by L. N. Cronk
“Why are you moving her, then? I thought you didn’t move kids unless there was a good reason.”
“Quite frankly, sir, I’m not sure. My supervisor assigned her to me today and told me to contact you about placement.”
“I can’t believe this,” I said softly.
“Are you interested?”
“What?”
“Are you interested in taking Amber in?”
“Yes!” I practically shouted. “Of course we’re interested. We absolutely want her.”
“Would you like to speak with your wife and then get back to me?”
“No, I don’t need to speak to my wife. We want her. We’ll take her right now.”
Stacy Reed laughed.
“How about in the morning?” she asked. “I’ll bring her by at about eleven o’clock. Does that sound okay?”
“Yes,” I said. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Very well,” she said. “I’ll see you then.”
“Are you sure this isn’t a joke?” I asked again.
“No, sir,” she said kindly. “This isn’t a joke.”
“Would you tell Amber that we’ll have tacos for lunch?”
“Tacos?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Sure,” she said. “I’ll tell her.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, sir.”
I hung up the phone and looked at the number again. I typed it into a reverse phone search on the computer and saw that the call had come from the Department of Social Services. Then I searched “Stacy Reed” and found several references to a caseworker with DSS.
I heard Laci coming in through the garage.
“LACI!” I hollered, getting myself out of the chair with one strong pull on the rope. “LACI!!”
“What?” she asked, running into the house. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong!” I said, supporting myself on a crutch with one arm and wrapping the other one around her. “You won’t believe what just happened . . . you won’t believe it!”
“What?”
“Amber’s coming to live with us! Tomorrow morning!”
“WHAT?”
“Someone from DSS just called and they’re going to place her with us and they’re bringing her here tomorrow!”
“What? Why? What happened?”
“I don’t have any idea,” I admitted. “All I know is that we’re getting her! She’s coming here tomorrow and she’s going to live with us!”
“I can’t believe it. Are you sure about this, David?” Laci asked. “Maybe there’s a mix-up or something.”
“No,” I said. “I’m sure, I’m sure! I don’t know how it happened, but it did.”
“God,” she told me, smiling. “That’s how it happened.”
I smiled back at her and she hugged me.
“You ready to go to the center?” she asked.
“Oorah!” I said. “Let’s go.”
When we arrived at the transplant center, we found Mrs. White alone in the waiting room.
“Where’s Charlotte?” I asked.
“I made her go home and take a shower,” she explained. “She wants to spend every waking minute here.”
“How’s he doing?” Laci asked.
“He’s . . . I think he’s feeling pretty uncomfortable from all the chemo, but he’s not complaining or anything.”
“Do you think it would be okay if I went in and saw him for a little bit?”
“I’m sure that’ll be fine,” Mrs. White said. “Let me go check with the nurse.”
In a few minutes, I had scrubbed and was wearing a facemask and a sterile paper suit that fit surprisingly well over my cast.
“You have a visitor,” the nurse told Jacob after I’d hobbled down the hall behind her.
He was lying on his hospital bed behind a plastic barrier.
“Oh, hey!” he said when he recognized me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good,” he said. “Nervous, I guess. It’s gonna be a long three weeks until we find out.”
“I’ll be praying for you,” I promised.
“Thanks,” he nodded.
“Um, so listen–”
“You wanna sit down?” he offered, pointing to the chair that was next to me.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’d probably never be able to get back up again.”
“Okay.”
“I just . . . I just wanted to apologize for the way I’ve been treating you.”
“We didn’t get off to the greatest start,” he conceded.
“No,” I agreed, “but even after that I . . . I’ve been a real jerk and I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I was too. Don’t worry about it.”
“Charlotte’s one of the most important people in my life,” I told him.
“I know.”
“And, I guess when I found out you were her brother . . . well, I guess I was jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Yeah.”
“You were jealous of me?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I guess I was worried that she wouldn’t need me anymore . . . that you’d take my place.”
“Are you kidding?” he laughed. “She talks about you all the time!”
“She does?”
“You’re like a superhero to her or something. She’s always going, ‘David this’ or ‘David that’! All I ever hear about is how great you are.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” he laughed. “If anybody around here needs to be jealous, it’s me, not you.”
“She’s not too thrilled with me right now,” I smiled.
“No,” he agreed, “I don’t know what you did, but you’re pretty much in the doghouse right now.”
“She didn’t tell you why?”
“No.”
“Good,” I said. “It was really stupid.”
“I’m sure she’ll get over it. I haven’t known her all that long, but it seems to me like when she gets upset, she’s the kind of person that just needs to take it out on someone and then she eventually gets over it.”
“You’ve got her pegged pretty good.”
I smiled at him through my mask and he smiled back.
“Well,” I said, “I guess I’m gonna let you rest and see if I can go grovel my way back into her good graces.”
“Good luck with that,” he said, raising an eyebrow skeptically.
“Thanks,” I said. “But listen, I want you to know that I really am sorry.”
If there hadn’t been a plastic, sterilized barrier between us, I would have offered to shake his hand.
“No problem,” he nodded, giving me a thumbs-up sign and a smile. “We’re good.”
“If you’re going to act like Greg’s brother,” I said, “you’re gonna have to come up with some better hand signals than that.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll fill you in later,” I smiled. “After you’re all better, you and Charlotte can come over and have tacos and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Okay,” he said, acting mildly confused. “Good night.”
“Good night,” I said, and I hobbled out of the room.
Charlotte was in the waiting room when I got back, sitting next to her mother and Laci. Her hair was wet and she was glaring at me.
“Did you club him in the head with one of your crutches?” she wanted to know.
“No,” I said, taking off my mask. “I smothered him with a pillow. There’s a lot less mess that way.”
Mrs. White suppressed a smile.
“Laci, why don’t we go and get some coffee and leave the children alone for a few minutes?” she asked.
“Okay,” Laci nodded.
“Try not to make the nurse call security,” Mrs. White told us.
Charlotte watched them leave and then she turned and narrowed her eyes at me.
“I came to see Jacob,” I said, tearing off my paper suit.
“Well, now you’ve seen him. Why don’t you go home?”
“We need to talk first,” I told her.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now,” she said, crossing her arms. “I want to go and see how Jacob’s doing.”
“He’s fine. I just saw him. He’s fine.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll just go and see for myself.”
She started to leave.
“Charlotte, wait!”
“What?” she asked, wheeling back around to face me.
“I came here to apologize.”
“If you want to apologize to someone, you should apologize to Jacob!” she said, waving her arm in the direction of his room.
“I did.”
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“Really?” she asked, taking a step toward me.
“Yes, really,” I nodded. “And now I want to apologize to you.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“Do you want to sit down?” she asked, gesturing toward a couch.
“I don’t know . . .”
“I’ll help you,” she offered, stepping even closer.
“Okay,” I agreed.
She helped me sit down on a couch and then she sat next to me.
“So,” I said, “I told Jacob why I’ve been acting like such a jerk.”
“Tell me why,” she said quietly, tears forming in her eyes.
“Charlotte,” I said, taking one of her hands and looking at her for a moment, “I’ve known you ever since you were this tall.” I held my other hand a few feet off the ground. “I’ve watched you grow up, you’re Greg’s sister, you . . .”
I shrugged.
“You’re one of the most important people in my life,” I finally said.
“You’re one of the most important people in my life, too.”
“I know,” I said, “but somehow I guess I just thought that if Jacob was around that . . . that you wouldn’t need me anymore.”
“What?”
“I was jealous,” I shrugged again. “He’s your brother. I’m not. It bothered me.”
She looked at me for a long moment and then wrapped her arms tightly around me and buried her head against my shoulder. I hugged her back.
“You’re so stupid,” she finally said, wiping a tear away as she sat back.
“I know,” I sighed, tapping my cast. “I’ve been doing a lot of stupid things lately.”
“When are you gonna tell me the real story behind that?” she asked.
“Not tonight,” I said. “But guess what?”
“You’re getting Amber!”
“Oh,” I said. “Laci told you.”
“No,” she replied. “Jacob did.”
“Jacob? What are you talking about? How would Jacob know?”
“Jacob’s the whole reason you’re getting Amber, silly! Didn’t he tell you that?”
“Tell me what?”
“That he called Ms. Maggie – you know, his old caseworker? He told her all about you and Laci and how much you wanted Amber and everything and she got it all worked out.”
“What? Some caseworker that lives four hours away got Amber for me?”
“She’s not a caseworker anymore, you dodo head. She’s a regional director.”
“A regional director?”
“Yeah, she’s like over a third of the state or something now. So, anyway, Ms. Maggie talks to the regional director for our part of the state and voilà!” Charlotte grinned and snapped her fingers like she’d done on Christmas Eve. “Now you’re getting Amber!”
I looked at her in disbelief.
“I . . . I can’t believe Jacob’s the reason I’m getting Amber,” I finally said. “I’ve gotta go back in there and thank him.”
I started to struggle to get up.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Charlotte said, grabbing my hand. “I’ve got some good news of my own!”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” She held up her left hand and waved a sparkling diamond ring at me.
“Oh, wow! Wow!” I said, giving her a huge hug. “Congratulations!”
“Thanks!”
“When are you getting married?”
“Soon.”
“You’re not going to wait until you’re through with college?”
“No,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes again. “Life is so . . . so short and so unpredictable. We really couldn’t think of a good reason to wait.”
“What are you going to do about college?”
“He’s going to transfer to State and we’re going to get an apartment off-campus.”
“What about his scholarship?”
“If he has a good spring in Texas, they might offer him one here. If not, well, then I just figured out what to do with some of my trust fund money.”
“So, he’s going to finish out the semester down there?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, “and we’re going to get married the last weekend in May.”
She rapped her knuckle on my cast.
“Are you gonna be outta this stupid thing by then?” she asked.
“I’d better be! It’s supposed to be off next month.”
“Good,” she smiled, “Because if you’re going to give me away, I don’t want you clunking along beside me while we walk down the aisle.”
“Me? You want me to give you away?”
“Of course, you!”
“Really?”
“David, you’re such an idiot sometimes,” she said, shaking her head and smiling. Then she took my hand and looked at me, her eyes shining and bright.
“Honestly,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Who else did you think I was possibly going to ask?”
Can just one family make a difference? Can just one person change lives for all eternity? Be sure to read the rest of the books in the Chop, Chop series to discover the full impact of Greg and his family in the years that follow.
Book One: Chop, Chop
Book Two: Day-Day
Book Three: Pon-Pon
Book Four: The Other Brother
Book Five: The Other Mothers
Book Six: Gone
Book Seven: Not Quickly Broken
Book Eight: Alone
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