Chapter Thirteen
Consequences
It hadn’t take Mr. Norton long to tie Tom Jacobs up in the tractor shed. The police arrived a half an hour after Mr. Norton and took over the investigation. It took the Halliwells another two hours to drive out from town and to convince the ferry captain to risk the trip on the wind chopped lake.
Mrs. Norton had driven over with her husband and as soon as she was sure that the girls had not been harmed by Jacobs, she made Shay get in a warm bath to take care of her frostbite. Mr. Norton gave Shay some medication to help her cope with the pain that was winding its way from her toes up her legs, as the warm bath water began to get her blood circulating properly through her lower body.
As Shay bathed, Mrs. Norton talked with Grace and Larissa in the hallway outside the bathroom.
“I don’t know what you girls were thinking!” she said repeatedly. “You’ve spent the last few weeks lying to us all and not reporting a serious crime, and to top it off you almost got yourselves killed by that crazy man. Shay was almost frozen to death in the storm! Grace Norton you are grounded till you’re seventeen, and Larissa,” she said pointing at the shaking young girl, “you can be sure that Jolene will have something to say to you and Shay about all this sneaking around.”
The Constable who had arrested Jacobs called for back up and more police soon found Barbara Gillies and arrested her. It was another hour still before the Constable at the house was informed that Ginger had been located and was alive, safe and talking. So far, she had verified everything that Shay, Grace, and Larissa had told the police.
“You have to protect Ginger,” Shay pleaded with the Constable. “Her dad will hurt her when he finds out about the pictures. It might be the same for Sharon.”
The Constable had called Child Protection and although Shay wasn’t sure what was going to be done, she knew that Ginger and Sharon would be protected for now. Once the Halliwells arrived, Mr. and Mrs. Norton had taken Grace home immediately, without giving the three girls any time to say good bye.
Finally, the last of the police left the house. Sue Osner, the social worker, had called three times and made it clear that while she couldn’t get to the Halliwell’s tonight in the snowstorm, her only decision would be whether to move Shay and Larissa to the first available home right away, or wait till she found a suitable placement.
“I don’t even know what to say to you girls,” said Jolene as she sat with them in the living room after Dave had gone to bed.
Shay and Larissa sat on the fire-heated floor beside the wood stove, sipping at their hot chocolate. Even the warmth of the fire and the quilts wrapped around their shoulders didn’t seem enough to completely get rid of the chill that had settled in them. Shay’s toes still hurt but Jolene had given Shay a pair of warm woollen socks to put on and the pain medication was keeping the worst of it at bay.
“There’s going to be you know what to pay after your social workers get the whole story tomorrow,” Jolene shook her head. “I don’t know what your grandparents are going to say about all this, Larissa.” Shay could see the hurt in Jolene’s expression as she had listened to all that her foster children had been doing behind her back.
“I’m so sorry we lied to you” Shay said truthfully. “I just couldn’t stand to lose the horses.”
“The horses!” Jolene almost spat out the tea she had just sipped. “You knew there were other girls in danger who were doing things that were bad and illegal, but you didn’t have the sense to tell anyone like you should have! And worse yet, you put yourselves in the way of a bunch of crazy criminals who would have killed you if they’d had another chance.”
“We were both raised by criminals,” Larissa said softly. “It’s just not that big a deal to us.”
Shay stared for a moment at Larissa and then she looked at Jolene who sat silent. “She’s right, Jolene,” Shay said at last. “We might as well be from a different planet than you and the Norton’s. Being in foster care isn’t a reward, you know. We end up here because kids like us are raised around all kinds of stuff that people like you never see in your whole life. We watched our own parents and the other adults do things that were illegal and sometimes horrible. And we grew up learning to keep secrets and to not trust adults. That’s just the way life is for kids like us. We knew what we should have done, but it just wasn’t as important as saving the horses… because if we lost them, that would just be the beginning of losing everything, and we’d never, ever have anything good in our lives again. It would just all go away, like all the good things always do.”
Jolene still said nothing. Her silence bothered Shay more than any words could have done.
“I know you’re going to move me now. I’ll have to go live somewhere else,” Shay pulled the quilt tightly around her, needing all the pretence of security it allowed. “I just hope you’ll let Larissa stay here. She just followed me, she didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
Jolene finally put her tea cup down, then stood up and walked over to where Shay sat by the burning wood stove. “Stand up girl,” she said. Shay stood up slowly. Jolene stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Shay. “I know you don’t like to be touched, but this time you’re going to stand there and let me hug you,” she said. Shay stood still, struggling stubbornly against the tears that threatened to fall, unwanted, down her cheeks. Jolene pulled back and looked at Shay. “Neither of you are going anywhere if I can help it,” she said, stroking Shay’s long hair. “I don’t care what planet you girls started life on, you’re on my planet now, and you’re staying here.”
“Do you mean that, Jolene?” Larissa asked as she hopped up from the floor, half dropping her quilt from excitement. “Can we stay? Both of us? Because I don’t want to lose Shay.”
“I won’t lie to you girls, we’re going to have a fight on our hands,” Jolene said honestly as she stroked Shay’s hair. “Dave and I aren’t going to look too good to the social workers and they’ve got every right to think they should move you both to some foster home that can watch you better than we did. And I don’t know what I can say to them about that. After all, we didn’t have a clue about what you girls were up to. But then, neither did the Norton’s, so if we give a good argument, I think that maybe they’ll let you stay. Anyway,” Jolene said with a smile, “let’s be honest here. Where else are they going to put two girls who break up porn rings and take down a grown man who has a gun?”
Shay tried to say thank you but she couldn’t get a sound out; her voice felt trapped in her throat. She stepped back from Jolene’s embrace and looked at the floor. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper.
Jolene smiled and nodded. “Time for bed,” she said. “The police want to question you both some more in the morning. Shay, after we get you and those toes to a doctor, you girls can bet we’ll have social workers and news paper reporters here all day, so we need to be ready and alert. I’m going to have to see what baking I have in the freezer because all those people are going to want to eat.”
Shay limped toward the stairs. It was hard for her to really grasp that Jolene was going to try to keep her. As she trailed up the stairs behind Larissa, trying not to step on the bottom of the quilt that dragged on the floor behind the younger girl, Shay could feel her tense muscles starting to relax.
“Maybe I’ll finally belong somewhere,” she said quietly.
“What did you say?” Larissa asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Shay said. “Come on, let’s go to bed.”
Shay listened to the noises that Larissa made as she burrowed under her covers and wiggled about on the bunk above. The very sounds that had annoyed Shay so much only a few weeks before, now gave her a feeling of comfort. Best of all, she knew that Jolene would keep her word and would fight with the social workers to let the girls stay with her and Dave.
It wasn’t quite like having a real family, Shay thought. But maybe, just maybe, her life was now and forever more than good enough.
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THE END
About the author
Brenda McCreight PhD is a therapist, author, and consultant specializing in services for individuals and families dealing with challenges such as stress, depression, family relationships, life transitions and early childhood trauma. Brenda is the author of several books related to adoption as well as several fiction books. She is also the mom of a very large family and she enjoys gardening and raising chickens. Check out her blog at https://www.theadoptioncounselor.com/Blog or her new “Brenda’s book blog” which will be up and running shortly.
Fiction
Cleah: The Fury Chronicles – The Otherworld – Stepping through the mists that separate the Worlds, a young orphan slave finds romance and adventure, but can she find the clues to her origins?
Regards – A collection of short stories about betrayal, heartbreak, courage, and redemption.
Non-fiction
Family Matters – How to Strengthen Your Family Without Paying a Therapist or Changing Your Lives – this book is full of effective strategies that will help your family navigate the tough times that await us all.
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