Razorblade Kisses(70)
She brought their ice cream over to the table he’d found for them. He was sitting quietly, looking through the iPad. “Let me show you what I got for you,” she said, sitting next to him and hitting the icon for the app.
“There’s more?” he signed.
She typed.
“Yes, there’s more,” a computerized voice rang out.
Lucas looked stunned.
“So now you can type in whatever you want to say and teachers will know what you need or that you know the answers to all the questions.” Emery slid the device toward him.
He looked at it and then up at Emery. She took a bite of her ice cream and smiled, not wanting to push him.
“Thank you,” the computerized voice said.
She clapped and smiled. “Awesome, dude!”
He signed, asking her if they could still use sign language.
“Of course,” she answered and ruffled his hair.
Thirty minutes later she was pulling onto Lucas’s street.
“You know, dude, I’m going to take the iPad back up to the school so that it will stay there, okay?”
He nodded and started fiddling with the hem of his Wolverine t-shirt.
“What’s wrong?”
He just shook his head. Emery parked and got out of the car. Lucas ran ahead of her and opened the door. A man burst through the door, almost knocking Lucas down in the process.
“Move your fucking car so I can get out!” he yelled as he passed her. The man reeked of alcohol. He was sporting a mullet, tight Wranglers, and an old Georgia Bulldog t-shirt on his too skinny frame.
“Oh, sorry.” Emery was taken aback at the language he used in front of Lucas.
She moved her car and the truck barreled off.
Lucas was still standing in the doorway when she walked up the front steps. One of the steps was missing, so it was a stretch to get to the porch.
“Where you been?” Emery heard a voice call from the house.
Lucas stepped back and Emery stuck her head in. “Hi, Trina, I brought him home from school today.”
“Aw, shit,” the woman responded. She was sprawled out on the couch, an empty bottle of cheap vodka next to her.
Emery stepped inside. “Have you been drinking?”
Lucas grabbed her hand and started shaking his head.
Trina lifted herself from the couch slowly. “What? Now I can’t even have a fucking drink in my own fucking house without you people coming in and trying to take my kid?” She motioned wildly at Emery.
“I don’t care what you do, ma’am, except when it impacts Lucas.”
“Oh, you don’t care, huh?”
Emery kept her voice calm. “I care about your son and that he’s getting everything he needs.”
“Lucas, why don’t you go in your room and let me talk to this lady.” Trina’s dirty blond hair was in desperate need of a dye job. Her eyes were crusted over with last night’s mascara.
Lucas squeezed Emery’s hand tighter and shook his head.
“Do what the fuck I tell you to do. Now.” Trina reached out and pushed him toward the back of the house.
“It’s okay, Lucas. I’ll see you later, okay?”
He nodded and ran down the hall.
“Ma’am, I’m not saying you can’t drink, but I’ll have to put in a report regarding your intoxication at 3:30 in the afternoon, when your son returned from school.”
“You just want to get my kid taken from me, don’t you? Isn’t that what all you bitches want?” Trina was now inches from Emery. “You think he’ll have it better in a foster home? You don’t know shit. He has a house and goes to school. What the fuck else does he need?”
“I just want what’s best for Lucas. I can understand it’s overwhelming for a parent of a kid with special needs.” Emery was using her training to keep calm when she really wanted to take Lucas and run.
Trina let out a disgusted laugh. “Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it, honey.”
“Ma’am,” Emery tried again.
“Get the fuck out of my house unless you’ve set up an observation.”
Emery was torn. She didn’t want to leave Lucas here, with this…but there wasn’t anything she could do now, at least legally. She turned and walked slowly to her car.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Tattoo
On that Saturday night, Emery was driving like a bat out of hell to get to the hospital. It was 2:12 am when she received the call and she’d left her house immediately pulling on boots and a sweater she found on the floor of her closet over her pajamas. She was hoping to make it to Savannah General within twenty minutes. The cops had called her because she was Lucas’s DFCS case worker and he’d “been in an accident.”