GEORGE STORMED into the dark kitchen with both of his hands up in the air. Kurt had been screaming and crying in his bedroom for two hours, calling desperately for his mother, and George had exhausted every idea he could think of to calm the boy down. Muttering to himself, he sat down beside Shelley, who had spent so much time writing poetry earlier that she was now forced to finish her homework in the dark.
The Mart Education System turned out to be less horrific than Shelley had thought it would be, and despite her initial desire to give up, she seemed to be coming around. She was still reluctant to make any new friends, but she did find the decreased academic pace to be a refreshing mental break. She was scheduled to test for job allocation tomorrow, and she held hope that her many years of Corp education would set her above the other students. If she was going to be a part of the Mart Segregate, she was determined to be the highest-ranking Mart employee there was. Maybe she could even have another shot at a career that involved writing.
"Can you do something about Kurt?" George finally snapped, his left eyelid beginning to twitch.
Frustrated and probably even more tired than George, Shelley dropped her pen and went to console the boy. Kurt lay on his bed, crying out in heavy, anguished sobs, and he barely noticed when Shelley entered the room.
"Hey, you," she said, sitting down beside him.
"It's not fair! I need her here!" Kurt cried. "Mommy!" he screamed after working a moment to catch his breath. "Mommy! Please come back!"
Shelley wanted to cry with him, but he needed her strength right now more than her added mourning. "How about I tell you a story?"
"I don't want a story—I want my Mommy!"
Shelley tried to think quickly, heartbroken over Kurt's pitiful display. She hugged him as tightly as she could. He continued to scream and cry, but after only a moment, he closed his eyes, calmed down, and hugged her back. He took long, shaky breaths, whimpering here and there, reveling in Shelley's maternal embrace. She wasn't his mom, but she would have to do.
Shelley kept silent and still, afraid that any quick movement might set him off again.
Kurt had acted out in class several times since their mother's passing, refusing to do his work, and even picking fights with other classmates. George didn't know how to discipline him, given what they had all endured throughout the past few weeks, and he feared that the boy was at the beginning stage of a behavior problem he might not be able to fix. Virginia's death had left a painful void, and he knew that Shelley and Kurt both felt that same emptiness. He didn't know how to fill the void for any of them, and so he convinced himself that going to work and paying for Kurt's expensive education might compensate for at least some of the boy's loss. With Kurt's recent behavior, however, George had to wonder if he was working as hard as he was, only to be wasting his money on educating the wrong child.
It was too late to change his decision now, as reintegration into the Corp Education System for Shelley would be an expensive and lengthy process, despite the fact that she had only just begun to attend the Mart school. He needed to regain control of his family before the legacy he and Virginia had worked so hard for was crushed for good. But how could he convince a seven-year-old to look to the future when he couldn't even help him move past all he was suffering through right now?
There was a knock at the door, and George slowly got up to see who would be rude enough to come by unannounced after dusk. He looked through the peephole, surprised to see William nervously waiting on the other side. Suspicious of William's intentions, George called to him through the door. "What do you want?"
"We need to talk," he said, turning back to make sure Judith hadn't come out behind him.
"What about?"
William impatiently shifted from one foot to the next, and then looked straight to the peephole. "It's about Virginia. I think she might not be dead."
George swung open the door and quickly joined William in the hallway, quietly closing the door behind him. He charged toward William, backing him into the wall across the way. "What the hell are you trying to pull?"
"Do you think I'd lie to you about something like this?" William asked, squirming away from the wall in an attempt to put some distance between the two of them.
George had his face right up to William's, and his breath irritated William's nose as he spoke: "I don't know what to think anymore! But if either of my kids hears you, so help me, I'll make sure you hurt as much as they do over it!"
"She came by on Friday, about an hour before you got home," William insisted.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" George growled.
William looked hesitant. With a deep breath, he looked George straight in the eyes, his face terrified and sincere. "She wasn't human anymore," he said, and then quickly added with a flinch, "Please don't hit me!"
George backed away from William, his thoughts falling into a jumbled mass. Feeling dizzy and weak, he backed to the wall on his side of the hallway and leaned against it to keep from falling over.
Judith came out and stormed over to William. "What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing!" William quickly said.
"You told him, didn't you?" Her voice went deep and angry. She turned to George. "It wasn't her! People don't just turn into deviants!"
With Judith's angry prompting, William went back into their apartment and the door slammed shut.
George fought to remain on his feet, his legs transformed to gelatin, his knees threatening to buckle. He made his way back into his apartment, bracing himself against the door as he closed it. Searching for the strength, he made his way to Kurt's bedroom to ensure that neither he nor Shelley had heard William's claims.
Kurt slept in Shelley's quiet arms.
She looked up as George came to the door. "Dad, what's wrong?"
"I have an errand I have to run after work tomorrow. Can you pick up Kurt and hold the fort until I get home?" he asked, his voice a hushed whisper.
Shelley shrugged, looking tired. "Is tomorrow macaroni night?"
He patted her on the shoulder. "Can you do me this favor?"
She nodded. "Yeah. No problem."
"I really appreciate it," he said. He felt his pocket and the stolen information, and a strange sense of relief came over him when he felt that the paper was right where he had left it.
Shelley sat up, her eyes blinking away the sleep forcing its way on her. "Go ahead and turn out the bathroom light. I think I'm stuck right here for the time being."
George nodded, and then switched off the dim light.
He moved through the darkness, feeling his way into his bedroom, and then stopped beside the box where Virginia's ashes supposedly lay. He felt the ring that still rested on his left finger, and he fell to his knees. Closing his eyes despite the darkness, he silently began to pray.