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* * *
It took me forever to remember where the house was where King had taken me when he’d parked and waited, hoping for just a glimpse of his little girl.
I’d only seen the back of the house then, and with only a vague recollection of where it was; it had taken me the better part of the morning to finally find it.
I reminded myself that foster kids moved around from place to place all the time. The possibility was high that she wouldn’t even still be there.
I had to try anyway.
I waiting across the street in a vacant lot, for what seemed like hours in the blistering heat. When front door opened and out came a shorthaired woman holding the hands of two little kids about the same age.
Between the picture on King’s dresser and the small glimpse of her I’d gotten the only night I’d ever seen her, I recognized her right away.
Max.
The woman maneuvered the children into a waiting mini-van. I followed them to a building where other men and women were shuffling their kids in through the door. A wooden sign, barely legible, having been faded by the brutal Florida sun, announced that the place was called Maria’s Learning Academy and Day Care Center. The woman who brought Max inside emerged from the childfree. I waited until she drove off to make my move.
I tried my best to dewrinkle my knee-length pleated skirt with the palms of my hands, but there was only so much I could do after hours straddling the moped. I ran my fingers through my hair and took a deep breath.
Bells chimed when I walked through the door. Sounds of laughing and crying children sailed through the air. It smelled like disinfectant and sugar. “Can I help you?” asked a bright-eyed pudgy woman sitting behind a partition.
I plastered on the biggest and brightest smile I could muster.
You can do this.
“You sure can, ma’am. I’ll be taking classes at the university in the fall and I’m looking for a great day-care for my son. I was hoping to tour your facility,” I said sweetly.
The woman examined my face like she was waiting for me to tell her the punch line to a joke. “You’re just a baby yourself. ” she quipped. “You aint old enough to have babies of your own. ” Her eyes were soft and kind.
“Don’t I know it,” I agreed. “So how about you show me around a bit?” I pressed.
She shook her head and shuffled around some papers on her desk. “Oh, I’m sorry darlin’. Maria, the director, isn’t here and she’s the only one authorized to give tours. It’s a safety thing and we’re all about the safety here. ” Another worker wearing the same turquois shirt as the receptionist entered the waiting area. She gave a little wave and Audrey pushed a button on the wall next to her. A buzzing sound came from above the door that connected the tiny waiting area with the rest of the building. The woman opened the door and passed through and when it closed again it made a loud clicking sound. “See?” She pointed toward the door. “Safety first. ”
“Oh,” My face fell and my shoulders slumped.
She explained further, “She is usually here around this time, so you can come back tomorrow if you want. But if she doesn’t attend the public funding meetings, then we don’t get the foster kids, and if we don’t get the foster kids, then we have to rely on the families who can afford day-care. ” She sighed. “Which means I’d be out of a job cause there ain’t many of those these days. ”
My confidence suddenly renewed, I leaned into her window and smiled sweetly. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Names Audrey, Miss,” She answered with her own sweet smile.
“Well, Audrey, if funding is your problem, I happen to know a senator that might be able to help you out…”
Five minutes later I was following around Audrey as she gave me a personal tour of the day-care center. I wasn’t lying about the funding. I would talk to the senator and see if I could help them.
I just didn’t know if it would work.
Audrey brought me out into the main room filled with cafeteria-style tables that were low to the ground, with equally tiny chairs surrounding them. “We feed them both breakfast and lunch plus two snacks. The rooms are arranged by age. Babies in one. One year old in another, and so-on…” Audrey kept talking but when I spotted Max only feet from where I stood, I faked interest in the bulletin board hanging above the table she was sitting at.
“That’s our activities board,” Audrey said, coming up to stand bedside me. “That’s the schedule of music time, numbers time…” Her voice faded into the background when another one chimed in.
“You’re really pwetty,” sang a small sweet voice. I looked down into familiar bright green eyes that literally took my breath away. They were the same color as his, but where King’s eyes held the harsh and bitter reality of the life he’d lived, hers were void of any contempt and alive with innocence.
I knelt down next to her. “Thank you. You are too,” I said. She giggled, her little tiny square teeth reminded me of Sammy. She chewed on her fingertips.
“I like dis,” Max said, reaching out to touch a bracelet I’d put on that morning, in an effort to look more like the Ray Price in the framed pictures in my room.
I pointed to the tiny purple plastic bracelet on her little wrist. “I like yours even better. ”
Audrey cleared her throat. “I’d like to show you to the playground. It’s modernized and we firmly believe in at least thirty minutes of physical activity a day as long as it’s not hotter than the surface of the sun outside. ”
“I have to go,” I told Max, who hung her head in disappointment. “But I’m sure I’ll see you again,” I whispered, she lifted her head and her father’s eyes met mine. It hurt my heart, but I had to rip my gaze from hers so that I wouldn’t lose it right there in front of Audrey and the thirty or so toddlers in the room.
I stood to leave, but a tiny hand wrapped around one of my fingers and tugged. “Here,” Max, whispered. She took off the purple plastic bracelet and put it around my wrist.
My heart exploded in a flurry of warmth.
Love at first sight was not something reserved for lovers, because that day I’d truly experienced it. In the span of three minutes, I’d lost my heart all over again.
I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to pick her up and run as fast as I could out of the buzzing door and take her and Sammy back to the house on stilts.
First things first, I told myself.
I unclasped the silver and gold roped bracelet from around my wrist. I knelt down again, and with my back to Audrey, I carefully looped the delicate chain around Max’s little wrist, twice.
I didn’t stay to see her reaction to my gift; afraid that if I spent one more second with her I wouldn’t be able to walk out the door.
I stood and turned back around to Audrey, hoping she wouldn’t notice the sudden pain in my voice or tears in my eye. “Now show me this wonderful playground,” I said, with a sniffle.
Audrey continued her tour and as I followed her I felt the gaze of a pair of beautiful green eyes on my back as I walked out the door and into the blinding light of day.
Chapter Sixteen
Doe
When I told my father that King was dead, his only concern was how the hell he’d gotten out of prison in the first place. I didn’t have the time or energy to explain what had really happened, because what I really wanted was his help. “I want to adopt King’s daughter,” I told him, standing in front of his desk while he clicked away on his computer.
The senator rolled his eyes. “You’re a teenager with no source of income. The court isn’t exactly going to look upon you favorably for an adoption,” he’d told me, clicking away at the keyboard on his computer.
“You said you know the judge. You can put a word in,” I stated.
“Yes, that I can do. But that’s just a recommendation, Ramie. Even with a favor from the judge you’re still going to have to follow proper procedure. Being a single w
oman is not looked upon as being a favorable applicant. ”
“Then I’ll fix that. ”
* * *
“It will increase my chances of being able to adopt her,” I finished. I was sitting on Tanner’s couch in the pool house while Sammy watched TV, wrapped up in his favorite blanket on the floor. Every so often he would look back at me, and after seeing that I was still there, he’d smile and turn back to Elmo.
“Okay,” Tanner agreed, way too quickly.
I shook my head. “No, Tanner. It’s not that easy. You have to take time to think about it. Just because it wouldn’t be a traditional marriage and on paper only doesn’t mean it won’t affect your life in some ways. You have to consider all that before you make a decision, and come to think of it, there really is no upside in all this for you, so you’d have to be crazy to agree to it. ”
Tanner wagged his index finger in the air. “And this is why you were never on the debate team, Ray,” Tanner said. “You’re arguing the wrong side,” he added.
“I’m serious,” I said. “This is serious. ”
Tanner smiled. “I know. And I know it doesn’t mean much but I really am sorry about King. ” It was the first time Tanner had said his name.