by Megan Hart
Marian had calmed a bit, but she leaned against Dean for comfort. None of this was making total sense to her. “So what does this mean?”
“It means,” the doctor said, rubbing his hands together, “that we are going to recommend Briella leave Southside and start attending a smaller, private school.”
“Parkhaven,” Tommy said at once. “You want us to send her to the mutant school.”
Chapter Ten
“A full scholarship,” Dean said when neither Marian nor Tommy had spoken for a full sweep of the clock’s second hand. “There’s that. Right? That means something.”
The three of them sat around the kitchen table in Dean and Marian’s house. Marian got up to bring the coffee carafe to the table. She filled Dean’s cup first. Then her own. Tommy waved her off when she offered him some. She put the carafe on a small, lacy hot pad her mother had crocheted. Marian had always meant to ask for lessons in how to crochet, but Mom had been killed before she ever had the chance.
“Of course they’re giving her a free ride. She’s a genius. They want kids like her going there, so they can show off to the rich assholes who can afford to pay the tuition. They’re going to use our kid to prove Parkhaven’s got what it takes. How else would they get anyone to attend that freakfest?” Tommy shook his head, then sat back in the chair hard enough to rock it a little. He ran both hands through his dirty blond hair, scratching at his scalp. “Shit, Marian. You can’t be thinking this is a good idea. You know the kids who go to that school are weird as fuck. And yeah, Briella’s got her…quirks…but…you know what I’m saying.”
Tommy gave Marian a steady, fierce look that she met evenly, without flinching.
“No, Tommy. What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that she’s weird. But she’s not that fucking weird.”
She frowned at his language, and at the suggestion their daughter…no, fuck that. Her daughter was anything close to not being normal. “You heard the doctor. Briella is brilliant.”
“And strange,” Tommy said. “Brilliant and strange. But she’s still not weird enough for Parkhaven.”
“Have you ever even met anyone who went to school there?”
Parkhaven had been founded sometime in the early 1920s as a private boarding school for orphans who’d been lucky enough to find benefactors, but it had not always been a school. The massive pseudo-Victorian building had been added to over the years without much thought toward matching the architecture, resulting in a sprawl of several wings and additions off the main building, along with other outbuildings on the property. In the fifties and sixties it had become a private hospital, taking care of mostly special- needs children whose families didn’t want to or could not care for them at home. By the seventies, lack of private funding had turned the hospital into a state psychiatric facility. It had been shut down in the mid-eighties and left empty until about fifteen years ago, when a board of trustees had renovated and reopened it as a private boarding school.
Marian, Tommy and Dean had been kids in the early nineties, when Parkhaven took on the role that any old house does in the neighborhood – rumors that it was haunted, the scene of serial killings, that the crazy people who lived there had not gone on to homes or other places when the government defunded it, but instead were holed up in the attics and basements. Kids dared each other to break in and wander the rooms, abandoned but not empty. Marian had never done it, but she wouldn’t have put it past Tommy to have gone in with a couple cans of spray paint and a few joints to get stoned and mess the place up.
“I had a cousin who married a guy who went there,” Dean said quietly.
Tommy and Marian both looked at him. Tommy laughed, shaking his head, but it sounded more like he was mocking than amused. Marian ignored him. She did that a lot.
“And?” she asked.
Dean shrugged. “Seemed like a decent enough guy. Quiet.”
“They’re all quiet,” Tommy said, “until they turn out to have jars of teeth in the basement.”
Marian exploded. “You shut the fuck up, Tommy. This is your kid we’re talking about, and I get it, you have no fucking clue who she is or what it’s like living with her…”
She broke off with a gasping, choking cry and got up to get herself a glass of cool water from the sink. She shrugged off Dean’s touch from her shoulder, hating herself for it but grateful that he knew her well enough to let her push him away without getting butthurt about the rejection. She gave herself a second or so to turn, expecting to have to tell Tommy to get his skinny ass out of her house, but she found him looking contrite. Almost believably so.
“You’re right. I’m an asshole,” he said.
Her anger deflated, a pinpricked balloon. Marian leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. “We all know Briella has always been different. Special. You heard what Spector said. Southside has done all they can for her. Going to Parkhaven will be good for her. And if they’re going to give her a free ride, provide her with an education that could get her into a really good college.… The opportunities she’ll have from this are so much more than we could possibly ever give her.”
From the corner of her eye, Marian saw Dean flinch, and she felt worse about what she’d just said than when she’d shrugged off his comforting touch. Still, she lifted her chin. Money wasn’t everything, but damn it, money was always something, and it was no secret that she and Dean sometimes struggled with the basics, much less being able to afford anything above and beyond.
“I don’t want my kid to be a charity case,” Tommy said in a low voice.
“I would rather take charity than hold on to my damned pride, if it means I can see my daughter go to the best school and have the brightest future possible. And unless you plan to fully fund her way through her college education, Tommy, it’s not going to be up to you whether or not we turn this down. Buy her a laptop, buy her a new one every year, if that makes you feel like a hotshot. But in the end, Briella deserves whatever chances we can give her.” Marian finished with her hands on her hips, glaring, but kept her voice low.
Tommy had the grace to look ashamed. “If you really want to send her away to school, Mare—”
“I don’t,” she interrupted. “I don’t want to send her away.”
But she did, didn’t she? Maybe just a little bit? Wasn’t there a bit of shameful comfort in the idea of someone else taking on the burden of the constant questions, the temper tantrums? The derision? Hell, just the general burden of having a kid at all, much less one like Briella.
“There are other places to send her,” Tommy finished as though she hadn’t spoken. “We could look into it, that’s all I’m saying. If you think she needs to go to private school, we could find another one.”
“And once again, who’s going to pay for it? You?” Marian shook her head.
Tommy cleared his throat and hitched forward in the chair. “I could. Yeah.”
“I can’t trust you, Tommy. You’d get her settled in some school and then all of a sudden I’d be getting notices that the bills aren’t paid, and we’d have to bring her home. I won’t do that to her.”
Dean, wisely, had been staying out of it, but now spoke up. “She’s too young to go away to school, anyhow. Even Parkhaven will only take her as a day student until she’s twelve, and then they’ll have to assess her to see if she’s ready for full-time.”
The look Tommy gave Dean was level and considering. “So you think she ought to go there?”
“I think that we should do whatever is best for her,” Dean said.
The front door opened and, startled, Marian looked at the clock on the soffit above the sink. They’d been talking about this for so long, she’d forgotten Briella would be getting off the bus. Her small figure appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, and they all turned to look.
“You didn’t come to the bus stop to get me,
Mama.”
“I know, honey, I’m sorry. Me and your dad and Dean were talking.” Marian gestured for the girl to come closer. “You want a snack?”
“Yeah, but I’m going to see Onyx first. Daddy, do you want to see Onyx? I’m teaching him to talk.”
That bird. That damned bird. It was a disgusting reminder of everything Tommy had said that Marian didn’t want to hear – that her daughter was and had always been…odd.
Tommy’s laugh was strained. “No way. I gotta go hear that.”
Marian gave him an impatient wave and waited until he’d gone into the den to say to Dean, “This is a good thing. Right? Isn’t it? Parkhaven, I mean.”
“A free scholarship to a private school that can let her learn at her own pace, where she’ll have access to computer and science labs? The paperwork said she’d even get a laptop to use at home for her assignments.” Dean shook his head, holding out his hands, palms up. “Babe, I don’t see how we can refuse. I mean, what should we do, keep her at Southside, where—”
“Where they make fun of her,” Marian said as she pulled out the jar of peanut butter from the cupboard and an apple from the small basket in the corner of the kitchen. “Where she struggles to fit in, where she’s bored. I know she said she fell off the monkey bars all on her own, but the other kids laughed at her when she did. And her teacher said they can’t do anything more for her in that school. They can’t just say that, can they? To get rid of her? They’re not allowed to do that, Dean, are they?”
She heard the rising sound of her own hysteria and tried to fight it back, knock it down, but her hands were shaking and there was no way for her to keep them still. Her stomach twisted, churning, and her throat closed so that she had to swallow over and over. Faintly, she heard the sound of that damned bird squawking, along with the rise of Tommy’s laughter. Her shaking fingers curled over her palms. “They can’t just kick her out of Southside because she’s too smart, can they?”
“No, baby. They’re recommending Parkhaven because they really believe Briella would do well there. And she will. And, if she doesn’t like Parkhaven, we can always see about transferring her somewhere else.” Dean held up his hand to stop her from talking. “We’ll find the money.”
Marian burst into tears she stifled behind her hands. Dean was at her side in an instant, and this time, she didn’t push him away. She clung to him for a moment, letting him be her rock. She swiped at her face, aware that Tommy and Briella could be back in the kitchen at any moment.
“You took us both on,” she said against his chest. “You didn’t have to.”
“Of course I didn’t have to. I love you,” Dean told her with a small laugh as he stroked his hand over her hair. “I love both of you, Marian. So if the kid needs to get into a school that’s going to help her, then we make that happen. Whatever it takes. Okay?”
A small breath of relief eased out of her. She raised her face to his for a damp kiss, then laughed and swiped again at her eyes. “Sorry. You know how I get around this time of the month.”
Dean kissed her again and squeezed her, hard. “It’s all going to be okay, baby. I promise.”
Briella showed up in the doorway, the raven on her shoulder. It was easily twice the size of her head, and Marian couldn’t stop the grunt of disgust that slipped past her lips. Briella didn’t seem to notice her mother’s discomfort.
The girl beamed. “Look, Mama. He’s so much better now.”
“Mama,” the bird said in Briella’s voice.
Marian shook her head, her lip curling. “Get it out of the kitchen. I told you not to take it out of the cage. If it’s that much better, it can go back and live outside.”
She expected a fight, but Briella nodded as she reached to stroke the bird’s feathered back. “I know. Onyx has to live in nature. He doesn’t want to stay in a cage. That’s not fair. Nobody would want to live locked up forever, right, Onyx?”
The raven didn’t answer with words but gave a muttered, rasping caw. It tugged a strand of Briella’s curly hair and flapped its wings as though it meant to take off. Marian pointed at the back door.
“Out. Now.”
Briella went out the back door to the small concrete stoop. “Go on, Onyx. Go fly!”
The bird did, taking off from Briella’s shoulder with a huge swoop, then circling back to dip low in front of her before wheeling off and heading for the woods. Briella waved, calling goodbye.
The girl looked up at Marian with a frown and a glitter of tears. “He’ll come back, though. Won’t he?”
Marian smoothed the strands of her daughter’s hair that the bird had pulled. “It’s a wild animal, Briella. It can take care of itself, and it’ll be fine. It’s meant to live out there in the wild. Not to come around people.”
“But will he come back to visit me?”
Marian cupped Briella’s cheeks in her hands and found a smile for her. “I guess we never know what might happen. How about we go inside now and get that snack? There’s some stuff we want to talk to you about.”
Chapter Eleven
The tour of Parkhaven was supposed to take only an hour, but with the fifteen-minute drive on each end of it, Marian had insisted Dean stay home and go to bed. He had enough trouble working nights without losing more sleep, and he’d be wrecked without it. She had not intended for his place to be taken by Tommy, who’d insisted on attending.
An older student had taken Briella to show her around. Dr. Garrett, the Parkhaven school psychologist, gave Marian and Tommy the tour. The school, a massive, looming building, had been renovated with every modern school convenience.
“Still looks like a looney bin,” Tommy said under his breath as Dr. Garrett excused himself to duck into the restroom.
Marian scowled. “Shut your mouth. This place is…it’s…”
“Admit it. It’s creepy as fuck,” Tommy said.
Marian would not admit it. The library, auditorium and computer labs had all impressed the hell out of her. Southside had been a fine school, one of the better ones in the district, but Parkhaven stood all on its own.
Tommy wouldn’t let up. “You know it’s haunted. You know there’s been some bad shit that went on in here.”
“Do you want your kid to thrive and succeed?” Marian snapped at him. “Or do you want to keep being a giant asshole about this?”
He looked chagrined. “I’m just kidding around.”
“Don’t,” she told him. “This could be a really big deal, a great thing for her. Don’t you ruin it.”
“I’m not going to ruin anything for her. Shit, Mare. You think I’d do that? Really?”
Dr. Garrett, an amiable man who wore a tie adorned with smiling sunny-side up eggs, returned from the restroom. “Sorry about that. Shall we continue?”
The rest of the tour took only another fifteen minutes or so, ending at the science labs, where they met Briella. She was bubbling over with glee at the facilities, talking the ear off of her tour guide. At least the older kid looked amused and not put off.
“Is she going to fit in here?” Marian bluntly asked the psychologist.
Garrett smiled. “I think so. Yes.”
“You can’t promise that,” Tommy interjected, earning a sour look from Marian.
“Of course not. But I can promise you both that Parkhaven’s going to treat Briella very well. I’ve seen a lot of kids go through this school, and not many like her.”
Briella had caught sight of them. “Mama! Guess what! They have an organics lab here! And I might be able to use it!”
“The organics lab is a live experiment facility. We’ve got students working with hydroponics, genetics work on plants, that sort of thing. Nothing contagious or with animals,” Garrett added hastily, maybe at the sight of Marian’s expression. “But it’s state of the art. We’re very proud of it.”
Briella
took one hand from each of her parents, swinging them back and forth. “I’m going to like it here.”
* * *
Briella had asked Tommy to stay for dinner and then to play some games with her after that. He’d never been one for games except the kind you played in casinos, so Marian expected him to shrug it off and head out. Tommy, however, seemingly oblivious to Marian’s hints that he probably wanted to get on the road, stayed. Dean had left for work early to cover part of a shift for someone who’d gone home sick.
This left Marian, Tommy and Briella alone. Marian couldn’t remember a time when that had ever been the case. Maybe once or twice, long ago, when Briella was an infant, but even back then it had never been with Marian cooking dinner while father and daughter played a card game at the table. The three of them had never been a family like this, and the easy, casual normalcy of it left Marian unsettled.
“You want to play?” Briella held up the pack of brightly colored cards.
Marian usually enjoyed playing games, but she didn’t particularly want to play with Tommy. “I need to get these potatoes peeled, Bean.”
“You should take a break. Come play with us.” Tommy shot her an old familiar grin, the sort that had always been meant to turn her knees to jelly. It was that smile that had ended up with her pregnant with Briella, and there was no way Marian was going to let herself be anything close to seduced by it ever again.
A rapping at the back door window had them all turning toward it. Briella cried out in delight and got out of her chair to cross to the door. The raven was so big it could stand on the rail and tap its beak on the glass window in the door’s center. Briella flung it open before Marian could stop her.
“He wants to come inside,” Briella said with a glance over her shoulder.
“Absolutely not!”
Briella turned her attention back to the bird. “Sorry, Onyx. My mom says you have to stay outside.”