Page 82 of Baby Blue
“And why did he leave? Did he do something wrong?”
“Oh, heavens, no! He was very well-behaved! It was me. My husband passed away suddenly. Heart attack. Social services said I couldn’t have a male child in my home by myself, so they took him away. I cried for weeks.” Blue remembered it. He’d cried for months too. Patty had been kind to him, and he’d always fantasized that someday she’d come and find him. She’d take him away from the people who were so mean to him and take care of him. He’d be her little boy. But she never came and he thought that, just like everybody else, she hadn’t wanted him either. “He used to ask me why nobody loved him and I’d say, ‘I do.’ I’ve got a feeling I was the only person who’d ever told him that.”
Something inside Blue’s chest exploded and he hid his face in his hands so no one would see him cry. He remembered it all, all the times she’d told him she loved him, and how no onehad ever said it before or ever said it again until he’d met Anne. Ms.Newsome had been a happy spot in his otherwise miserable growing up years. That she’d come there and testify for him didn’t surprise him, but he was surprised that Glen had found her. He’d figured she was dead.
“Mr.Wallace? Are you all right?” he heard the judge ask.
“Yes, YourHonor,” Blue said quietly. To his surprise, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find Mr.Casey handing him a tissue. He used it to wipe his eyes and then his nose as he struggled to regain his composure. “I’m sorry, YourHonor.”
“Perfectly all right. We can take a break if you want,” JudgeHargrove told him.
“No, no. I’m fine. Sorry.” Blue sniffled a couple of times and tried to hold it together. Memories kept seeping into his mind and he pushed at them, trying to concentrate on what was happening in the courtroom.
“I have nothing else, YourHonor. But I’d like to reserve the right to question this witness further.”
“So be it. Mr.Casey?”
Cindy’s attorney got up and ambled toward the witness box. “Ms.Newsome, do you ever remember Mr.Wallace doing anything horrible?”
“Horrible? Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Torturing or killing animals?”
“Goodness, no! Nothing like that, ever!”
“Hurting other children? Maybe getting in trouble at school for fighting?”
“The only trouble he got into at school was not participating in class discussion. He was a scared, withdrawn little boy. He never hurt a fly.”
Casey looked a little frustrated, then said, “No more questions, YourHonor.”
“Could I ask the witness one more question, YourHonor?” Glen asked. When the judge nodded, Glen asked from their table, “If you could say anything to this court about BrentWallace, what would it be?”
Ms.Newsome smiled. “I’m sitting here looking at him today and I’m so proud. It looks like he’s grown up to be a fine man. I’ve thought about him every day since they took him away, and I never thought I’d see him again. Today’s been a dream come true.”
Blue didn’t know anything to do except to smile at her, and when he did, she smiled back.Please make this be over soon. I can’t take much more, his brain screamed. In a split second, he was pretty sure it was only going to get worse. He watched as his former foster mother left the courtroom and the door opened for someone else to enter.
The woman walked with purpose up the aisle and as soon as she was sworn in by the judge, she took her seat in the witness box. Glen patted Blue on the shoulder as he stood and stepped toward her. “Ms.Parker, I understand you’re the social worker assigned to Mr.Wallace by children’s protective services. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir, it is.”
“Can you tell the court how your agency came to know about the infant child in Mr.Wallace’s care?”
“An anonymous call.”
“I see. Was it a report of abuse?”
“No, sir.”
“What exactly was it then?”
“We were told he had no business with a child.”
Glen nodded. “How long had he had the child when you made your first visit?”
“A couple of weeks, if I recall correctly.”
“And what did you find when you got there.”
