanket.”

“You’ve seen it.”

I chuckled. “I have, but we don’t have a private changing room.”

“Point, Steve!” she said.

I gave her the dress. A few minutes later, she said, “Yeah, it’ll do. Thank Angie, please!”

“I will, and you’ll get to, too. Just not right away.”

“What’s the plan?” she said, tossing the blanket off. It was just a bit tight in the bust and was too long on Cammie to look quite right, but it would do, even for a store, which was the goal.

“We’re going to pick up your school and debate stuff from your house.”

“Just that?”

“Just that,” I said. “Nothing they can claim you ‘stole’ from them. We can replace the clothes, but I want this fight to be as one-sided as possible.”

“They’re my clothes, at least!”

“Technically not, not until you’re eighteen. They could trash your stuff, sell it, whatever. It’ll muddy the waters. I want this open and shut.”

She just shook her head. “Still not today, but ... yeah, we’ve got stuff to talk about. This is exactly what I’ve seen, just ... distilled ... out there in the open.”

“I can’t promise you’ll like every answer, but I think you’ll be good with things.”

“Considering where we are and why, I’ll be good with nearly anything!”

I chuckled and got us moving toward her house. Or, more likely, her former house.

We were in and out in about ten minutes. I was ruthless — no personal items unless someone other than her parents had given them to her, no clothes except for a couple pieces that Mel had given her, and so forth. Every last bit of school stuff went, including her Debate evidence — but not the catalog case, that was theirs, and we could replace it, though Cammie nearly balked at that.

In the end, it looked like we’d barely taken anything. My belief was that we might yet wind up with all of it, but this was a starting bid, not the final agreement. If negotiations broke down and we had to do everything the hard way, we could. It was only money, and sometimes you have to be willing to spend it on what’s right.

After we were done, I drove a few blocks away — on the off chance that the Clarkes would send someone to the house, which had been my biggest worry — and parked.

“We need to find a place for you to hole up.”

“I could stay with Angie ... or Jasmine...”

I shook my head. “State law makes it a crime for anyone to harbor a minor who has been reported missing by their parents. Right now, you’re not ‘missing,’ and I don’t know that you’ll ever be reported, so we’re good. We’re only good until that changes, however.”

“So ... what do we do? Motel?”

“Yeah, and I can’t know where you are. They will ask, and I need to be able to say I have no idea.”

She shook her head, smiling gently. “You’ve been planning this for...?”

“About two years,” I said. “Bits and pieces of it. Some of it’s improvised, but I know the law enough to not screw up, I think.”

“For me?”

“You were the most likely one. You always have been.”

She blinked. “I knew you’d go to bat for me, but this ... I ... just ... this is ... I mean, fuck, Steve, this is amazing, but it’d be a bit scary if we weren’t on the same team.”

I nodded. “Not gonna say ‘Don’t be scared,’ because I know you’re not. There’s no way I could’ve played a shell game like this one for two years. That would’ve taken emancipation, and that is a ridiculously big roll of the dice. I’m really glad it wasn’t one you needed to make.”

“I considered that, but it’s expensive and you have to get a job and your own place and...”

“Which you might still need to.”

“Huh?” she said.

“A seventeen-year-old is a ‘missing person,’ not a ‘runaway,’ in Texas. The police will do a welfare check if asked. With under two weeks left, we can probably dodge them. If not, I have some more rabbits I can pull out of hats, but that can wait for now.”

“What’s the plan now?”

“So, first ... how do you feel? I mean ... really, how do you feel, like, deep inside?”

“I’m still freaking out! Yeah, this has always been a possibility from the day I realized I might really like girls, and maybe I’ve been on a collision course with it since I decided Mel was too important to me to give up for safety, but ... they really did it! They really literally dragged me off kicking and screaming! My parents! And ... I mean ... I don’t know how I get past that. I’m gonna be looking for a good therapist before long, I’m sure. My head says that they really and truly believe it was for my own good and that they were just exercising ‘tough love’, but my heart ... my heart is ... just ... fucked up.”

I nodded.

“If I asked you to hole up where no one, including me, knew where you were?”

“How ... do I get there?”

“Bus, or taxi, or ... something.”

She shook her head. “I get why that makes sense. I do. But ... I ... I feel like a wimp for saying it, but I don’t know that I could get on a bus with strangers, much less a cab. Again ... yeah, head says it’s safe, heart is saying ‘No, no, no!’”

“Okay. In that case ... well, we start the same way. I need to call a lawyer to get a reference for another lawyer. Then we need to talk to the one that we need for you, if I can get them on the phone today. Well, if I can’t, they’re the wrong lawyer. We need one today. Anyway ... they may have to advise you to do things that we’re going to think are a bad idea, like turn yourself in, but I think they won’t, and we won’t do them. Maybe they can figure out a way to get us some cover ahead of a press from your parents to get you back. I don’t know. If that doesn’t work, then ... maybe I take you somewhere you can find several hotels close together. I can try playing word games to deflect questions or something.”

“I may feel more confident in a few days,” she said, then hesitated. “Okay, fine, honestly, if it was ‘You need to vanish or they’re going to pick you up and take you back,’ I’m gone. I just ... if I can avoid it for a few days ... I’m just exhausted, mentally and physically.”

“Short-term plan: we’ll go to my house. Mom will be fine with you crashing for a few hours in Angie’s bed. Angie will be fine with you borrowing anything you need. Then we talk to the lawyer, hopefully. I take you to a store and we get you some actual stuff of your own, and put you in a hotel with a good restaurant somewhere, and figure out how to manage contact — because we don’t want to leave a phone trail if we can help it. Then I — and the lawyer — start working on settling this. I suspect our methods won’t be the same.”

“You’re not going to...?” she said, blinking.

“I’m not going to break the law,” I said, smiling. “No assaults or the like. They’re not going to like what I have to say, though.”

“Fuck ‘em. That’s my answer right now. I’m furious with them. They’re still my parents, but ... fuck ‘em.”

I nodded, not saying anything. I’d feel that way, probably, but I also knew that life is long and a lot of things that seem like they can’t be forgiven can, in fact, be forgiven one day. Not forgotten, but forgiven.

After a minute, she said, “Again, I mean ... this seems quite ... thought out.”

I nodded, saying, “Like I said, I’ve spent a lot of time plotting what-ifs. And ... maybe some of it is even White Knight Syndrome, charging in and rescuing you...”

“To be fair, I totally needed you to charge in and rescue me! Absolutely no question there!”

“And I’m glad I could do that. Just ... well, also pissed off that I had to.”

“I’m both touched and amazed at how much you’ve thought about this. I’ve known for years that you’re on my side, and had my back, but it’s still ... this is a lot.”

“I love you, Cammie Clarke. Not that way, but you’re important to me, and I’ll move heaven and earth to help the people who are important to me.”

She smiled. “I’m watching it happen. Thank you. So much!”

I drove Cammie to my house. She was already nodding off by the time I got home. When I got home, Mom’s car was in the driveway, but Angie’s was gone, so I parked on the street and walked Cammie in.

Mom met us at the back door. “Steve! And, hello, Cammie! I’m so happy to see you safe! What happened?”

Cammie smiled. “Thank you! It’s ... it’s a long story.”

“She’s wiped out, Mom. I’m putting her in Angie’s room to get a nap.”

“Welcome, Cammie! Feel better!”

“Thanks, Mrs. Marshall.”

Mom hesitated, then said, “Helen. It’s Helen.”

Cammie smiled. “Thanks, Helen!”

“Mom,” I said, “Could you call Memorial and have them send Angie a note saying Cammie’s safe?”

“Oh! Yes! I will, right away! She was so worried this morning!”

I got Cammie settled, then came out.

Mom gave me a look. “That was Angie’s dress, wasn’t it?”

I nodded.

“And she was barefoot.”

“We didn’t dig out the flip-flops.”

“What happened, Steve? We were worried. I mean, not worried worried, but...”

I sighed, then sat down on the couch.

“It’s like this...”

I explained about Cammie’s parents, and their religious beliefs. How we’d been worried about something like this for years, and now it’d happened. I didn’t pull a lot of punches: the dragging, what Cammie had told me they’d said, her jumping out a second-floor motel window naked, and so forth.

Mom kept saying things like ‘But!’ and ‘No!’ and ‘They didn’t!’ She was also fairly startled to find out that Cammie was gay — it hadn’t come up before, for obvious reasons — but the shock was how well hidden it’d been.

In the end, she just sighed, shaking her head. “No wonder the poor girl is exhausted. That’s ... that’s ... I can’t believe people would do that! She can stay here as long as she needs to, of course.”

I shook my head. “She can’t, or at least not yet. If her parents file a missing persons’ report, and we’re letting her stay here, you and Dad are breaking the law. Turn her over, and...”

“We can’t turn her over!”

“Working on it, Mom,” I said, then checked my watch. “Kyle should be in about now. I’m going to call him and see if he knows someone sharp and ruthless at family law. We’re going for a delaying action. Cammie’s birthday is under two weeks away. It’s not as simple as just playing keep-away until then, but...”

She nodded. “Of course. We’ll help, no question.”

“I’ve got this, Mom. I’ve known for a long time that I’d move Heaven and Earth to help Cammie if this happened. Angie, too. We’ve both got the money to help.”

“Still...”

“You’re helping now, and you’ll help more, I’m sure. But this one’s our fight,” I said.

She sniffled. “This is ... I’m so proud of you! And Angie!”

I scooted over and hugged her. “I learned from Dad — and from you — that friends are important. Not just ‘You can never have too many friends,’ but the meaning behind that — that you need to be a friend when your friends need you.”

“I’ll sit back and watch, and so will Sam, but anything you need...”

“I know, Mom. And Cammie knows, believe me.”

“You should call your lawyer. Time’s a-wasting!”

“It is, but Cammie also needs the rest,” I said, getting up. “Still ... yes. Off to the phone!”

I gave Mom another tight hug before heading off to my room.

Before I called Kyle, I gave Jane a quick call. She was running late, according to her receptionist, but would hopefully be there soon.

Kyle (perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not) had an immediate and firm recommendation when I mentioned what I needed.

“You want Elizabeth Crawford,” he said. “Peggy — Elizabeth professionally — is very good. Do I want to know the details?”

“It’s ... I’ve got a friend who’ll be eighteen in under two weeks. Things between her and her parents have completely degenerated in the last twenty-four hours. They’re legally allowed to do what they’re doing, though I think they’ve really screwed up, but we need to keep them away from her until she’s eighteen, or there’s some agreement that makes her safe, and then prevent them from screwing up high school or college.”

“That’s ... yeah. The law really favors parents in that case, but Elizabeth will support your friend in this. Can I ask why, though? Trouble at home? Misbehavior?”

“Cammie’s gay. Her parents believe the answer is to send her off to a ‘conversion therapy’ place.”

There was silence for a few seconds, and then Kyle said, “Fuck! Well, Elizabeth won’t have a problem with that, at all, and ... that’s a nasty bit of the law. Technically ... yeah, they can do that, but ... under two weeks? That’s nuts! What are they going to change in under two weeks?”