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Emma
Her mother hadn’t called the woman Mrs. DeGrave—this gave Emma enormous satisfaction. It could have been a mistake, but Emma didn’t think so. Her mother was frazzled, but she always called adults by their proper name when she talked to Emma.
Emma realized her mother was waiting for her to respond. “Mrs. Patterson said she wouldn’t help me bail him out unless I made sure Alexis wasn’t going to do it.”
Her mother stood up and put her hand on her head. “Emma, stop! You don’t need to bail anyone out! You’re being ridiculous! He beat someone up! He beat up a pastor! He deserves to be in jail! And don’t you take advantage of an elderly woman’s loneliness by letting her spend money to bail Jason DeGrave out of that jail!”
“But she’ll get the money back when he shows up in court!”
“Stop acting like you know everything!” She was shouting now. Apparently, the adult portion of their conversation was over. “She won’t get the money back because it will all go straight to his fine! So unless he pays her back, she won’t get paid back, and I highly doubt that thug is going to pay her back!”
“He’s not a thug!” Emma screamed back. She ripped the drawer open with such force that it came out of the desk. She snatched the directory and then let the wooden drawer crash to the floor.
“Emma!” her mother screamed. “You’re acting like a brat!”
Her mother sounded like she was stark raving mad. Emma realized she did not want to look like that, so she forced herself to calm down. Levelly, she said, “So are you.”
She didn’t know if it was her forced calm or the words themselves, but her comment didn’t land well. Her mother’s face drained. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that!” Her ashen skin made Emma feel guilty, but at least she wasn’t screaming anymore.
“Mom, I love you. I don’t want to fight with you. I just don’t understand how you’re thinking any of this. I don’t understand how you’re on Dad’s side.” She started toward the door. “Let me know if you change your mind. I’m going back to Mrs. Patterson’s.”
She hoped her mother would follow her or at least tell her to wait, but her mother did nothing. What was wrong with her? If someone had asked Emma a week ago how much her mother loved her father, she would have shrugged and said, “Not much?” Had she had it all wrong? And if it wasn’t love keeping her mother in that house, then what was it? It couldn’t be the fear of losing Emma because Emma had promised she wouldn’t let that happen.
She didn’t have to knock this time. Mrs. Patterson opened the door before she even got there. “Did you call?”
“Not yet. I had to get out of the house. But I’ve got the number.” At least, she had the directory; she hoped she also had the number. She flipped through the heavily photocopied pages until she got to the Ds. Sure enough, there was Alexis DeGrave. Her stomach turned. She took her phone out. She had to hurry up and do this before she lost her nerve. She dialed the number and waited.
“Hello?” a tired voice answered.
“Mrs. DeGrave?” She defaulted to the formal name out of habit and wanted to kick herself for her politeness.
“Yes?”
“This is Emma Mendell. Are you planning to bail Jason out of jail?”
“I can’t,” she whispered.
A man’s voice boomed in the background. “Who are you talking to?” He didn’t give her time to answer, and his voice was closer when he said, “Are you talking to him?”
“No!” she said quickly. “It’s one of Jason’s friends.”
Despite the situation, Emma got a little thrill out of being called Jason’s friend. Interesting how Alexis had left Emma’s name out of it, though.
“Do you know if anyone is going to bail him out?” Emma said quickly. She sensed the conversation didn’t have much time left.
She was right. “I can’t help you,” Alexis said quickly and then there was silence.
Emma looked at her phone to verify that the call was over, and sure enough, the timer had stopped. She looked at Mrs. Patterson.
“That didn’t go well.”
Emma shook her head. “No, it didn’t.” She chewed on her lip. “Now what?”
At first Mrs. Patterson didn’t say anything. But then she asked, “He’s honestly a nice boy? You’re not just saying that because you have a crush on him?”
Emma’s cheeks got hot. “He’s honestly a good person. And I don’t have a crush on him.”
“Mm-hmm. All right then. I guess we’ve got to go down to the county jail.”
Emma’s heart leapt in excitement. “Really?”
“Don’t make me say it twice. I might change my mind.”
