Page 15 of Fortuity
ChapterSix
Faith
“Ineedyourhelp.”
I’d met with Elaine Montgomery a total of five times, including the lunch when we’d first met. Over the course of three months, she pulled together almost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to donate to the foster kids attending my school. Her version of “not much” had turned out to be two hundred dollars per student on an ongoing basis, split between cash and a variety of giftcards.
During that time, she’d texted me a bunch of times to check in. She usually started out by asking if there was anything specific the kids needed. Like last month, she made sure one of the gift cards was to a local Halloween store so everyone could get costumes. There were a lot of themed parties on campus, and she didn’t want any of us missing out on the fun just because we couldn’t afford to dress up like everyone else. She’d also arranged for us all to get a big discount so our purchases were super affordable. I’d even gotten in on the action, dressing up like a Disney princess. And not even a slutty one to the horror of the girls I hung out with that night. But it was the first time I’d ever had a real Halloween costume, and I figured I’d might as well live out one of my childhood fantasies if I was going to spend money—even if it was someone else’s—on somethinglikethat.
But our text conversations slowly morphed from all business into something more personal over time. Elaine made sure to ask how I was doing. If I’d done any more visits to local high schools. She’d even gotten in the habit of quizzing me on the boys in my life; or the lack of them really since I wasn’t datinganyone.
Although we’d grown closer, she only ever called when she wanted to arrange to meet up for an envelope handoff. And the last time was just a few days ago. Otherwise, she stuck to texts, so having her call unexpectedly let me know something serious was going on even before herrequest.
She’d never asked for anything in return for her generosity, until now, and there was only one answer I could give. “Whateveryouneed.”
“My son got into a spot oftrouble.”
“Okay.” With just one word, I managed to convey my confusion about how I could help him. The Montgomerys had money. Lots of it. I’d only managed to keep my savings at its thousand-dollar balance because Elaine insisted on including an envelope for me each time we met. I couldn’t conceive of a situation where I’d be able to fix something their money couldn’thandle.
“Our family”—she paused, clearing her throat as though it was hard to get the next words out—“suffered a loss a few years ago. We’ve all struggled with it, but Dillon had a hard time finding a coping mechanism that helped him through the grief. When he started gambling, we tried to be understanding about it. We figured it was better than binge drinking or drugs. Or less risky, atleast.”
I flashed back to the dingy living room where I’d found my mom’s lifeless body. “I’ve seen what drugs can do to a person, and less risky is anunderstatement.”
“He seemed to have it under control, for the most part. He’s barely dipped into his trust fund to pay back his losses. We thought maybe he was winning enough that he didn’t get in too deep, or he had it under control enough that he was able to limit the gambling to his monthly allocation from the trust. I’m not entirely certain because it always turned into a huge argument whenever we brought it up with him, and we were worried about pushing too hard. We didn’t want to risk him pulling away from us completely. It would destroy his fatherandme.”
I didn’t live in a world where things like trust funds and monthly allocations fit into everyday conversation. Or where people cared enough to ask questions, let alone backed off because they were worried about pushing a loved one away. It sounded to me like Elaine’s son had no idea how good he had it. He was probably an entitled jerk, but I’d still help if I could because his mom was anything but that. She was kind, generous, and clearly concerned about her son. “You said he got into trouble? Whathappened?”
“He showed up to dinner on Sunday night with a black eye and said it was because some hothead got in his face at the casino.” She heaved a deep sigh before continuing. “He tried telling us that it wasn’t a big deal, but it wasn’t just a black eye. His knuckles were red and a little swollen too, which means the gambling has gotten bad enough that now he’s getting into fights. We were willing to give Dillon his space before because we thought he hadn’t let it go too far. But we can’t afford to ignore a warning sign like this and let things get worse. So his father and I have put our proverbialfootdown.”
“Is that where I come in?” I still had no idea how I could help with any of what she wasdescribing.
“Yes, we told Dillon that he needs to give back to the community by volunteering, and I was hoping you’d let him workwithyou.”
Huh.I hadn’t seen that request coming, but maybe I should have. “Like a kind of probation? Where he has to do enough hours to make you worry less about the fight hegotinto?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “One enforced by us, but it isn’t his freedom that’s at risk—it’s histrustfund.”
I didn’t know how much money was in that account, but I was willing to bet it was more than I’d ever earn in my lifetime. So there was a lot at stake for her son. He would probably be on his best behavior if I came up with a way for him to help out. Which I was going to do since it was Elaine asking. But still, I wanted to cringe at the idea of being responsible in any way for a guy who had so much but seemed to care so little. “How much time did you want him to spendvolunteering?”
“As much as you’ll let him,” she sighed. “But I don’t want to be too much of a bother. I know you’re already juggling a challenging course load, everything you do for the students on campus with you, plus high school visits to encourage more foster kids to applynextyear.”
“Elaine,” I bit out to get her attention since she was on a roll with all the reasons I should say no to what she was asking me to do. “Just tell me what you need, and we’ll figureitout.”
“Areyousure?”
If I hadn’t already been positive after everything she’d done for me and all the foster kids on campus, seeing how worried she was about being a bother would have been enough to convince me. “I’m one hundred percentcertain.”
“Okay. Great. I think thiswillwork.”
It sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that more than me. “I’m sure it will; once we figure out exactly what ‘this’is.”
“As a parent, you do everything you can to protect your children. To keepthemsafe.”
If only that were true for all parents.My head dropped low, and I squeezed my eyes shut as though it would block out the reality of how different my mom and Dillon’s were. My mother had never been concerned for my safety. She sure hadn’t done anything to protect me, either. Dillon was damn lucky his mom and dad wanted to keep him safe because so many others certainly didn’t care about their kids. I was surrounded by the proof of that sad fact each andeveryday.
“You give them every advantage you can, and in our case, we had a lot to give Dillon and...” she trailed off. I got the impression she was holding back tears. I wasn’t great with handling people who were crying since I tended to wall up my own emotions and didn’t share them with others. So I waited, feeling super awkward, until she pulled herself together andcontinued.
“By spending time with your group, I’m hoping Dillon will get to know some of you. Become familiar with your stories. See that there are people in this world who’ve faced overwhelming obstacles and come outahead.”
