It's a Green Thing (7 page)

T
his afternoon I decided to get a summer job, and I plan to begin picking up applications on Monday. Not so much because I need the money. My dad's concert tour continues to be successful, and as a result he has been generous. He sends my uncle “more than enough” to cover my living expenses while I stay here. Plus, he sends me an additional thousand bucks a month. Okay, I think he's trying to make up for something—maybe a lot of somethings—but, hey, that's fine with me. It's not like I plan to send the money back.

And with my mom safely tucked away in prison (doing her time for various convictions on illegal drug charges), I've managed to accrue a nice little pile of savings. Oh, it doesn't equal what dear sweet Mom stole from me last summer. Shannon emptied out the account where I'd stockpiled my emancipation money—the funds I had planned to use to get free of her. But at least I've made a start.

Not that I'm obsessing over my emancipation plan so much these days. I mean, more than anything, I'd just like to experience
a “normal” life. If that's even possible. I'd like to be a normal teenage girl, with normal friends, doing normal things. After what I've lived through the past several years, BORING sounds perfectly delightful to me.

Of course, boring is probably one of those subjective things, sort of in the eyes of the beholder. For instance, I like to go out to where Aunt Patricia (that's Kim's mom, who died more than a year ago) had her garden. I've been trying to get everything back to how nice it must've been when she was alive and healthy. Because I love gardens, and I can be perfectly content out there for hours—just pulling weeds, working in compost, staking tomato plants, or watching a bumblebee fly. Nat (who lives next door) thinks I'm insane. But to be fair, I think she's insane too.

Anyway, I haven't completely given up on being emancipated. Although I try not to think about it, since it usually stirs up stressful memories about how dysfunctional life used to be. I so don't want to go back to that. Just the thought of being stuck with Shannon again is horrifying. I'd rather be locked up in prison. At least you'd know what to expect there.

And Shannon plans to appeal her sentencing. At first I thought no way would they let her out. But when I hear something on the news, like how a rapist was released, I get frightened. Not because I'm scared of the rapist. I'm afraid that my mom might be let out. What if she won her appeal? Shannon clean and sober can be very persuasive. And what if she went to court and demanded that I be returned to live with her? In my absence she
might convince a judge that daughters are supposed to be with their mothers. Seriously, stranger things have happened—even in my life. I think that perhaps the best thing would be to free myself of Shannon before she gets another chance to turn my world upside down. I mean, I'm still only sixteen. Sixteen going on thirty.

So I've decided to find a job, get my driver's license, and eventually buy a car. In other words, I'll get my ducks in a row and set myself up to be a free woman. Because it's occurred to me that Kim is going away to college in a few months. And my uncle, although a truly sweet man, might want some independence. I mean, he's been through a lot, dealing with his wife's illness, then losing her, raising his own teenage daughter, then taking in his crazy sister-in-law's teenage daughter. He might want a life of his own by next fall. Not that I get in his way or make myself a nuisance. At least I try not to. But who knows? He might want to sell this house and buy a sailboat and see the world. Or maybe he'd like to buy a condo in Florida. In fact, his mother lives down there. And a brother too, I think Kim said.

Anyway, I've decided to do all I can to be independent. I already have my GED, and according to my PSAT scores, I shouldn't have any difficulty getting into college. And here is where I pause and let out a long, loud, tired sigh. The truth is, I'm not sure I'm ready for all that just yet. I still long to be a normal teenage girl. But I need to be strong. I need to be ready to stand on my own two feet. So I will bite the bullet and just do this. And to that end,
I asked Uncle Allen to take me to the DMV (when convenient) so I can take my driver's test. He suggested Monday afternoon. I can't wait.

Okay, enough about me. Oh yeah, this is my diary, and I'm supposed to write about myself. But I have something else to write about—something I'm trying not to obsess over, but it is bugging me. Earlier today I tried to set up a time to take the mural paint crew out for pizza. This sounds easier than it was.

I called Marissa first, but she was too sleepy to talk. “Whatever,” she muttered. “Just let me know.” Then she hung up. But at least she'd made it home safely after that stupid drinking party. She apparently didn't end up spending the night in the drunk tank or juvenile detention or whatever they do with minors who break the rules. That was something. Next I called Dominic, and he reminded me that it was youth group night. So we agreed to do pizza before that. He suggested we try a new place not far from the church. “It's called Vittorio's,” he told me. “But I'm not sure they'll have anything vegan.” I assured him that was okay. Then he offered me a ride. And I accepted.

Next I called Brooke. Rather, I called her home since I didn't have her cell phone number. Not that I'd asked. Of course, she hadn't offered it either. But I found what I assumed was her number in the book, then braced myself as the phone rang. A woman answered—I assumed her mom. But when I asked for Brooke, I was informed that she was unable to come to the phone and that she'd been injured in an accident.

“Oh, I'm sorry. Is she okay?” As I said this, I suddenly felt guilty for all the bad feelings I've had toward Brooke.

“We're not sure yet.”

“Well, tell her I'll be, uh, praying for her.” It felt slightly strange to say that. Being a Christian is still kind of new to me, but I've heard others say that. And I did intend to pray for her.

“Thank you. We appreciate that. May I tell her who called?”

So I gave her my name, and suddenly the woman's voice got very crisp and chilly, like maybe Brooke had told her something bad about me, which wouldn't be surprising. Before I could find out more about Brooke, the woman thanked me for calling and hung up.

As it turned out, neither Brooke nor Amanda came to our little pizza celebration. But both Jake and Spencer, although they had worked less than two days, were happy to come. Marissa arrived about fifteen minutes late.

“It's about time,” said Eddie. “We've been waiting for you to get here so we could order.”

Marissa grinned down at our group, already seated in the large round booth in the corner. “Maya and four guys… Interesting four-to-one ratio.”

“Two to one now that you're here,” I pointed out.

“Does that mean we're being snubbed by the little preacher girls?”

“Brooke's been in some kind of an accident.” I handed her the menu.

“Did a house fall on her?” Marissa chuckled as she looked over the pizza choices.

“Huh?” Jake looked confused.

“You know,” Marissa said, “like the witch in Oz.”

Some of the guys laughed at Marissa's joke, but I was relieved to see that Dominic wasn't one of them. “Well, I hope she's okay. That girl seems a little accident prone,” he said.

Marissa tossed the menu back at me. “I pretty much like anything on pizza. Other than that kind with pineapple and ham. Yuck. That's disgusting.”

Marissa followed me up to the counter, waiting as I placed an order for two giant pizzas and a variety of toppings. “Was it a car wreck?” Marissa asked with mild interest.

I turned and looked at her. “What?”

“Brooke. Was she in a car wreck?”

“I don't know. Her mom didn't say. She actually didn't seem to like me much.”

“And that surprises you?”

“Well…I don't really know her.”

“Think about it, Maya. Like my grandma says, the apple never falls far from the tree.”

I kind of laughed. “My grandma used to say the same thing.”

She nudged me and smirked. “See, we are a lot alike, you and me.”

I waited for her to order her soda. “You know, you're the one I was worried might get into a car accident last night.”

She rolled her eyes. “Me? No way. I'm very careful in my car.”

I decided not to push it. After all, we were here to celebrate.

“So did you guys see the photo in today's paper?” I asked them.

“My dad showed it to me,” Marissa said. “That probably helped me avoid consequences for getting home past curfew last night.” She laughed. “He was actually rather proud of his messed-up daughter for a change.”

“We drove by on our way here,” Jake said, “to have a look at the mural. It turned out surprisingly cool.”

“Meaning you thought it wouldn't?” I asked defensively.

“It was hard to tell.”

“Yeah,” Spencer agreed. “When we left, it looked like a paint truck had exploded.”

“Because it wasn't finished.”

“Well, here's to a completed project.” Marissa held her soda glass up in a toast. “And here's to Maya's vision for a really cool rainbow.”

“Thanks.” I was surprised by this compliment. Still, it was nice.

We ate and joked, and finally it was time to split for youth group. Dominic and I invited everyone to come with us, but Marissa quickly declined, and Eddie opted to catch a ride with her instead of being stuck going to youth group. I could tell Dominic was disappointed. And Jake, who sometimes goes to youth group, had been talked into seeing a movie with Spencer instead. So it was just Dominic and me heading over to the church.

We were a few minutes late, and youth group was smaller than usual. But Josh and Caitlin, as usual, were there in front. It's always fun to see the two of them together. They're such an attractive couple. I've heard Kim compare them to a young version of Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow (not that those two celebs are a couple, but the Millers are definitely a striking pair). Anyway, Josh had just started the worship time, but when he saw Dominic, he enticed him to come up and play guitar since the regular dude wasn't there. I didn't even know that Dominic played. But to my surprise, he agreed to help out. And when he did, he was pretty good.

And Josh's message was pretty good too. In fact, I wondered if Caitlin had told him about our conversation this morning, because it seemed like he was hitting pretty hard on religious people who were hypocritical. But maybe it was a coincidence. Unfortunately, neither Brooke nor Amanda was there to hear it. Maybe someone taped it and they could get a copy later. Yeah, right.

During refreshment time Caitlin came over with a concerned expression. “I'm sure you must've heard the news by now.”

“What news?”

“About Brooke.”

I nodded. “Oh yeah…I heard she was in an accident. Was it a car wreck or some—”

“I thought you knew.” Caitlin looked confused. “Didn't you tell me she fell off the scaffolding and—”

“But that was yesterday. And she was perfectly fine. She didn't even want to—”

“Apparently she wasn't perfectly fine.”

“Really?”

“According to her dad, she has a spinal injury.”

My hand flew to my mouth. “Seriously? Oh no—that's terrible.” Okay, part of me was shocked and concerned, but another part didn't get it. How does someone get up and walk around with a spinal injury? And she was definitely walking around.

“That's not all, Maya.”

I frowned. “Something worse than that? Did she break something else?”

“No. Not that kind of worse.” Now Caitlin lowered her voice. “Her dad plans to file a wrongful-injury claim.”

“You mean he's going to sue someone?”

“I'm afraid so.” Caitlin glanced around. “I'm not really supposed to say much, but I think you deserve to hear this. When Mr. Marshall learned that I was the one who had suggested Brooke and Amanda help out with the mural, he said he considered suing the church and me as well.”

“Oh no!”

“But for some reason he decided to focus primarily on the parks and recreation for his lawsuit.”

“That doesn't seem fair.”

“No, it doesn't. But he claims they were negligent. He says kids shouldn't have been climbing around on rickety ladders
and scaffolding like that. He thinks it was a disaster just waiting to happen.”

I considered this. “I suppose that could be true. But isn't that kind of like life? I mean, anyone can get hurt doing anything. I could trip going down the steps coming into the youth group room. But I wouldn't sue anyone over something like that.”

“Of course you wouldn't.” Caitlin frowned.

“What's wrong with Brooke's dad anyway?”

“There's something else you should know, Maya.”

“What?”

“Mr. Marshall informed me that he plans to list you as a responsible party in the lawsuit as well.”

“Me?” I blinked. “A responsible party?” I'm barely responsible for myself. How could I be responsible for anyone else?

“Brooke told him you were the one in charge of the project.”

“Me? In charge?” I shook my head. “That's ridiculous.”

“Maybe so. I mean, I think the whole thing is ridiculous. But Mr. Marshall is an attorney. He thinks it makes perfect sense. After all, litigation and lawsuits are his business.”