A s soon as Kandi got what she wanted, she was gone. I was left feeling like a skunked dog, knowing that kids at school were gonna start holding their noses around me and whispering behind my back. Did you hear? Lincoln spends his afters in a looney bin! His mom works there changing crazy geezers’ diapers!
Ma wanted to know who my friend was, and she asked like it was something exciting.
I went at her like a snapping turtle. “She’s not my friend! I hate her!”
Ma tried finding out more, but I shut her down. And since she was still on the clock, she left me alone at my table, where I pictured everything that would happen at school the next day over and over in my mind until it felt like I belonged in Crazy Town.
With all that had happened at school and after, I’d forgotten about what had happened before—about the Snickers and Levi and the tattletale wrapper.
Ma hadn’t.
My first reminder was when I saw Ma pack up leftovers. That made everything else flood back and made me want to stay put at my table in Crazy Town, even though Paula was tapping, and Debbie was shouting, and Ruby was trying to pull off her clothes.
Anything was better than facing Ma about the Snickers.
But instead of lighting into me like I’d been dreading, Ma was quiet on the walk to the bus stop. And then on the bus, she was still not acting mad when she said, “There’s something I need to explain to you.”
I waited, not sure where this was going.
“You’re eleven,” she said.
It didn’t sound like she was asking this time, but she did have a worried look on her face. Like my being eleven might be a deadly condition. “So?”
“So if something happens to you while I’ve left you home alone, they could take you from me.”
“What? Why?”
“Because here you need to be twelve to be left alone.”
“Why?”
“It’s the law. Ellie told me. I didn’t believe her at first, but I checked, and it’s true. And if social workers found out you were on your own and saw where we’re living…”
“What’s wrong with where we’re livin’?”
Her look threw me back into the zoo. Only instead of making me feel like some freak creature in a cage, this look said I was something cute and cuddly. “Ma! Why you lookin’ at me like that?”
She kissed me on the forehead and sighed. “Oh, Lincoln.”
This was definitely not going the way I’d expected. And something about that made me blurt out, “Ma, I’m sorry for sneaking out, okay? It was just downstairs. That’s all.”
“I’m more worried about the lying.”
“I didn’t lie!”
“You did some pretty fancy dodging, which has the same intention.”
I looked down.
“I’m also worried about where you got the money.”
I frowned and thought hard about how to answer.
“Lincoln. Tell me.”
“You have to promise not to…not to do anything.”
“Do anything like what?”
“Like anything!”
“Child, if you’re gettin’ mixed up in—”
“I’m not. I’m not mixed up in anything. I got three dollars for helping an old lady, okay?”
The rest came busting out like a sack of marbles scattering across the floor. I told her about breaking down a door, taking off a door, and fixing up a door. And I tried to hold back about the kitty litter and garbage and the three dollars being hush money, but that all clattered out, too. By the time I quit talking, my sack of secrets was empty.
I held my breath, watching Ma collect all the things I’d said. She seemed to be picking them up one at a time.
Carefully.
Putting them inside a sack of her own.
“Ma,” I said. “Mrs. Graves doesn’t want folks knowin’. Or interferin’.”
Ma nodded. “Like I don’t want folks knowin’. Or interferin’.”
What she was saying took a second to sink in. “You mean with us?”
“Mm-hmm.” She shook her head. “But with us, you’re getting bigger and stronger. With her…it’s just downhill. And if she can’t even open her bathroom door…?”
“That’s not a problem anymore.” I frowned. “She doesn’t want to wind up at Brookside.”
Ma frowned back. “She’d be lucky to wind up at Brookside. Most places aren’t near as nice as Brookside.”
“So why’s Suzie York always lookin’ for a way out?”
Ma kept quiet.
“Besides, Mrs. Graves remembered my name. And it’s not like she can’t throw out her garbage. She just doesn’t want to.”
“And why’s that?”
“She…she’s waitin’ for the stuff to come in handy.”
Ma leveled a look at me, then shook her head again and sighed. “Lincoln, she needs help.”
“She doesn’t think so!” I leaned back and crossed my arms. “And after today, I’m done with folks meddlin’ in my business, and I sure don’t want to meddle in theirs.” I shot her an arrow-eye. “Or have a ma who does.”
She checked me over. “Does this have to do with that girl?”
I gave a snort, and on the subject of Kandi Kain, that’s all I was spillin’.
When we got to the corner market, Levi was not in his spot.
Another guy was.
The new guy was younger but had long stringy hair and watery eyes. His sign said:
WHY LIE? I NEED A BEER!
Ma offered him the wrapped-up leftovers, and he took them but didn’t thank her. And after we’d set off toward the gate, the food came flying at us, hitting Ma in the back. “I ain’t no dog,” he yelled.
Ma grabbed me when I made like I was gonna clock him, and she pulled me along quick, without even looking back.
After we’d ducked through the gate, she held still a minute, then took a deep breath and said, “It’s been a day full of learnin’.”
It seemed crazy to me that she’d say that after being smacked in the back with leftovers.
Then again, it seemed like the only sane way to sum up the day.