Page 9 of Skid
Chapter 5
Grace
“Are you ready for yourtrip this weekend?” my friend, Kelly, asked, and I shrugged.
I’d lived with the Ringmans for so long, my former life felt like a distant memory. Every so often, my mom would pop into my life, but she never kept herself clean long enough to gain custody of me back. She liked her drugs more than me, and since my father was gone, I got tossed into the system. Kevin and Connie weren’t terrible, I guess, but they had so many strict rules that frustrated me. I was supposed to go camping with them this weekend and I was not looking forward to dealing with Connie.
She loved to pick apart everything I did wrong, reminding me that bad children who don’t listen to their elders go to hell. By her thinking, everyone was going to hell for everything, except her. She saw herself as perfect, and I didn’t want the camping trip to be all about my mistakes.
“I guess. Connie’s been difficult lately, and I don’t want to hear her griping all weekend,” I reasoned, and Kelly nodded in understanding.
She was in the system for three years, but her foster parents adopted her and made a real family. The Ringmans didn’t seem interested in adopting anyone, so I kept trying my best to make them happy. Kevin wasn’t so bad. He’d roll his eyes at me when she would leave the room, and it made me feel like we had a special bond.
“I don’t know why you don’t tell your caseworker about how she talks to you. It’s bullshit,” Kelly said, and I looked over both shoulders to make sure there wasn’t someone nearby.
“Shh. Keep it down,” I told her and lowered my voice. “What good would it do to tell my caseworker? If anything, she’d move me to a new placement, and they could be a hundred times worse. Connie is crazy, but Kevin’s all right.”
“If you say so,” she replied and stood from her swing. “I’ve got to get home, but call me when you get back. Maybe Connie will let you spend the night since it’s the summer.”
She gave me a quick hug and held up her pinky to me. I wrapped mine around hers before she turned and walked down the block to her house. We met on the first day of my new fifth grade class. She offered me a seat next to her, and we’ve been close ever since. Connie didn’t like her, saying her adoptive parents didn’t spend enough time in church and were leading Kelly into damnation.
I didn’t know about all that. It seemed like some angry man in the sky, punishing people for honest mistakes without remorse. I sang their songs and repeated the words they taught me, but deep down, I didn’t know if I believed like they did. I would never tell anyone that, but I knew it in my heart to be true.
I walked the three blocks from the park to my house and let myself in the side door, careful to wipe all the dirt off my shoes before stepping inside. The house was quiet, so I slipped my shoes off and placed them on the rack in the kitchen before tiptoeing into the living room.
“Grace?” Connie’s voice sounded from the back of the house, and I sighed before walking toward her voice.
“Yes, ma’am?” I replied, standing outside her closed bedroom door.
“Come in,” she instructed, and I turned the knob before slowly pushing the door open.
The room was dark and she was laying across the bed with a rag over her eyes. Just perfect. She had another migraine, and I usually caught the worst of her condemnation when she was sick.
She lifted the rag from her eyes and motioned for me to come closer. I stepped silently across the floor until I was standing next to the bed. “My migraines are starting again, so I’m not going camping with y’all this weekend. Can you handle packing the items in the kitchen notebook before Kevin gets home?”
I wanted to jump up and down and cheer for a weekend away from her, but I whispered, so as not to make her headache worse, “Yes, ma’am. Do you want me to get your medicine?”
