Chapter 4

 

Len was shaking his head in the negative, but he lifted the tone of the sentence into a beginning, opening a door rather than closing it.

“What do you mean?” I urged, my curiosity aroused.

“Star was eight and Sunny was just a toddler. They lived with Angie, her full name’s Angelica—our daughter, and her boyfriend, DuWayne Jefferson. He’s the girls’ father. Becky and I were worried some. They weren’t the best example of a stable family, but they were pretty good parents, and we tried to help out when we could. They lived in the last trailer, that tan and brown one down there.” He pointed vaguely to the east.

“I’ll never forget that day; it was Monday, June 14, in ‘04, Angie was out by herself. DuWayne was hauling sand with a friend, and the girls were here with us. Angie—we always called her that, but when she grew up she wanted to use Angelica—she went over to Paula’s Place to apply for a job. That’s a diner in Waabishki, east of here on the edge of Emily City. It’s in Sturgeon county, but that’s closer for us than Cherry Hill. Paula said later that there was an interview scheduled with Angie for that morning but she never showed up. Paula didn’t think much about it till later; people do that to her all the time—not show up, you know.”

I nodded. “Those kinds of jobs have a high turnover rate, that’s for sure.”

“Angie could’ve had a better job, but she didn’t have much self confidence, and with two little girls she needed something flexible.

“Anyway, we thought she’d been hired and started right away, so didn’t worry at all till much later. She often forgot to let us know how long the girls would need to stay here, but we didn’t mind. DuWayne came by about nine o’clock that night and picked them up. The next morning, the three of them came back here asking if we’d seen Angie. Of course, we hadn’t.

“We called the Sheriff, it was Stan Portman back then, and he said we couldn’t even file a missing person’s report until she’d been gone twenty-four hours. The next day, she still hadn’t come home. I picked up DuWayne and the kids and we all went to the Sheriff’s Office, but they kept putting us off.

“We tried to tell him that she wouldn’t leave the girls, but folks from this part of the county don’t get much respect anyway, and Portman wasn’t known for feeling gracious toward people like DuWayne, if you get my drift.”

“I do,” I said. My stomach was tight. Even though Forest County wasn’t very diverse, I hated to hear that outright prejudice still existed.

“Finally, after two days, on Wednesday, the police started making inquiries.” I could hear the agitation in the man’s voice, and he began to shake from the emotional strain of retelling the story, even seven years after the fact.

“They couldn’t find her?”

“Not a trace. DuWayne said she’d felt real peppy, and wanted to walk to Paula’s; it’s not even three miles. Since it was technically illegal for all four of them to ride in the truck cab, he let her walk. Apparently, no one saw her after she left home that morning. DuWayne dropped the girls off here at about nine. Of course, DuWayne was the prime suspect to have done something to her, but Star insisted that her mother had been there to feed them breakfast and dress Sunny before she left, and then her daddy had put them right in the truck to come here. Even though she was only eight, she told so many details, matched by Sunny, as much as a three-year-old can say, and they kept her in another room so she wasn’t copying Star, that there was no way DuWayne would have had time to do anything to Angelica that morning. After he left here, he went to Larry’s house, and they hauled sand together all day. Earned $50.00 each, and that was verified too. He just couldn’t have fit in anything else.”

Len sighed, and he seemed to lean into the table even more than his bent back required.

“Where is DuWayne now?” I asked.

“Gone too.” Len sighed again. “He said he couldn’t live in a place that treated him so bad, and he went to Chicago. He shows up every few months with a bit of money, and presents for Star and Sunny. But he gave up all rights. We... I, am their full legal guardian. The girls are happy to see their daddy when he comes, but they don’t understand why he won’t stay.”

It was a difficult story to listen to. I could see how poignant it all was to this man whose life had become pretty much a classic tragedy. And yet, he wanted to learn to read, to try to make things better, even yet.

“How do the girls get along at school?” I asked. I was a bit afraid to hear the answer.

“In their work, or how they are treated?”

“Both.”

Len brightened and sat up a bit. “Better than you probably think. I have to say that most people in the county don’t give a rat’s elbow about the color of people’s skin. The girls both have friends, but we live so far out here that it’s hard for them to get together much. The school bus is their only transportation into town unless I drive them, but that’s getting really hard for me to do. Star is itching for her learner’s permit, but she can’t get into Driver’s Ed until this fall.”

“Teens are always eager to learn to drive, and I’m sure she can be a big help to you.” My comment was obvious, but I wanted Len to know I was interested.

“As for academics, Star is a hard worker and she gets Bs all the time. Sunny is a wonder! Her report cards are full of As and it seems as if she gets them with no effort at all.” He hung his head. “I’m the stupid one of the family.”

“I hardly think that’s true,” I said, and I meant it. “You don’t talk like someone who isn’t intelligent. Do you know any reasons why reading has been difficult for you?”

Len seemed glad to change the subject, even if this topic was only slightly less painful. “Yes, the letters get all mixed up when I look at them. Sometimes a t looks like an f, or a b like a d, and then I get nervous, and they all just swim around like alphabet soup. They call it dyslexia now, but when I was a boy they just called it retarded.”

“There are lots of ways to help overcome that,” I said.

“Star works so hard at school. I want to show her that I’m willing to study hard too, that good effort can really pay off.”

“That’s truly admirable,” I said, but Len didn’t respond. After a few seconds I added, “We don’t want to intrude on your life where you don’t want us, but are there other ways that Family Friends could help you, in addition to the tutoring?”

“I’d like it a whole lot if there was a woman who would make friends with Star and Sunny. They need someone with a softer touch than an old man, someone who understands girls. At least better than I do. They’ve got no one to talk to about hair and clothes and female stuff, except for each other. They are good children, but I think they need some female guidance.”