Caleb let the air slowly escape from his lungs with an audible “whoosh.”
“I’m sure you’re relieved.” The principal smiled and glanced at Mr. Templeton, who grinned broadly. “You didn’t want to miss homecoming, did you?”
“No, sir! That would have hurt worse than being suspended.”
The two men chuckled. “Well, I guess that about wraps it up. Young man, you’re free to go.”
Caleb quickly got to his feet and shook hands with Mr. Abernathy across the desk.
“Thank you, Mr. Abernathy.” He turned and shook hands with Mr. Templeton.
“Oh, one more thing, Caleb.”
Caleb turned to the man behind the desk. “Sir?”
“Do your best to beat Madison Central Friday night will you?”
He heaved a sigh of relief. “I will! You can count on that!”
CHAPTER SIX
FACING THE OPPOSITION
EDWARDS DRIVE-IN WAS PACKED and loud, even for a Saturday night. So packed that customers were lined up outside, waiting for tables to become available. And so loud that it was difficult to hear the person across the table, let alone the jukebox.
Most of the customers were Baxter teenagers, and most of the conversations were about the Bearcats’ come-from-behind victory over Madison Central the night before. George Edwards, the owner of the diner, had pledged a complimentary meal to any Bearcat player should they win, and Caleb, along with most of his teammates, had shown up to claim their freebies.
“Nice game, Caleb,” Mr. Edwards congratulated him as he personally delivered the free food to the wide receiver. “That was some game-winning toss you made.”
Caleb nodded appreciatively. “Thanks! I’m usually on the other end of our pass plays. Coach sure knows when to call a trick play, doesn’t he?” He pointed to one of his teammates sitting opposite him. “But don’t forget about Nick here. We wouldn’t have won if he hadn’t caught my pass.”
As he celebrated the win with his teammates and friends, Caleb wished Ellie could have gotten off work to be there. He’d been surprised to see her at the game, and he was flattered to learn that she had switched hours with another employee so she could watch him play. Tonight he found himself missing her.
Throughout the day on Monday, Caleb and his teammates exchanged fist bumps and high fives with the other students for their win over Madison Central. He felt like a celebrity surrounded by adoring fans—minus the autograph seekers, of course.
The only downside to the day was that he didn’t see Ellie at school.
Tuesday morning before first period, he caught sight of her at her locker,and stopped by to see if she had been sick. But as he approached, she turned her face away from him.
“Hey, Ellie! I didn’t see you at school yesterday. Were you sick?”
“I’m fine today,” she replied, her face still buried in her locker.
There was more to her absence than a simple twenty-four-hour flu bug. She must have sensed his thoughts because she added, “Really, I’m fine! I just didn’t feel well yesterday, that’s all. Congratulations on the win Friday night.”
“Thanks.” He leaned against the locker next to hers, and spoke firmly but gently. “Okay, Ellie. There’s something bothering you, isn’t there? What’s up?”
For a second he thought she was going to tell him to go away. After all, she was pretty good at letting a person know when she was through with a conversation. But instead, she turned and faced him. A bruise darkened her left cheekbone, and her eyes were a bit red and puffy, like she’d been crying.
“What in the world happened to you?”
She hedged a little as she spoke. “I uh . . . I had an accident at work Saturday. Ran into the edge of a door, that’s all. No big deal.”
He didn’t buy that explanation. “Come on, Ellie. That’s not what happened, and you know it!”
For a split second, anger flashed in her eyes, and then, just as suddenly, the sadness he had often seen replaced it. Suspicions whirled in his mind.
“Did Megan Harris do that to you?” He wouldn’t put it past her at all. “Because, if she did . . . ” he let his voice trail off.
Ellie glanced briefly at him. “It wasn’t Megan.” She turned away again.
“Who, then? I know you didn’t get that bruise by running into a door.” He attempted to lighten the tension. “Ellie, you’re really not that good of a liar, you know.”
The corners of her mouth upturned slightly, and then flat-lined again.
The owner of the locker that was acting as Caleb’s prop arrived at that moment, so he stepped back and circled behind Ellie and posed the question again from the other side. “Then who was it?”
Ellie glanced up and down the hallway, then lowered her voice so that only he could hear. “I’ll tell you at lunch, okay?” she whispered. “Meet me in the Senior Suite.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.” He looked at her bruise again. “You sure you’re okay?”
This time she managed a smile. “Yes, I’m okay. I’ll see you at lunch.” She closed her locker and headed off to class.
Throughout the morning, Caleb caught himself speculating as to who had inflicted the mark on Ellie’s face. If not Megan, then who? To his knowledge, no one else at school had any motive for striking her.
Then again, Megan could have manipulated one of her friends to do the dirty deed, just as she had coerced Chris. Usually he did not harbor resentment toward others, but today he wrestled with feelings of bitterness. Only he didn’t know whom to be bitter with.
By lunch time, he was so worked up about it that his appetite had fled. Instead of going through the food line, he went straight out to the courtyard to wait for her. About ten minutes later she came out with her tray and walked around the picnic table to sit next to him.
“No lunch today?” she asked, noticing he had no tray or food.
“I’m not hungry.” He fiddled absentmindedly with a loose pine knot in the wooden table top.
She popped open her can of soda. “Caleb, you’re not a very good liar, you know!”
He looked up sharply and caught her trying to hide a grin. His pent-up tension evaporated. “Okay, I had that one coming. I’ll admit, I’ve been pretty steamed about this all morning.”
“Well, you can set your mind at ease. It doesn’t involve anyone here at school.”
“It doesn’t? Then who . . . ” He stopped, recalling their rainy day conversation in the park. “It wasn’t your foster parents, was it?”
She didn’t respond, but he could tell from the look in her eyes that he’d struck pay dirt. “Which one?”
Aware of the harshness in his voice, he back peddled and approached her with a gentler tone. “Ellie, I really need to know what happened.”
Ellie let the air slowly escape from her lungs. “It was my foster mother. We got into another argument. Sunday night. And it escalated into a shoving match. And then she hit me with her fist.”
Anger welled up in Caleb. “That’s assault, Ellie! You could have her arrested for battery.” He tried to keep his voice under control. “Did you call the police?”
“No. I don’t want to go that route. It would only make things worse.”
“I don’t understand. How would reporting that make things worse?”
Ellie glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot. She lowered her voice. “Do you remember at the park when I told you I’ve lived with the Markles for two years now?” Caleb nodded. “Well, in that time things have gone from bad to worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“The only thing they care about is money. Tony—I can hardly bring myself to refer to him as my foster father—Tony does handyman work, but only when he feels like it. Which isn’t very often. Beverly works part-time for minimum wage as a cashier at the convenience store on Seminole Street. The rest of their income comes from the state. It’s supposed to be for my care, but most of it goes for alcohol and drugs. For them, I mean. Not for
me.”
“Well, I assumed that,” he snorted, hoping to lighten the mood. “Have you ever turned them in?”
Ellie sighed. “I called protective services on them twice, but both times they were able to hide their addictions and convince the caseworker that I was the problem.”
“How’d they manage that?”
“Caleb, you have no idea how good they are at the art of deception.” Ellie’s voice was filled with frustration. “When the authorities investigated, both of them concocted these elaborate stories and even went as far as to provide false evidence to convince them that I am this deeply disturbed and rebellious troublemaker at home.”
“Did anything ever come of those investigations?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Nothing. Unless you count my foster parents’ threats of physical harm if I ever turned them in again.”
No wonder she was so nervous when he had driven her home. She was not only ashamed of her home life but afraid of what might happen if he met them.
“Have you ever thought of just . . . leaving?” he suggested.
“I’ve run away three times. Twice when I lived with another family in Charlotte, and once last year in Charleston when I was with the Markles before we moved here. But each time the police picked me up off the streets and returned me to them.” She paused. “Caleb, can you see why I had trouble trusting you at first?”
Too numb to reply, he nodded.
Defiance crept into her voice. “But I’m older now, so I’m not afraid to try it again. But my plan now is just to hang on until I turn eighteen. Then I’ll be emancipated and finally out of the system. And rid of them for good!”
Caleb thought about this for a moment. “When’s your birthday?”
“December nineteenth.” Then she added triumphantly, “Only six more weeks from today!”
“But where will you go?”
“I don’t know. The homeless shelter on Hawthorne, maybe. Even if it’s under a bridge, it’ll be better than where I am now!”
Caleb’s heart ached for her. It was hard to hear her talk like this.
He tried putting himself in her place, but was unable to comprehend what she must have to endure every day. He wished there were something he could do for her. Anything at all.
“Ellie,” he chose his words carefully, “would you allow me to pray that God would provide you with a place to live? I don’t mean the shelter or a bridge, but a nice place. A house?”
As she considered his offer, he wondered if their discussions about God’s love had made any impact on her. Her response provided the answer.
“Caleb, when you first told me you’d pray that I would find the perfect job, I didn’t believe in that. But then I saw how God answered your prayer by telling you to give one of your two jobs to me.” She shot him a wry grin. “You don’t happen to have two houses, do you?”
Caleb laughed heartily. “No, I’m afraid I don’t. But God has the perfect place for you. Not only here in Baxter, but in heaven, too. Do you know what Jesus said about heaven?”
Ellie shook her head.
“I learned a verse in Sunday School way back when. John fourteen, six says, ‘In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?’”
Ellie tilted her head thoughtfully to one side. “Funny you should bring that up. I’ve been thinking about heaven lately. Remember when I told you my mother used to take me to Sunday school when I was in the first grade?”
Caleb nodded and she continued. “Well, she used to tell me the same thing. I can still remember some of it.” She smiled. “Do you know what I think? I think my mother might be there right now. In heaven, I mean.”
Caleb’s heart skipped a beat. “Wouldn’t you like to know how you can go there, too?” he asked hopefully.
Ellie hesitated. “I need more time to think about that. It’s a lot to process. But maybe we can talk about it again some time.”
Caleb smiled. “That would be great, Ellie! Whenever you’re ready.” He reiterated his original offer. “So . . . can I still pray with you about a place to live here on earth?”
The sparkle in her laughter was only surpassed by the sparkle in her eyes. “Sure, Caleb, I’d like that very much!”
School returned to normal once again for Caleb Sawyer.
Ellie was now a regular at his friends’ table in the cafeteria, enjoying the lighthearted banter with the others. Although somewhat quiet at first, it wasn’t long before she began participating in the conversations. He’d known she would fit in and be accepted by his friends, and he was thrilled to see her open up to the group in general, and to Kelli in particular.
Ellie needed another friend besides himself, and he was confident that Kelli would be a good one for her.
Chris had served his week-long suspension and was now back in school. Apparently choosing to follow Mr. Templeton’s advice, he kept his distance from Caleb.
The mocking comments had stopped, and when the two passed in the hall, he avoided eye contact with Caleb. Even Megan seemed to have cooled her jets a bit, according to Ellie.
Although the two girls still worked the same shift on Saturdays at the Pet Palace, Megan refused to talk to Ellie at all, a snub that suited the brown-haired beauty just fine.
Caleb reconnected with a few of his old lawn care customers, and once football season ended, he was free to mow lawns not only on Saturdays but after school on weekdays as well. He was relieved that his college savings account would finally begin growing again. He wanted to tell Ellie about his acceptance letter to UGA. It had come in the mail two weeks earlier, but he chose to withhold the news from her. She was still waiting on responses to her academic scholarship and enrollment applications, and he didn’t want to discourage her in any way.
One mid-November Friday, Caleb was at his locker exchanging textbooks between classes, when Ellie hurried up to him.
“Caleb, guess what?” She sounded out of breath.
He glanced up and noticed the big smile on her flushed face. “Well, whatever it is, it must be awfully good news.”
“It is! Mrs. Sinclair is taking some of my drawings to an art show in Columbus this weekend, and she thinks I stand a good chance of placing high among the competition,” she gushed.
Caleb could not remember a time when Ellie had ever gushed before, and it certainly added to her attractiveness. “That’s great, Ellie. Congratulations!”
“And that’s not all. The best part is that the judges are all art instructors from UGA’s College of Fine Arts! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I won my division, and they offered me the scholarship I applied for?”
If anyone needed encouragement, it was Ellie. After all she’d been through in her life, she could use some positive news. He silently prayed that she would garner the attention of the judges. But no matter the outcome, it was good to see her excited about something for a change.
When last period ended, Caleb danced his way down the hall with the usual “Wahoo!” As he and B.J. headed out of the building, they made a detour past Ellie’s locker, where she was packing for the weekend.
“Hey, Ellie, do you have time to hang out at Edwards after work Saturday night?” Caleb asked.
“Well, I’d like to.” She hesitated. “But I don’t have a way to get there from work. The bus goes only between the mall and my house. Edwards is in the opposite direction.”
Caleb was undaunted. “Then I’ll pick you up from work. How’s that?”
“I don’t get off ‘til nine.” She frowned. “Is that too late?”
“Not at all!” he exclaimed, unable to curb his enthusiasm.
Her look of appreciation was not wasted on him, or B.J, who razzed him about it all the way home from school.
Saturday evening, Caleb sat in his car outside the Pet Palace. He’d left his friends back at Edwards to pick up Ellie at the end of her shift. B.J. and Allison had just announced to the group that they were now officially
an item, and he had chided his best friend for not telling him the news first. As he waited for Ellie to get off work, he imagined how much she would enjoy hanging out with the others, and wondered how she would react to the news.
It was some time before she emerged from the pet store and headed toward his parked car. He could tell immediately from the look on her face that something was wrong. Reaching across the seat, he pushed open the passenger door and she slid in beside him.
As soon as the door was closed, she turned to him, distraught. “I think I’m about to lose my job, Caleb!” She sounded close to tears. “What am I going to do?”
Caleb was stunned. His mind raced. “What happened?”
“Mr. Pruitt called me into his office just before I clocked out and said he suspected me of stealing from the store.”
Shock rocked him. “Stealing? Why would he accuse you of stealing?”
“He said he was in the employee break room and noticed some store items sticking out of the pocket of my work apron hanging there. He asked if I had the receipt and I didn’t.”
“What kind of items?”
“Small things. A dog collar, a chew toy, stuff like that.”
“What would you want with things like that? You don’t even have a dog.”
“Exactly! I don’t have any use for those things. Caleb, I didn’t put them there!”
“I know you didn’t,” he said reassuringly.
Ellie put her hand on his. “Thank you for believing me, Caleb.” She looked relieved.
“But I can’t imagine that Mr. Pruitt would fire you based solely on circumstantial evidence like that,” he exclaimed.
“Well, he said that things started disappearing shortly after I began working for him. Inventory keeps coming up short all the time. And get this, he said someone told him they suspected it was me. This person thought they saw me slipping things into my pocket.”
“Megan?” Caleb wondered out loud.
A Future and a Hope Page 10