Page 128 of Hidden Ascent

Carl squinted at her like he was trying to work her out. “Can I show you something?”

“Sure.”

“You mind taking a walk? It’s around the corner.”

“I’ve got nowhere else to be.”

“Wait there a sec.” He ran back to his guys and spoke to them, grabbing a towel off the bench and draping it around his shoulders before rejoining her.

“And how have you been?” he asked as they walked down the sidewalk.

“I’ve been good. Plenty of work.”

“Getting a lot of us bad guys off the street?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. And thank you for your contribution with this work you’re doing.”

He stopped in front of a small church. “Here we are.”

“You’ve brought me to church?”

“Yeah. They approachedme, believe it or not. The pastor came right into my bar one night and told me what he was thinking of doing. Asked me what I thought and if I had any ideas.”

“That was brave.”

“He knew what he was doing. Even when I told him to get lost.”

“How’d you get from there to here?”

“After he left, I started thinking. Turned out, I did have some ideas. I waited a few days, but I kept thinking he couldn’t help these kids, and I could. I didn’t want him to do it wrong.”

“So you came to sort him out.”

“Yeah. I stood out here on the steps. Wouldn’t go inside. I said what I had to say and left. A couple of days later, he came into my bar again. He said he’s implementing what I shared with him and wanted to let me know when and where.”

“And you said you’d help?”

“No way. I said buy a drink or get out. He was making my customers uncomfortable.”

“But you couldn’t help yourself.”

“Nope. And I imagine he knew the whole time. So here I am.”

“How’s Jay fit into it all?”

“He came in to check up on me. I told him what I was doing. He got his hands dirty immediately. If you ask me, he was desperate to keep his mind occupied. It just so happened I had just the thing.”

Carl led her up the stairs and opened the door. Inside, kids filled the foyer area sitting quietly at tables and chairs, focused on the papers at their desks.

“What’s going on?” Isla whispered.

“Reading test. Winner takes all. That’s how we keep them focused.”

“What do they win?”

“Different things each time. Whatever gets them learning. I don’t know if it’s the right thing, but it works. These are kids that don’t go to school. The idea is to transition them into school, but we’re helping them from the inside out. Working with whatever parental situation they’re in, among other things. We’ve got a specialist who’s recently signed up to work with us.”

“Specialist in what?”

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