Page 24 of The System

“Well, yeah; that’s what I meant,” Marin said. “You don’t have my scar, I guess, so we’re not totally identical anymore.”

Kieran looked at Marin’s chin as she tilted it in her direction and noticed the thin line of a scar that looked old, but not so old that it was starting to fade.

“Where’d you get that?”

“The lamp,” Marin told her and turned back to Kieran. “Of course, someone was holding that lamp and swinging it at me; the lamp didn’t do it on its own.”

Kieran didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing at all.

“So, what? You wanted to meet or something?” Marin asked.

“Yes. I just found out you existed.”

“No one told you that you had a twin?”

“No. No one knew. Did anyone tell you what happened?”

“Not exactly,” Marin replied. “I was picked up on a drug charge, but the drugs weren’t mine. I don’t do the hard stuff. I was just in a car with a friend of mine, and he had meth on him. They arrested me, too, and I owe the state of Florida some community service, but after that, they told me they were arresting me for Nick’s murder and bringing me back here. I asked what evidence they had on me, and they told me about you and the DNA, but that’s about it.”

Kieran leaned forward and said, “A homeless woman found you. She had some problems, I guess, and wanted to raise you. I don’t know the exact order of everything, just that you ended up with her in another town, and I ended up being discovered by someone who worked at the church.”

“And I ended up in the system, and you got a family, I take it?”

“How did you–”

“You have a way about you,” Marin said. “I’m good with reading people, and you seem like you were raised well.” She leaned back as much as she could with the handcuffs attached to that bar. “White picket fence?”

“Not exactly,” Kieran replied with those same words this time. “But my mother worked as a social worker then, and she and my father wanted kids, so they adopted me. I didn’t even know I was adopted until a few years ago, but neither of them knew about you.”

“Good for you, I guess,” Marin said and sniffled.

“What happened with you? I know you were in foster care, but babies usually get adopted. So, I don’t–”

“Oh, I have a heart condition. That’s why no one wanted me,” Marin interrupted. “It required three surgeries before I was one and then another two after that. I’m fine now. I mean, maybe I’m not. I don’t know. I haven’t seen a doc in a while. People want healthy babies, not babies that are going to cost them even more money and that they still might lose. I got all fixed up, but by then, I was already six, and the older I got, the less likely it was that someone would want me. I bounced around a lot, and it is what it is, you know?”

“I wish we would’ve known about you. I–”

“Where does wishing get us? I wished back then, too. I wished my mom would come and take me back home. I wished I’d get adopted and would live with a good family who loved me. But that didn’t get me anywhere. All that wishing, and I still ended up here.” Marin held up her hands then, making the chain from the handcuffs smack against the metal bar. “In jail, for something I didn’t do.”

Kieran looked over at the guard and said, “We’re being recorded, too, so maybe–”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll just tell you what I told the cop that interviewed me already. I didn’t murder Nick. He was a son of a bitch and a bad husband, but I didn’t kill him. I was on a bus when it happened.”

“A bus?”

“Look, not that you need my whole sob story, but that asshole beat me regularly. There wasn’t a week that went by that he didn’t smack me around for something. I tried to leave once. He found me. I…” Marin looked at the guard first and then down at the table. “I got pregnant and… well, I lost the baby because of him. So, I found a cheap divorce attorney, and Nick found out. I got tired of getting hit all the time and decided to leave. I got someone to get me some fake papers, and I left that night. I left before he got shot. I didn’t even know he’d been murdered until I got where I was going a few days later and saw the news. Then, I knew I had to stay gone because they’d think I did it, and I wasn’t going to jail for something I didn’t do. Still ended up here anyway…”

“You were on a bus? Do you still have the ticket? That could help you–”

“No, I don’t have a ticket. Come on… That was years ago. And besides, I didn’t know he was going to get shot. Had I known I’d need an alibi, I would’ve kept the evidence. I took the ninety-two bus, though, to the main depot. Then, I caught the first express bus out of town. I didn’t even care what direction it went. I just needed to get gone. I ended up in Atlanta, of all places, and took another bus south. I stayed in Florida for a few years before I left there and went to Missouri, but I hated it there, so I went back to Florida, and that’s where they caught me.”

“Did you pay with a credit card or–”

“What about me makes you think someone would give me a credit card? I mean, come on. No, I paid in cash, Picket Fence.”

“Did you just call me Picket Fence?”

“Yeah, it’s a new nickname for you. Look, I’ve never even had a debit card. Nick and I lived in a one-bedroom rental house on the outskirts of the projects that he got a deal on from the guy who sold him his drugs. We barely made rent even then. I waited tables. Nick did nothing but take my money and spend it on drugs. Everything’s cash in my world. I didn’t even have a bus pass back then. Had to pay in coins to get away from him, okay?”

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