Second Chances (9 page)

“Where’s the bathroom?” Richard asked.  Jason pointed
down the hallway.  

“It’s through the side office,” Jason replied.  “The
one with all the boxes, across the hall from the coffee machine.”

“Okay,” Richard replied. 

“Everyone has to speak on their first night,” he said. “It’s
tradition.”

“What?” Richard asked.

“Wait a second,” Jason said.  Peter finished talking and sat
down, and Jason stood back up.  “Everyone, I would like you to meet my brother
Richard.”

“Hi, Richard,” they all said.

“Hi,” he said awkwardly.

“Richard, can you tell us all a few things about yourself?”

Richard coughed.  “What?”

“Just introduce yourself to the group.”

He eyed his brother for a long moment before finally
standing up.  “Hey everyone. I’m Richard, and I’m not an alcoholic. I’m not
addicted to anything, actually, I’m just here visiting for my brother.

“I’m a lawyer by trade and I work in my own practice
downtown with a few partners.”

The room was silent, staring at him. It wasn’t that hard to
tell that none of them liked him. But, that didn’t bother him. The feeling was
mutual.  

He glanced at Jason.  “What else should I say?”

“Anything you would like to share.”

“I don’t think there’s anything else.”

“Okay,” Jason said. He turned to the group.  “Anyone have
any questions?”

One man asked: “What sort of law do you practice?”

“Corporate law,” he replied.  “We have a lot of clients.”

“So you’re basically a thief?” the man said.

“Hey there,” Jason said, patting the air with his hands. 
“No judgement here.”

“I wasn’t sure that applied to lawyers,” the man said,
leaning back in his chair and grinning.  Richard took a few deep and calming
breaths and glanced at Jason.

“Good enough?” he asked.

Jason nodded, an apologetic expression on his face.  Richard
didn’t care. He headed off as Francesca began speaking and disappeared down the
hallway. 

He didn’t see a light switch but the hallway wasn’t too dim
to maneuver.  He found the restroom past all of the boxes, a tiny little
cubicle-size room that smelled like a truck stop urinal. 

His brother didn’t seem to believe in filing cabinets,
settling instead on loading everything into cardboard boxes and using his spare
offices as storage.  Virtually every room was loaded with boxes of cheap items
and papers.  It was as though Jason had never bothered unpacking his things. 
Jason was a packrat, and an extreme one at that.

He heard a voice droning in the background as another
speaker took the floor, but decided he wasn’t really interested in what he or
she had to say.  They would all be saying the same things: woe unto them,
it wasn’t their fault, but through God’s grace they would overcome.

Richard took the time instead to check his email and send a
few quick responses to clients and partners.  He hated sending emails by
phone, considering it tedious and uncomfortable, but it served as an excellent
way to pass the time.

About halfway through his phone started to ring.  He didn’t
recognize the number.

“Hello?” he said, answering it.

“Hey, is this Richard?”

“Yeah, this is Richard speaking.”

“Hey Richard, its Jim.  Deb’s Cousin.”

“Oh, hey Jim,” Richard said. “What’s up?”

“It’s about that missing person Deb asked me to check into. 
The one for Lakeisha Blake.”

“Ah,” Richard said. 

He’d forgotten completely that Deborah was going to do that
when Jason picked him up.  “Look, this isn’t really the best time so can I call
you—”

“She’s dead.”

Richard fell silent, jaw hanging open.  “She’s what?”

Nichole knocked gently on the door.  “Kenni? Are you okay?”

There wasn’t a reply. Not right away.  She heard movement
inside the room, and then the door opened. Kenni had a frown on her face and
looked tired.

“What?”

“Do you want anything to eat? I brought you some dinner.”

She held up a plate of food. Kenni stared at it for a long
minute, and then accepted it like a peace offering. She opened the door a
little further and moved back to her bed.

Nichole followed her inside. The room was clean but littered
with dirty clothes. An unused clothes hamper sat in the corner and shirts were
covering the bed, floor, and back of her chair.

Kenni sat on the bed and started eating.  Nichole cleaned
off the desk chair and sat down.  It was silent for a few minutes, while Kenni
ate.  Nichole waited as patiently as she could, then finally started talking:

“How was school?”

“Fine,” Kenni said through bites.

“How was it really?”

Kenni looked up at her, frowning.

“It was fine,” she said.

“You told Rico you didn’t really do much today,” she said.

“We didn’t,” Kenni said.  “Most of the classes the teachers
don’t even show up.”

“I’m sorry,” Nichole said.

“You always say that.”

“I mean it.”

Kenni shrugged. “After a while it just stops having
meaning.”

“I know.  I wish your teachers would put more work into the
classes.”

“I don’t care anymore,” Kenni replied. She finished eating
and handed the plate back to Nichole.  “There isn’t any point.”

“Kenni…”

“I don’t even know why you make me go,” she said.  She spoke
tersely, simmering emotions bubbling under the surface. “You aren’t my Mom.”

Nichole opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it again.

“No,” she said. “You’re right. I’m not your Mom.”

“Then why do you even care?”

“Because you’re my little sister.”

“I know.”

“And I care about you.”

“But there’s
nothing
you can do to help me,” Kenni
said.  “I hated Mom when she made me go to Northmont. I hated getting stuck
with all of those kids who look at me funny because I’m different. But Mom said
I didn’t have a choice, and it would be good for me.  And you know what? I
dealt with it.

“
Then
I finally got used to it, and things were
working out just fine, and you tell me I can’t keep going? That I have to go
back to my old middle school?”

“There wasn’t an alternative,” Nichole said.

“I
know!”
Kenni shouted.  “And where the hell is Mom? 
Did she leave us? Did she abandon us? 
She’s
the one that set all of
this up, and now she isn’t even here. So where is she?”

“I don’t know,” Nichole said.

“Exactly. You don’t know. Rico doesn’t know, I don’t know,
no
one
knows where she is.  Why? Why does no one know where she is?”

Nichole hesitated.  “I don’t know.”

“Then what do you want me to say? That I’m okay with this
school? That I’m okay with Mom being gone? That it doesn’t bother me that they
sent me away because I’m black?  What do you want me to say?  I’ll say it, just
tell me what you want me to say!”

Nichole took a few deep breaths to fight back her tears.  No
child should ever have to deal with things like this.  Never.

“It’ll get better—”

“No, it won’t,” Kenni said. “Because it’s just how life is,
right?  It’s just what we have to deal with because our skin is a different
color.  Nothing will get better, it’ll just keep on going like it is.  It won’t
get better for me, I just have to get used to it, right?”

Nichole didn’t know what to say.

“Kenni…”

“What?”

“Your Mom…”

“You aren’t my Mom,” Kenni said, sitting on her bed and
folding her arms.  She looked down at the floor.  “And you can’t help me with
anything.”

In that moment, Nichole felt more helpless than any other
time in her life.  Kenni looked away, signaling that the conversation was over.

Nichole fought down her tears and headed for the door,
glancing back one final time at her little sister.  Kenni sat on the center of
the bed, arms crossed and tense.  She looked like a scared little girl,
fighting back against the world.

“She’s dead,” Jim said.

Richard wasn’t quite sure how to respond.  “When?”

“A few months ago. She was taken to a hospital a few towns
over with breast cancer. It was really bad, and she didn’t have any
identification on her. Didn’t make it through the night.”

“So she was listed as a Jane Doe?”

“They couldn’t find any family. Anyway, they never got
around to running her against a missing person’s database and she popped up
right away.”

Richard felt a tightness in his chest.  “And you’re sure
it’s her?”

“She matches the missing person report perfectly.  I was
about to get in touch with the next of kin, but thought I’d give you a call
first.”

“Who is the next of kin?”

“Her son. Kid named Rico.  Do you know him?”

“I know his sister,” Richard said.  “They’ve been asking
what happened to her for a few weeks, and you’re telling me no one bothered to
check Jane Doe records in the hospital?”

Jim was silent for a second. “I don’t know what to say,” he
said. “It’s not my precinct.  They might have been busy, or maybe she wasn’t…”

“…a priority?” Richard said. “Maybe she wasn’t white
enough?”

Jim let out a long sigh.  “I can’t speak for what happened. 
I just thought maybe you would want to know.”

“I appreciate it,” Richard said. 

“I’m going to call the family now,” Jim said.  “And let them
know.”

“Thanks,” Richard said.  “Sorry about what I said earlier.”

“It happens,” Jim said. “There are bad seeds everywhere,
dragging everyone down.”

“That’s for sure,” Richard said. 

“I’m sure you’d know all about that,” Jim said, chuckling.

“Yeah,” Richard laughed.  “I guess so.”

“At least a lot of people still like us cops,” Jim said. 
“And some of us are going to keep doing our best no matter what happens.”

“Yeah,” Richard said.  “Take care, Jim.”

“You too,” Jim said. 

Richard hung up the phone and set it down on the desk,
trying to wrap his mind around the information.  Nichole’s mother had left, but
from the sounds of it, her family never knew the reason.

Had she left to protect them? Out of despair. It was hard to
tell.  The only thing Richard knew for sure was that she was never coming back.

He hesitated for a moment and then picked up his phone. He
didn’t like to conduct business over the phone, and he certainly didn’t like to
bother his staff at night when they were at home, but he didn’t want to wait
either.

Meghan answered on the second ring.

“Hey boss,” she said.

“Hi Meghan,” he said.  “I’m sorry to bother you at home.”

“It’s no issue,” she said. “I know how much you miss me.”

“You aren’t busy, are you?”

“Just reading. What’s up?”

“Deborah’s cousin called me a few minutes ago. He’s an
officer at the Twenty-Fourth precinct.”

“I think I met him at one of the parties.”

“Maybe,” Richard said.  “Anyway, Deb asked him to look into
Nichole’s Mom.”

“I thought you weren’t going to get involved.”

“I didn’t plan to. Deb asked.”

“So he was checking on Nichole’s Mom? Because she’s been
missing, you mean?”

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew,” Meghan said.  “She told me everything.”

Richard sighed.  “Of course she did.”

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Meghan said.  “
Everyone
tells me everything. Even you.”

Richard thought about it. “Yeah, I suppose I do.”

“It’s because I can keep a secret,” Meghan said. “Anyway, go
on.  What did he tell you?”

“Nichole’s Mom is dead,” he said.

Meghan was silent for a long moment. “Oh.”

“She had late stage breast cancer and died not long after
arrival. It had spread through her entire body. She didn’t have any ID on her
when they found her so they never knew who to contact.”

“Damn.”

“I know,” Richard said.  “It’s terrible.”

“What now?”

“We offer our help and condolences,” he said.  “If she wants
it.”

“Yeah,” Meghan said.

“There is one thing we can do.”

“What?”

“Nichole can apply to be their guardian now, and with her
mother deceased it’ll be as simple as filing the paperwork.  The courts will
take no time to approve it.”

“Ah,” Meghan said.  “Then she can also file as their
guardian for the injunction to transfer to the other school.”

“Exactly,” Richard said.  “Do you think you can draft up the
paperwork for guardianship in the morning?”

“No way,” Meghan said. “We should wait and talk to her about
it.”

“We can help Meghan.”

“But should we?”

“Why wouldn’t we?”

“It isn’t our place,” Meghan said.  “We can’t just go around
getting in people’s business without asking them.”

“But this is something we can do to help. She’s been through
hell, and we are in a position that we can do something good for her.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want our help.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“That’s the problem, Richard, you just don’t get it. It
isn’t about whether or not she wants us to get involved, it is her decision.
You need to ask her what she wants.”

“We
know
she wants this.”

“Do we?”

“She came to me and asked for help.”

“But this changes everything.”

“Look, Meghan, I’m going to call Nichole really quick and
tell her—”

“Hang on Rick—”

“—that we’ll file everything in the morning for her.”

Then he hung up. He wanted to reach Nichole as soon as
possible, to offer his condolences and speak to her.  He wanted to apologize
for everything he’d said earlier and tell her that of course he would help her
with anything she needed.