Lorna has said the wrong thing and feels a twinge of desperation. “But your family is different, and it’s really nice here.”
Mrs. Kleberg looks concerned. “Is something going on at home that you’d like to talk about?”
Lorna doesn’t really want to talk about it because it’s so embarrassing. But she trusts Mrs. Kleberg. And she knows she must make her case. Her experience with her father taught her that just wanting something isn’t enough. She nods slowly.
“You can tell me.”
So Lorna does. She tells Mrs. Kleberg about Kristen’s drug use and truancy. How her grandmother drinks until she passes out. How her mother and Kristen fight all the time and then Kristen runs away and stays out all night and doesn’t go to school. How her dad doesn’t want Lorna to live with him. How everything is getting worse, and no one seems to remember she’s even there.
When she has said it all, told every dark secret, Mrs. Kleberg wraps Lorna in a tight hug. She smells like caramel and vanilla.
Callie bounces back into the room with another load of laundry and looks curiously at the two of them. “What are y’all talking about?”
Her mom smiles at Lorna. “Lorna was just telling me about her house.”
“Did she tell you that her sister knows how to sneak out?” Callie asks with a giggle.
Mrs. Kleberg smooths Lorna’s unruly hair with her hand.
Later, when it’s time for Lorna to go home, Mrs. Kleberg hugs her and says things will get better, and in the meantime, she will think about what to do. Lorna takes that to mean she’s going to let her live here and practically skips home, planning how she will tell her mother. She will present it as an opportunity to focus entirely on Kristen. Or as one less mouth to feed—her mother complains about the cost of groceries a lot. She really thinks her mother won’t mind at all.
The next day, the spring semester begins. It’s a good day for the most part, but when Lorna comes home, she sees a police car and another unfamiliar car in front of her house. Last year, Kristen was arrested for shoplifting. Lorna feels a rush of panic and assumes she’s been arrested again. She hurries inside.
A police officer is with two people in suits who look like detectives on a cop show. Mom, Kristen, and Nana are all sitting on the couch. They look too relaxed, like they are having tea.Kristen doesn’t seem to be in trouble—there would be a lot of shouting and finger pointing if she were. So why are they here?
The two people—a man and a woman—introduce themselves to Lorna. They say they are from child protective services. “What’s that?” Lorna asks.
Her mother holds her cigarette over the frog ashtray Lorna made and then snuffs it out so hard Lorna fears she will crack the ceramic in two. “Have you been talking about us, Lorna?” she asks, her voice silvery smooth like it gets when she’s angry.
Fear creeps through Lorna. She doesn’t know what is happening right now, but she knows what she said to Mrs. Kleberg. “Umm...”
“Because someone out there seems to think that we are brawling and drinking in here every day.” Her mother doesn’t try to contain her anger, or Kristen her smirk, or Nana her embarrassment.
Lorna’s heart sinks. She trusted Mrs. Kleberg to help her. She is shaking with fear. Not of the police—of her mother.
“Mrs. Lott, please,” the suit-wearing woman says. “Lorna, may we speak to you privately?”
No one waits for Lorna to answer. She is taken into the dining room and made to sit. “You’re probably wondering why we are here,” the woman says.
“Yes,” Lorna says. “Something is messed up.”
“What’s messed up, Lorna?” the man asks.
“Huh?”
“You told a trusted adult about some things that have us concerned,” the lady says. “Has anyone hurt you? Or touched you inappropriately?”
“What?” Lorna is mortified. She never said anything like that. She feels like she might throw up. All she wanted was to be happy. Now she feels sick to her stomach and very much afraid. “No.”
“What is the trouble at home that prompted you to speak up? Whatever you say is safe with us.”
She doesn’t believe that. Nothing is safe anymore. Nothing will ever be safe again. Mom and Dad will be furious. Lorna tried to escape this house, but all she’s done is made things worse. The Klebergs are probably laughing at her. She’s humiliated—she can never go there again. She chokes when she thinks of Callie. They can’t be friends anymore. How could she even look at her? Mrs. Kleberg told thepolice. She probably won’t allow Callie to be her friend.
Lorna feels something harden in her. She knows in that moment she can never trust anyone again.
“Lorna... are you safe here?” the woman asks, leaning so close that Lorna can see the red in the whites of her eyes.
“Yes! I’m safe. I just wanted to spend the night with my friend.” A tear slides out of her eye and down her face.
