The Snowball Effect (15 page)

Who could have known then that one day he'd take a dive off the highway and end up as roadkill?

I thought about Carl's mother. I wondered what she felt every day when she walked past this picture. I wondered what she felt when she looked at Collin. Could she somehow see Carl in his six-year-old, half-Puerto-Rican face
even though he wasn't actually Carl's biological son?

I started to shake. On the verge? You bet.

I opened a door at the end of the hallway. Fortunately it turned out to be a bathroom. I sat down on the toilet. I closed my eyes and saw Carl's face.

Why cry over Carl now? I never did before.

I sat there on the toilet with my hands pressed against my eyes until the tears stopped and I had myself under control. I splashed some water on my face and opened the bathroom door. When I stepped into the hallway, Collin's grandmother stood there. “He's locked himself in the upstairs bathroom,” she said, then turned and walked off.

We were great guests. Come over, act rude, then lock ourselves in the bathroom.

I went upstairs and knocked on the bathroom door. “King Collin, it's Lainey. Can I please come in?”

He started kicking the door.

“You don't have to put the new clothes on. You can wear your Batman pajamas and your cape and your crown, and we'll go get the rest of your presents and go home. Okay, King Collin?”

“No!”

“Okay, well stay here, all right? I'll be right back.”

I went out to the backyard to find Vallery. It was definitely her turn to deal with this. Instead of Vallery, I spotted Christine and Wallace. They were too far away to intercept me, so I just waved and kept walking. Then someone grabbed my arm. I turned. Riley.

“Why…?” I asked. How many times did I have to break up with him?

“You invited me,” Riley reminded me. I'd told him about the party, obviously. But that had been before.

I sighed. “You know what? Now isn't a good time. I have to go get Vallery.”

He reached out and grabbed my hand. “Laine, what's wrong?”

I wanted to walk away, but instead I let it all spill out. “Collin's spazzing out. His crazy-ass grandmother didn't like his pajamas, so she started screaming at him and telling him he has to put on this stupid outfit that she bought for him. And he got pissed off and now he's in the bathroom screaming and kicking the walls. I need to find Vallery and Mabel so we can get out of here.”

Riley grinned. “You let him wear pajamas to the party?”

“It's his birthday!” I screamed. This had always worked out fine when Mom did it.

“Calm down, okay? I'll go talk to him.”

“No. We're leaving. I'm getting Vallery and Mabel, and we're kicking the door in and going home.”

“You can't leave. Just let me try to talk to him.”

“Fine,” I said. “Whatever.”

I found Vallery and Mabel talking to a bunch of women I didn't recognize. Vallery broke away from them and came up to me.

“We may have to make a run for it,” I said. I filled her
in on what had happened inside.

“Riley's in there with him?” she asked. “Are you two back together?”

I glared at her. “No.”

“Well. All right.”

We watched the back door and waited. Finally Riley and Collin walked out of the house, holding hands. Collin had changed into the outfit his grandmother had bought for him. His face was red and he trembled a little, but when he saw the presents table, he smiled.

“Crisis averted,” Vallery whispered.

I walked over to Collin and Riley, but as soon as I got there, Collin ran off toward the presents. I stood there alone with Riley.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Just talked to him.” He reached out and stroked my arm, right above the elbow. “What happened here?” he asked.

I looked down at my bare arms, at the nasty yellow bruise, almost completely faded. I'd forgotten to put Eric's shirt back on when I got out of the Grand Am. And of course Riley would notice.

I watched Collin tear into a present. His grandmother ran across the yard, holding her camera.

“I was bitten,” I said.

“I thought he stopped doing that a long time ago.”

I shook my head. “It wasn't Collin.” I shook off Riley's hand and walked across the yard toward my brother.

B
efore she died, Mom filled out Collin's papers for summer camp and put me down as the backup emergency contact person. On the day of the incident, they couldn't contact Mom since she was dead, so they called me at work.

“We've had an incident,” his teacher said. “And I'm having trouble getting in touch with…your mother? Lisa Snodgrass? Could you come pick Collin up from camp?”

“Lisa's dead,” I said. “What's wrong with Collin?”

“I'd rather discuss it when you get here. He'll be requiring medical attention.”

“What? Well, take him to the hospital.”

“This isn't the sort of situation we deal with.”

I imagined Collin bleeding to death and the stupid teacher at camp backing up slowly and then going to the
office to look up my phone number and call me to come get him.

“Is he hurt?” I asked. “Broken? Bleeding? What?”

I noticed Rodney staring at me from his kiosk.

“He…Collin has gotten a crayon stuck in his ear.”

I laughed. “A crayon? Are you kidding me? Jesus.”

What
? Rodney mouthed. I picked my pen up off of my register and held it up to my ear. Rodney shrugged.

“We don't find this amusing, Miss Pike. It's proving to be a large distraction.”

“Jesus, it's a freaking crayon. Did you try to pull it out?”

“Of course we tried to pull it out. It's stuck. He needs medical attention.”

“Is he in pain?”

“No. He's playing quietly.”

I didn't believe that for a second.

“Okay, well, I'm at work. I can't come get him right now.”

“As I said before, we need someone to come immediately. Perhaps I should call…Mr. Carter?”

“Riley?” I asked. “Riley Carter?”

I hadn't realized Mom had put him down as the other emergency contact. I mean, I knew she had during the school year. She'd used Mabel and Riley since I was still in school too. But for the summer session I thought she'd changed it to me and Mabel.

“Yes, Riley Carter. Is that all right?”

“Don't call Riley,” I said. “He's out of town. What about Mabel?”

“I'm sorry, I don't know a Mabel.”

“Mabel White. She's our neighbor.”

“She's not on my contact list.”

“That's okay. I can call her for you.”

“I can't let him leave with someone who isn't on my list.”

“Oh my God. Well, listen. I'm going to call my sister. Your list is very outdated, but she's Collin's guardian. She has papers and everything. Would
that
be acceptable?”

There was a long pause. “That's fine. I'll give her the forms when she arrives. Please tell your sister this is very urgent.”

“All right.”

I hung up and dialed Vallery. She hadn't even wanted to give me her work number and address in case of emergency, but I'd insisted.

“It's a great day here at Parker Associates. This is Vallery speaking. How can I help you?”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “That's seriously how they make you answer the phone?”

“Well hello, Miss Pike!” she said in her fake friendly voice. “What can I help you with today?”

“We have a situation. Collin got a crayon stuck in his ear. The teacher is freaking out and wants someone to come pick him up.”

“I'll call you right back,” she whispered, and then hung up on me.

Rodney walked over. “What's going on?” he asked.

“My brother got a crayon stuck in his ear,” I explained. Rodney stared at me for a second and then started laughing. I laughed too, and then the kiosk phone rang.

“It's a great day here at Perfume World!” I exclaimed. “This is Lainey speaking. How can I address your urgent olfactory needs?”

“You know what?” Vallery yelled. “I don't have time for this bullshit!”

“They let you talk that way at work?” I asked. “And so loudly?”

“I'm on my cell phone outside in the parking lot. And I'm
only
out here to call you back. I am not leaving work. I am not picking up that kid in the middle of the day because he has a crayon in his ear. Why don't they just pull it out?”

“That's exactly what I said, but apparently it's in there pretty good. The teacher thinks that only a dedicated team of the best surgeons at Johns Hopkins will be able to remove it.”

“Lainey, I am not laughing. But I'm glad you think this situation is amusing, because
you
are going to take him.”

“Uh, no, I'm not.”

Vallery groaned. “If it's not urgent enough that they need to rush him to the hospital themselves, then I don't
think it's urgent enough that
either
of us should miss work to get him early.”

“If you tell your boss that Collin needs to see a doctor, then he has to understand.”

“Lainey, I just took off to take him to the doctor!”

“No you didn't! That was a lie!”

“It really doesn't matter at this point. Look, there are two reasons why you're going to be the one to deal with this. First, they called you, not me.”

“Actually, they called Mom first. Should we just wait to see if she's going to get him?”

Vallery sighed. “My second reason is that you pick him up anyway. This really has nothing to do with me.”

“Vallery, I can't leave! If you leave, you have other people there to cover for you. I have
no one
. I can't leave here for another hour.”

“Then wait an hour. I don't know what to tell you.”

“Oh my God. I can't believe you're doing this to me.”

“I don't have a choice. If I keep missing time, they're going to fire me. It's still my probationary period. And if I get fired, are you going to—”

“Okay, fine. I'll take care of it.” I slammed the phone down.

I looked at the schedule under the register. Yasmin worked the afternoon shift. Yasmin was cool—she wouldn't rat on me if I had to leave early. To go to the
hospital.

I had to go, right? It had to hurt.

I walked over to Rodney's kiosk. “I have to go pick him up,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“I'll watch your stuff,” he said.

I looked at my watch. “It's a whole hour.”

“It'll be okay. I'll cover for you.”

“Thanks, Rodney.”

I made sure the keys were inside the desk drawer, and then I walked off. The handbag kiosk girl smiled when she saw me coming.

“Thirty percent off!” she said. “Today only!”

I held my purse up to show her that I didn't need a freaking handbag.

“Take a coupon,” she called after me. “And come back later?”

I kept walking.

 

“Does it hurt?” I asked as we sat there waiting. Collin shook his head and accidentally whacked the crayon against the chair. His little lips quivered like he wanted to cry.

I'd taken him to the urgent-care center, which handled stuff like crayons in the ear, but not anything major like broken bones or heart attacks or profuse bleeding. The closest real hospital was in the city, and I didn't exactly know how to get there. The urgent-care center would be good enough, though. And probably cheaper, since that's where the poor and homeless people went.

“Jeez, Collin, why would you do that to yourself?
Why would you want to stick a crayon in your ear?”

“I didn't!”

“You didn't?”

“No!”

“Collin, I know you're lying. There's a crayon sticking out of your head. Right now.”

“Zach did it!”

“Zach stuck the crayon in your ear?”

“No!”

“Okay then.”

“Zach
made
me!”

“He
made
you.”

Collin nodded.

“Is that the truth? Remember, God is watching.”

I couldn't believe I'd just said that. Sometimes when I dealt with Collin, it was like my mother had temporarily possessed my body and I had no control over the things that came out of my mouth.

“Zach made me do it!”

If you spent enough time listening to Collin's lies, you could detect a slight difference in the way he spoke when he was actually telling the truth, or at least thought that he was. And for some reason, I believed him then. I didn't know why this Zach kid would make him stick a crayon in his ear, but I believed that it had happened.

“All right,” I said. “I believe you.”

He dropped his head. “Mrs. Young didn't.”

“People aren't always going to believe what you say
even when you're telling the truth.”

“Not fair.”

I put my arm around Collin, being careful not to bump the crayon. “I hate to break it to you, but life is never going to be fair.”

 

The receptionist found some coloring books in the back and brought them out for Collin. I thought it was kind of funny, with the crayon in his ear and all. But no one else picked up on the irony, and I felt dumb for laughing. When Vallery showed up after work, Collin was lying on the floor under the chair, coloring.

“I can't wait to see how much we get billed for that,” she said as she crossed the waiting room and sat down beside me. “You know, his grandmother is cutting us off.”

“What do you mean, cutting us off?”

“She's been giving us money every week for Collin.”

“She has?”

“Yes. But she's super pissed about his birthday and she said she's not cutting me any more checks. I guess she thinks we're unfit parents.”

“We are.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Are we going to be okay?”

“Well, yeah, I guess. We have the Social Security money, but that's hardly anything. If Mom and Carl had actually worked like normal people, we'd be getting a
bigger check every month. My job is going to help a ton, but we're still going to come up short.”

“I can help out a little.”

Vallery nodded. “Yeah, okay. I mean, I hate to take your money. But if you want to buy groceries or something, that'd help.”

“I can find something full-time.”

“Don't be ridiculous.”

“How's that ridiculous?”

“You're only eighteen. You should be out having fun. Not worrying about jobs and money and all that dumb stuff. Besides, I need you to help me at home. Maybe you can work more hours in the fall while Collin's in school.”

“I might be in school too.” I hadn't thought about school in a while. I didn't know what the plan was anymore.

“Crap, I forgot about that. Well, I don't want you to work any more than you have to. Especially if you're going to school.”

“Why do you care?”

“I had to work my way through college, and I had to work in high school to help my dad with the bills. It's not fun.”

“I don't think it'll be
fun
. But we have to do what we have to do.”

Vallery sighed and leaned back in her chair. She looked up toward the ceiling. “Thanks a ton, Mom.”

 

The doctor pulled the crayon out with a pair of pliers, then shone a flashlight in Collin's ear.

“How's it look?” Vallery asked. “Any waxy buildup?”

The doctor glared at her. I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. No one in this place had a sense of humor.

“Everything looks fine,” the doctor said. He handed the crayon to me. On the way out, I handed it to Vallery. “Here. Send it back to camp with him tomorrow.”

“Why didn't they just pull it out with some pliers at school?” Vallery asked.

“His teacher didn't want to break it off in his ear and make it worse. Lawsuits and all that,” I said.

As we crossed the parking lot, my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. “It's Rodney,” I said.

“Is he the guy?” Vallery asked.

“What guy?”

She grabbed my arm where the ugly bruise had been. “The
guy
.”

I rolled my eyes. “No.”

Vallery took Collin with her in the Mustang. I got into the Grand Am and answered the phone.

“Katie's going to squeal,” Rodney said.

“Katie? I thought Yasmin worked on Wednesdays.”

“Today's Tuesday.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Yeah. She showed up half an hour early. I told her that you had stomach cramps and had to run to the
bathroom. I made up this whole story about some bad Chinese you had last night. I told her I'd watch the kiosk until you got back, but she just stayed there and waited. When you never came back, she got really suspicious, and I'm pretty sure she's going to tell Bob.”

“Oh great,” I said. “This is very bad.” Abandoning your kiosk was about the worst thing you could do.

“I know. I'm sorry. I probably should have just told her the truth, but I didn't want her to know you weren't even in the mall. I really thought she'd leave and come back when her shift started.”

“That's okay. It would have looked bad anyway.”

 

As if the day couldn't get any worse, Kara was waiting on the porch when we got home. She had a wrapped present on her lap.

I sat in the Grand Am and watched as Vallery got out of the Mustang and unbuckled Collin.

Crap. Kara had called four days ago, and I hadn't even listened to her message. I pulled out my cell phone and called my voice mail.

Collin ran up to Kara.

Hey, Lainey, it's Kara. Christine and Wallace were just here, and they asked me what I'd gotten Collin for his birthday
.

Kara handed the present to Collin. He smiled.

And I had to tell them that I hadn't gotten him anything, because my best friend Lainey didn't tell me about the party.

Kara hugged Collin.

Christine said, oh, she just sent out invitations. It probably got lost in the mail.