Wings From Ashes Trilogy

by Linda Nelson

  Her dad helped her put her things in the car, and they drove for over an hour to this place on the other side of the state. It was so far away from home.

  They pulled up in the parking lot of the place, the rehab, not a soul could be seen around except for one teen working outside in the yard by himself.

  The place was an old three story building out in the middle of nowhere. It was not surrounded by a fence as the prison had been. Its grounds were well manicured but barren from the oncoming winter cold.

  Christmas was only a week away and still there was no snow on the ground.

  It was an ominous looking sight. She was bewildered by what she was to expect.

  Her dad left her things in the car and went with her to the office where they were to check in. No sooner was that done, someone whisked her away into a different room that was filled with other teens. There was a total of twenty-three others ranging from fourteen up to eighteen. Carol was now the twenty-fourth member to join the group home.

  She turned to see if her dad was there with her. He was nowhere in sight. All she had been able to do was give him a quick goodbye, and that was it. He was gone after making one last trip back to the office with her belongings.

  Here, she was to stay for the next six months by court order.

  Chapter 24 – Hated or Forgiven

  Karla wasn’t released as quickly as Carol had been. She had to spend an extra two weeks at the prison because of her attack on Carol that had landed her in solitary for a week.

  That incident had shot a big hole in her good behavior delaying her release.

  Jan had a small problem finding a lawyer for Karla because of her hostile attitude but with a little bit of calling around she was finally able to find someone who would meet with her and represent her.

  The lawyer was able to convince the judge to set a bail hearing for her.

  When it was brought up that she didn’t have a criminal record, the judge decided to waive the bail and charge her with a misdemeanor and allowed her to be released and sent back home.

  There was one thing the judge did say to Karla that day. “I don’t ever want to see you in my court ever again, young lady.”

  Karla politely agreed. She made her mind up right then and there that she was never going to leave the state of Massachusetts ever again. She didn’t care who she was with. Not after having experienced this disaster.

  She too was given a bus ticket home and was met at the station by Jan and not her dad. She wondered where he was and why he wasn’t there to pick her up.

  “Where’s my dad?”

  “He couldn’t make it?”

  Karla was bewildered, “Why not?”

  “He is out looking for an apartment for you and him.”

  “Me and him…? Why? What is wrong with the place we live in now?”

  “Didn’t he tell you…? Your mom and dad split up…”

  “What…? Really… no he didn’t… why?”

  “I’m sure you know why…”

  Karla sat back. She didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. Not when you go through life expecting your folks to be together forever because that was the way it was supposed to be. The church said so...

  Karla broke the silence when she realized that they were not driving toward Brantwood.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To my house…”

  “Am I going to be going to school in Medham again?”

  “No, you are only staying with me for about a week or so then you will be back with your dad. He said he is planning on staying in Brantwood, so you don’t have to change schools again.”

  Karla’s heart sank. This meant that she was probably going to see Carol again.

  How was Carol going to react when she saw her in school? Was she going to have her girlfriends terrorized her for how she had tackled her back in North Carolina?

  Gone now was Karla’s venom that she had harbored for Carol while she was in the prison, only to be replaced by her normal meekness.

  She couldn’t go back to school in Brantwood and face Carol. Not after that…

  “Why can’t I stay with you?”

  There she asked it finally. That was the question she had wanted to ask Jan ever since her parent had told her that they were planning on moving to Brantwood.

  Jan laughed. “You really wouldn’t like that. I’m never home. I am always working or doing some sort of community project. I’d never be around.”

  “What does that matter? My dad is never around anyway, and I would be able to go back to my old school.”

  “Oh come now… I’m sure things will be different now that you won’t be living with your mom anymore. I know how things were between you and her.

  And your new school is so much better. It has so much to offer to you if only you give it a chance.”

  Karla knew she was trying to win a losing argument. There was no way she could even think about telling Jan that the true reason she didn’t want to return to Brantwood High was because she was afraid of the girl who had gotten her into this whole mess.

  It just happened to be Christmas Vacation week. That was the only thing Karla had going for her.

  School vacation came and went along with the Christmas holiday. It wasn’t the same without Karla’s mom being there. She had not heard one word from her since she had left on her road trip weeks ago. It might have been a good thing but just the same, even though Karla didn’t like her mom she still found herself missing her and wishing things were different between the two of them.

  Her dad found an apartment soon after she returned from North Carolina. It was in the same apartment building as Darcy lived in. She felt weird about living in an apartment.

  Apartment living was a first for her, and she found that she had to climb two flights of stairs each time she came and went. It was all right at first until she had to help with the groceries or the laundry now that they no longer were able to do their laundry in their own home. That was a convenience that Karla had taken for granted. She didn’t even know what a laundry mat was up until now.

  They were renting a two bedroom on the third floor. Her dad felt the rent was reasonable for the size of the place. It had a pretty decent size kitchen and living room, and her bedroom wasn’t too small even if it was smaller than what she had been used to.

  But the floor did not have any carpeting. That meant no more vacuuming, but she still had to sweep.

  Her dad gave her a ride to school on her first day back. She had a lot of make-up work to do if she was going to pass on to the next grade at the end of the year. With a lot of diligence, she should have no problem accomplishing this task.

  Outside distractions were the last thing on her mind after her latest experience. She had enough with getting into trouble.

  All morning she worried about bumping into Carol either in the hallways or at lunch. But there wasn’t one sign of her anywhere.

  Max wasn’t there either nor was Rod.

  She wondered what had happened to them.

  Was Max all right or was he in the hospital or worse. Karla tried not think about the or worse scenario.

  She also wondered what had happened to Rod. Had they arrested him? Was he in jail somewhere?

  These were questions that kept crossing Karla’s mind ever since she had returned to Brantwood.

  Lunch time finally came around. Karla took her seat at the table she usually sat at.

  Darcy and Heath both saw Karla come in to the cafeteria. Carol had written Heath and told him about the whole incident that had happened with her and Karla, about the road trip and being arrested and all.

  They were waiting and watching for when Karla returned to school in hopes that they could help Carol patch things up between them. Carol felt bad enough with the loss of her mom she didn’t need to return to school and still be fighting with Karla too.

  Karla felt her stomach jump up into her throat when they both took a seat with her at the lunch table and brace
d herself for the worse expecting that Carol was having them do her dirty work for her.

  Darcy was the first one to speak to Karla. “Hi, how were your holidays?”

  Karla replied stiffly, “They were all right.”

  She wondered if this was where they were going to demand that she handed over everything that she got for Christmas in exchange that they didn’t beat her up on her way home from school.

  “Was that you I saw moving into my building last week?”

  Karla wanted to lie, but she knew if she did things might be even worse for her if Darcy found out the truth.

  “Yeah, that was me and my dad. We have a place on the third floor.”

  “Oh cool…”

  That was not the response Karla was expecting to hear from Darcy.

  “Why? Where do you live in that building?”

  “I live on the second floor. I’ve been living there for the past four years with my mom and niece.”

  “Oh...,” Was all Karla could think of to say…

  Heath spoke up. “Have you heard from Carol at all?”

  Once again Karla was apprehensive, afraid where this was leading to.

  “No, not since I got back.” She figured that they probably knew all about the road trip incident. She was sure of it.

  “You haven’t?” Heath sounded genuinely surprised.

  “Have you?” Karla was afraid to ask, but she had to. It was killing her to know if she was in school somewhere lurking around a corner in wait to get back at her.

  “As a matter of fact I have,” Heath replied. “And she asked me to tell you that she is really sorry about what happened. She never meant to get you into trouble.”

  That was not what Karla expected to hear.

  “Is she at school? I haven’t seen her in weeks.” Karla had to know…

  “So you don’t know, do you?” Darcy asked.

  “Know what?”

  Heath broke the news, “Carol agreed to go to a six month drug rehab program in Western Massachusetts. She won’t be out for a while.

  I guess while you guys were down south her mom OD on a bad batch of Cocaine.”

  Darcy added, “She died.”

  Karla was confused by this news. “Who died?”

  “Carol’s mom,” Heath replied.

  “You can’t be serious?”

  And Karla thought she had it bad with her mom and dad splitting up.

  Darcy said, “She died Thanksgiving day.”

  “Oh my God…” Gone was Karla’s hatred for Carol. She only could wonder what she was going through. To lose your mom and never be able to see her ever again was beyond Karla’s belief.

  At least she still had her mom, or so she believed. She hadn’t seen or heard from her since her road trip so one never knew. This only went to prove anything was possible, even when it was something as bad as this.

  “So how is Carol doing?” Karla asked.

  “She is doing as good as one can do in a place like that. She has five more months to go.”

  Karla pulled a blank sheet of paper out of her binder and scribbled her new address on it and slid it across the table to Darcy.

  “Can you give her my address? I promise to write to her. Tell her I’m sorry how I was too.”

  Karla was so relieved to find out that Carol didn’t have it out for her. That was going to make going to school that much easier.

  Heath took the paper and folded it before stuffing it into his pocket. “I will send it to her. She will be happy to hear that you aren’t mad at her anymore.”

  The bell rang. It was time for everyone to go to their next class.

  As Karla walked past Marla and Jerra, she couldn’t help but notice they were looking at the local newspaper. It was the obituary column.

  That was when she saw what they were looking at.

  “Didn’t you know him,” asked Jerra when she saw Karla looking over Marla’s shoulder.

  The photo was of him – Rodrick Phelps…

  Karla replied, “No, not really. He was that new kid wasn’t he?”

  She didn’t wait for them to reply. Right now she didn’t want anyone to know that she had ever known that psycho dude, and hoped no one ever would find out.

  For the rest of the day, Karla kept thinking about Carol and her loss of her mother and how it would have felt if it had been her own mom.

  Even though she didn’t get along with her mom, she did still love her. If only she didn’t drink the way she did, maybe things would have been different between them.

  Things were not turning out the way Karla had expected them to. This wasn’t really such a bad thing after all. First off, when she was in the pit, she thought that she might be pregnant. This turned out to be not true. She got her period shortly after returning back to her cell block. Karla never thought she could feel so happy to learn that she really wasn’t going to have a baby.

  She had her life ahead of her, and she didn’t want to cut it short by having to raise a kid while she was still in high school.

  Then she never thought that her parents were ever going to split up.

  After living with her dad for a week without her mom around was kind of like heaven. The two of them even ate dinner together two nights out of the seven. That was better than it had been before.

  Karla didn’t bring up her road trip, or her partying incident to her dad and all was fine between them. They seemed to be spending a little more time together too, on the weekends.

  She still didn’t know how Max was, if only she knew where he lived.

  And last of all, she never expected Carol to forgive her for trying to hurt her back in prison. That really blew her mind, along with knowing what had happened to Carol’s mom.

  After school Darcy even walked home with her and showed her where her apartment was.

  Karla never expected Darcy ever to befriend her. Not after all that had taken place since the party on top of the road trip. Now she was being extremely nice to her. It made Karla wonder just what Carol had really said to Darcy that seemed to change everything.

  The more Karla thought about Carol and her loss of her mom the more Karla wanted to reconnect with her mom. That night at dinner Karla decided to press the matter with her dad.

  “Dad, have you heard anything at all from mom?”

  “No, I haven’t. Why do you ask?”

  “I was just thinking about her that is all?”

  “Do you really miss her?”

  “Well in a way, I sort of do. I just wish she didn’t have a drinking problem.”

  “I see. What brought all this on? You never liked you mom in the past.”

  “Do you remember Carol?”

  The mention of Carol’s name hit a sore note with her dad. Karla could see it written all over his face, by the way, he winced at the mention of her name.

  “I remember her. What about her?”

  “Well, on Christmas, she lost her mom. She died, and it got me thinking about how I would feel if it was my mom. I would feel terrible. Not because she died but because we never actually learned to see eye to eye about anything.”

  “Oh, so, maybe you want to give her a call sometime. I am sure she would love to hear from you.”

  “Do you really think she would?”

  “I know she would.”

  “Should I give her a call this weekend?”

  “You could.”

  “Do you know her number? Is she still living in that house on Range Wood Drive?”

  “No, she is not there anymore. I will have to look up her number for you.”

  “Where is she living now?”

  “At a home for people who have the same problem as she does with drinking.”

  This information surprised Karla.

  “When did she move?”

  “Not too long ago. I don’t really know the details, but I am sure that if you give her a call she will be more than happy to tell you how things are going with her.”

  This new infor
mation was not expected. “Can you get me the number by this weekend?”

  “I will.”

  Karla got up from the table and ran around to where her dad sat and threw her arms about his neck and hugged him dearly. “Thanks dad…. I love you so much.”

  The week came and went, and when the weekend arrived her dad delivered the number to her just as he said he would. Karla gave her mom a call, and it went well. She made arrangements to visit with her on Saturday in two weeks. She didn’t understand why she had to wait, but that was when her mom said she was available for a visit.

  Karla was happy with that. She was hopeful that she would finally be able to have a real relationship with her mom. Next she planned on giving a visit to Carol.

  Epilogue

  Two days after Karla was let out of her solitary stay she received a call back from Jan to let her know she had found a lawyer for her. At the same time, Jan also told her about the breakup of her parents and why she had not been able to call home that day. The phone line had been turned off without Karla’s dad knowing it. Apparently he thought that her mother had made the phone bill payment a week before. He did have a vague idea as to where the money had undoubtedly gone. His theory was it had bought and paid for Laurette’s booze.

  Carol too received a call back, but it wasn’t from her dad. He was too busy with funeral arrangements to give her a call. The call came from the lawyer her dad had found for her. He told her how he was currently working on a bail hearing for her, but it may take some time. Maybe a month or two because of the backlog of cases in the system, he told her to hang tough and wait it out.

  When he called her back he told her that he had managed to secure her a lawyer, and she was to do as he said if she wanted to be home anytime soon. Carol agreed to do so, and was released only a couple of weeks later to a teen drug rehab facility to finish out the rest of her jail time.

  Max was admitted to a hospital. They never arrested him since there was no incriminating evidence found against him except breaking an-entering. All he could do was count his blessings for not being in the car with the girls when they had been picked up the day they went to get help for him.