Although Jeff was moved out of intensive care by the end of the week, he refused all visitors accept his mother. He remained mute when Quinn tried to question him. Anthia tried to persuade him to cooperate but eventually gave up. He would not even talk to her about the robbery.
Frustrated, after over a week of refusals, Charles decided to take matters into his own hands. He walked right into Jeff’s room as bold as brass.
“Hi, kid.”
Jeff looked up in surprise. But instead of answering, he turned his head toward the window.
“How are you feeling?”
Jeff’s eyes remained glued to something outside the window as he fought for control. He blinked back tears and swallowed the sob lodged in his throat. After the mess he’d made of things, Jeff was unable to so much as look at his mentor... his friend.
“Compared to what you looked like when they wheeled you in here, you’re doing great, son. We’ve all been concerned about you.”
“It don’t matter,” Jeff mumbled. Nothing mattered. He knew he was going to end up in a wheelchair.
Taking the seat beside the bed, Charles said, “You’re man enough to carry a gun but not man enough to look me in the eye?”
“Hey! You don’t know nothin’ about it, man!” Jeff retorted, then winced at the sharp pain from his having moved too quickly.
“What I do know I don’t like.” Charles scowled crushing the tender emotions he felt for this young man. If he had a hope of reaching him, it wouldn’t be through sympathy. “By the way, the store owner says you were trying to rob him. He says he shot you in self-defense.”
Jeff held his lips taut. What was the point? It was because of his own stupidity that he was going to spend the next couple of years behind bars instead of in college. All that hard work for nothing. He didn’t have a future anymore. Hell, he didn’t know if his legs were ever going to work properly again.
“Jeff, we’re talking about your life here. Staring out the window and pretending this mess will go away is a waste of time. I’ve got news for you, kid. You’ve been charged with armed robbery. Son, they’re talking about prosecuting you as an adult.” Jeff didn’t so much as blink as Charles went on. “The choice is yours. Quinn Montgomery is a damn good lawyer, but without your help his hands are tied.”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“It matters. You matter! If you don’t care about your own skin, think about your mother. Anthia has worked long and hard to provide for you. You plan to let all that effort and love disappear down the drain like dirty bath water? Huh? It’s time you started acting like you cared about her... about yourself?”
“Leave me alone!” Jeff wailed, disgusted with himself when tears filled his eyes.
“Not a chance. You think because you have a bullet in your spine you’ll never walk again? I don’t care what the doctors say. If you want to walk, you will. It may not happen overnight. It may take some awfully hard work, but it will happen, if you want it badly enough.” Charles clasped the boy’s hand and squeezed. “You can beat this.”
“It would have been better if I had died!”
“No way. You’re not getting off that easily. It’s going to be okay... you’ll see. Have some faith.”
“Nothin’ is going to be right! Hell, I’m in a hospital bed while the other kids are walking around without a care in the world.”
“It’s your choice. You’re the one keeping your mouth shut. Your mother and I have tried to talk some sense into that hard head of yours. You want to take the rap for someone else, don’t you? Go on, be a fool—do the time. Your buddy isn’t doing a blasted thing to help you out of this jam. It’s all on you, my man.” Charles’s heart pounded with nervous apprehension as he waited for the boy’s decision.
It seemed to take forever for Jeff to answer, but in truth it was only a few minutes before he said, “Eddie Walker stopped me on my way to the center. I was going to the bus stop when he pulled over and asked for money. I let him have what I was carrying...” He went on to explain how he’d been tricked. “Next thing I knew, he said ‘catch’ and tossed the gun. I caught it without thinking. He started emptying the cash drawer. When he ran, so did I. I didn’t know what else to do. It happened so fast. I felt the pain, then I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the hospital.”
“Why didn’t you tell this to the police?”
“What good would it do? Man, did you forget I’m black? I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“You plan on taking the rap for this, Eddie? That’s what will happen if you keep your mouth shut. Seems to me that if this guy was a real friend, he wouldn’t have set you up.”
Jeff laughed bitterly. “He’s probably totally spaced out, especially since he got all the money.”
“Quinn’s a friend, Jeff. He knows how to help you. Will you talk to him? Tell him what you told me? Jeff?”
“Okay,” he mumbled, his dark eyes filled with pain and regret.
“Don’t worry about anything. Concentrate on getting well.”
Jeff hung his head. “Look, I know now I should have kept walking. I messed up. I’m sorry I let you down.”
“We all make mistakes, Jeff. Hopefully we learn from them.”
“Sorry, sir. But I have to take him down to X-ray in a few minutes,” a nurse said, as she came into the room. “I need to get him ready.”
Charles got to his feet.
Before he could leave, Jeff said, “About the money you’re paying for the doctor and the lawyer—I’ll pay you back.”
“We’re friends; friends help each other out. Now I’d better get out of here. See you soon.”
Charles was elated as he left the hospital. Jeff had verified what he suspected. Jeff had made a mistake, but he had not committed a crime. He had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He never should have gone with Eddie. Charles intended to see that Jeff did not ruin his life because of it.
Charles made a call on the car phone to Quinn before he started the engine. He filled him in on what Jeff had told him about Eddie. Quinn was as pleased as Charles when they hung up the telephone.
Kids like Jeff were the very reason Charles had become involved in the mentoring program. The statistics were staggering when it came to the number of African-American males lost in a world of drugs, crime, and violence. This wasn’t just a national problem, but a global problem. Charles viewed it as a personal challenge that frankly he wished more brothers would take on.
Now that he was married, it was becoming more and more difficult to devote the time the project demanded. It was time-consuming and often heart-wrenching work. Despite the horrible odds, it was something he couldn’t turn his back on.
Unfortunately, his bride was the one losing out because of his involvement. There seemed to be so little time left for them. Thank goodness, Diane understood how much the project meant to him and supported him. He was damn lucky. She deserved better than he’d been providing lately. They hadn’t gone out for a candlelit dinner and dancing since they’d returned from their honeymoon.
A picture of her with soft eyes burning with desire, her skin flushed with heat as they pleased each other, flashed through his mind. She was exquisite when her breath caught and she said his name as she reached fulfillment. Her climax usually triggered his own.
Diane... the corners of his mouth tilted as he put the car into gear. There was no better time than the present to show her how much she meant to him. His smile widened into a grin as he decided to surprise her by taking her out for a romantic lunch. Perhaps the Omni Hotel?
He chuckled at the thought of convincing her to play hooky with him for the rest of the day. They could spend the afternoon in one of the hotel’s luxurious rooms. Charles’s body tightened swelling from the mere thought of making love to his wife. Concentrating on the late-morning traffic, he made a telephone call to his secretary canceling his afternoon appointments. Then he called the hotel and arranged for a table for two, reserved a room for later, and ordered champagne and a spray of pink orchids... a reminder of their wedding day.
Just as the bell rang, Diane added, “I want you to review chapters nine, ten, and fifteen. Be ready for a quiz tomorrow.” She suppressed a smile at her students’ collective groan.
As the class began to file past, she collected their homework assignments.
“Ms. Rivers... aw, I mean, Mrs. Randol. We had a game last night. I didn’t get a chance to do the assignment. Can I turn in my spreadsheet tomorrow?”
Diane lifted her gaze to the six-five tenth-grader. “That’s not a valid excuse, Johnny. Coach Brown expects you to keep your grades up, and so do I. This isn’t the first time this semester you’ve missed an assignment.”
“But Mrs. Randol...”
Diane’s glance moved to the wall clock. “Don’t you have study hall last period today?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I expect to see you in the computer lab by...” Diane stopped in mid-sentence.
Lillie was hovering at the door that led into the central hallway. Not only did she look nervous, but she was clearly agitated. She was also disheveled, her hair standing on end. She wore a badly wrinkled green blouse and slacks that looked like she’d slept in them. Diane was so shaken she nearly dropped the pile of papers she held.
“What?” the teen prompted, shifting from one large sneakered foot to the other.
“I-I-I’ll let it slide for now. But do your reading tonight,” she said absently. It seemed to take forever for her classroom to clear. Thank goodness she didn’t have another class until after lunch.
Dropping the papers on her desk, Diane hurried over to the door and urged her mother inside, closing the door quickly behind the last student. “What are you doing here?”
“I needed to see you, baby. Couldn’t wait...”
“You look terrible. When was the last time you had something to eat? Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for days. Are you okay?” Diane ended out of breath. She recognized the stupidity of the question. Lillie reeked of alcohol and neglect. She was barely able to stay upright.
“You been looking for me, baby? That’s a first.” Lillie laughed as if she’d told a joke.
“I told you never to come here. How could you forget? How did you find my classroom?”
“Someone in the hall told me where you were.” Her speech was slurred.
“You didn’t tell them you’re my mother, did you?” Diane said in near panic, her eyes continuously moving toward the door. All she needed was for one of her coworkers to appear at her door.
“Relax, no one guessed.”
Diane was anything but tranquil. All kinds of horrible things had gone through her mind during the week she’d been trying to reach Lillie. At least now she knew she had not been injured.
“I need some money. A couple of dollars... whatever you have on you. Please, baby. You know I love you.” Diane hated it when she started the “caring mother” bit. It was wasted on her. She automatically started moving toward where she kept her purse in the coat closet, then suddenly she thought better of it. She couldn’t just give Lillie money to get rid of her. Lillie was going down fast, and Diane knew that she was the only one who might be able to help her. But, damn it, Diane had to get her out of the school, and quick. What to do?
She turned to Lillie. “I was on my way to lunch. Meet me at my car in, say, five minutes. We’ll get some food, then go to the park where we can talk.”
Lillie looked at her suspiciously when she didn’t just hand over the money. “I need cash... not food.”
“I don’t have much with me. We’ll stop at the teller machine. There is one right around the corner. Shouldn’t take long. I need to go to the school office for a minute. You go on out to the car,” Diane urged.
“Just give me what you got.” Lillie shifted from one unsteady foot to the other.
Diane was close to ringing her hands with anxiety. Her eyes kept returning to the door. This was not the place to tell her about going in for treatment, let alone convince her to admit herself.
“Five minutes.” Diane took Lillie’s arm and firmly steered her into the hallway. Thank goodness it was nearly empty. She said quickly, “My car is parked in the staff lot. Turn left at the end of the hall. The rear door is at the end of that corridor. I’ll meet you there.”
“Five minutes!” was Lillie’s parting shot before she left. Diane quickly switched off machines in the glass-walled computer lab connected to her classroom. Shoving the homework papers into her briefcase, she slipped on the suit jacket to her cream coatdress and retrieved her black leather shoulder bag from the closet, all in record time.
As Diane hurried to the school office, her mind raced to the challenge ahead. So many things could go wrong. She felt compelled to quicken her steps even more.
Diane was almost certain that Lillie was very close to using again. Maybe, if she was lucky, it was only alcohol, and not heroin. Lillie must have been desperate to have come to school.
“Mrs. Slivers, may I speak to you for a minute?” The principal had just hung up the telephone when Diane, having hung her keys in the cabinet behind the office counter, peeked into her office.
“Certainly. I hope nothing is wrong. You seem a little flushed.”
“I’m not feeling well. I think I’m coming down with the flu. Can you get someone to cover my classes this afternoon?”
“Of course, dear. But only for this afternoon? What about tomorrow? Surely you need a few days to rest. These viruses are nothing to take lightly.”
“I’ll call you in the morning if I am not feeling any better. Thank you.” As she hurried out of the building, she knew the lie wasn’t far from the truth. She was developing a tension headache and her stomach was in knots at the idea of convincing Lillie to go into treatment. She hadn’t allowed herself to question her own motivation or the past days of real fear when she’d been unable to reach Lillie.
She told herself she was only doing what was right. Her disdain and resentment toward her mother hadn’t diminished... nothing could change the past. Her resentment was rooted in years of pain and unhappiness. Yet Diane raced toward her car, determined to get help for Lillie.
***
“Hey, man, what are you doin’ around these parts?” Kenneth Brown asked.
“Checking up on you, what else?” Charles teased the man who had taken over his coaching job at Lawrence. “I heard you were doing a class A job, my man. Track team was really doing it against Brookman the other day.”
“You made the meet?”
“Nope, but I heard about it.”
“Hey, why don’t you come around to practice? The kids would love to see you.”
“Sorry, not today. I thought I would surprise Diane. Take her out to lunch. Have you seen her?” Charles was unaware of the smile that came to his mouth automatically at the sound of his wife’s name.
“I saw her a few minutes ago in the office. So how’s married life, my man?”
“Great. Just a little difficult to manage our schedules. How are things going around here? A few more weeks and it will all be over but the shouting.”
“Yeah! And I can’t wait. Summertime...” he sang, then laughed. “Nothin’ changed around here. These rich brats think they can get away with murder. Slivers isn’t about to expel anyone. It all comes down to the mighty dollar.” Charles almost laughed aloud, but he caught himself just in time. Brown was right. Nothing had changed, including the other man’s negativism. Every school had its problems, even the affluent private ones like Lawrence.
“If you get bored this summer doin’ nothin’, come on over to the community center. We can always use the help.” Before Brown could formulate a reason why he could not possibly spare the time, Charles waved, moving on. “It was good seeing you.”
Brown didn’t have a clue to the daily struggle that too many minority students faced just to stay on the right path. A week at the community center might open the man’s eyes to the real world. Brown would, no doubt, cut his own throat before he did any volunteer work in the Detroit ’hood.
Charles was stopped several times by members of the staff and former students. It took longer than he expected to reach the main office.
“Hey, good-looking,” he teased the school’s secretary, Barbara Gardener, who was standing at the counter.
“I might say the same, Mr. Executive. Congratulations on the marriage.”
“Thanks. Have you seen my bride?”
“You just missed her. She left for the day. Not feeling well. A bit of the flu is my bet. Everyone in my house had it last week.”
Charles frowned. “Thanks, Barb.”
“If you hurry, you might catch up with her in the staff parking lot.”
“Okay. Take care.”
Charles didn’t pause to talk. He waved at familiar faces he saw as he moved through the crowded hall. Once he reached the back door, he spotted Diane. Her car was parked near the fence on the far side of the lot. Before he could call her name, he saw her struggling with a woman. What the hell? He started sprinting across the lot.