Chapter Seventy-Six

 

Maciej said something in a foreign language quietly.

“It’s not my fault.” Małgorzata said out loud in English. “It’s not his fault either,” she said glancing at her brother. “We watched Law and Order and worked it all out.”

Law and Order? Blanche needed to catch up on her television. She’d missed the episode that would help this make sense.

“We just wanted to get enough money to send our mom back to Misiones.” She said the last word with a perfect Spanish accent. Her English was good too.

“Then once she was gone, if we got arrested we could live in juvenile hall like on Law and Order and not with our father. It’d be good to get arrested then.”

“Is your dad mean?” Seth seemed sympathetic.

“He beats our mom like every day, since we came here. I told Maciej I’d get the money by myself if he didn’t help me. He wouldn’t do it otherwise. Don’t get him in trouble. Please, we gotta get our mom back to Argentina and our baba.”

Tears had started pouring down her pale cheeks even though her voice had remained strong. Her eyes were lovely and shiny despite the sadness etched there. Seth who was closest put his hand on her shoulder.

“We gotta get Mom out of here. ” She wiped impatiently at her tears and looked away.

Maciej put an arm on her shoulder. “No, it was my idea first, but then I got scared and wasn’t going to do it. Małgorzata said she’d do it alone, so I didn’t want her going by herself to do these things, so we went together. We never meant to hurt anyone.” He glanced at Al. “We didn’t know what things were worth money at first.”

They seemed to need to get their endeavors off their chest now that they’d started talking.

“One of us was always the lookout and the other would do the robbery,¨ Mac said.

¨So who is the lookout?” Blanche wanted details. How could she straighten this out without them?

“No, Mrs. Binkley, it wasn’t like that. I can climb because of gymnastics, so I did things that involved climbing to another floor. Or...” she looked at Al guiltily, “climbing through porches, but sometimes...”

Maciej took up the tale, “Sometimes it was better for me to do it.”

“If it wasn’t the porches, how’d you get in to the apartments?” Blanche wanted to know how this grand invasion occurred.

“Sometimes we just tried door knobs.” He shrugged and looked at his shoes. “Or did that trick with a library card to pop open easy locks.” He shrugged again, “I saw it online.”

Suddenly, Małgorzata threw herself down at Blanche’s knees. “Please, let us send our mother back before you turn us in to the police.” She wiped at her tears and looked up at Blanche.

“You’re sweet, honey. I feel for you I do, but I can’t let you rob a bunch more places even if it is for a good cause.” Blanche pushed a lock of that dark hair behind Małgorzata’s ear.

“We almost have enough. It’s just that we have to do it last minute or my dad will never let her go, and we don’t have a credit card so we can’t do it online and then the prices are so much.” She bent her head down and sobbed.

“Let me make some calls and see if I can get your family some help.” She glanced at Al to see if he was irritated, but he nodded slightly.

Mac moved closer onto Małgorzata’s ottoman she’d vacated. “No, they’ll just take us away. We need to get Mom some help and she doesn’t speak any English, and she won’t ever speak against Dad or leave him. She’s too traditional and scared. We’re from a really small place. He wasn’t so bad when we were in Argentina. It was only sometimes then.”

“How do you know she’ll even leave?”

“She cries for her mother all the time. If I have to, I’ll tell her our baba is sick to get her on the airplane, I will. My grandmother won’t let her come back here as long as Baba’s alive. I’ve told her what he does. My mother hasn’t adapted at all here. Dad hardly lets her out of the house. In our village the older generations, the women pass time cooking and sewing together. She’s lonely and miserable. She doesn’t know anything to get a job.”

Blanche suddenly had a bright idea. The money that she knew Tommy needed and would ask for inevitably for his habit, she’d use that to buy this poor woman a ticket if the shelters didn’t have some way to help her.

“Alright. Here’s what we’ll do. We will get your mom a ticket somehow, but you’re going to have to turn yourselves in and give all the money back.”

“No! What about mom?” Małgorzata had calmed somewhat, but looked like she’d start sobbing again.

“I have a couple ideas of how we can do this and if nothing else works, I’ll help. Okay?”

Two serious dark heads nodded. Their parents must have done something right. The kids weren’t bad; Blanche could tell by the anguish and guilt etched in their faces.

“What about the things at the Pawnshop? We can’t give those back.” Mac’s brow crinkled.

“I have an idea about that too. Give me a couple days to make some phone calls. I know a guy at the pawnshop and some other people.” She didn’t want to say police and scare them. “But don’t DO anything. Do you understand me? Nothing. No more robberies or I’ll call you in myself no matter where mom is. Do you understand me?”

They nodded.

She’d have to call Sharon in the morning and see what she could arrange with them giving themselves up voluntarily and call a travel agent she knew.