Page 312 of Under Her Skin
“Children who get these toys are going to be very upset little individuals, Blaine,” Kent adds. “Now, I found us a manufacturer that will deliver all we want to all of the stores within this upcoming week. They have reasonable prices, and we can mark our prices merely pennies below our competitors. You will still be the lowest price on themarket.”
I sit and look at the pile of debris on top of Kate’s desk that was once a pile of toys for a brief amount of time. The alarm on my cell phone goes off, telling me it’s time to end this meeting and get home toDelaney.
Her sweet face lights up my phone screen, as I set her picture to show with the alarm. Looking at her as I turn the alarm off, I get a solid voice coming from inside of my head.Do the rightthing.
The right thing, it said once, and pretty loudly and commandingly. I look at the pile of junk again, then at the hopeful looks on my younger brother’s and sister’s faces, and it just comes out. “Doit.”
“Really?” Kate says as she jumps up from her chair and runs around, grabbing me and pulling me up to hug her. “Oh, Blaine! You’ll see—you’ll still make money and the kids won’t be heartbroken. I’ll get on the phone to let the managers know we want those old toys off the shelves. I’ve found a recycling program we can give them too so they won’t be completelywasted.”
“Plus, we can write all that off as a loss and save money on this year’s taxes,” Kentadds.
“I hadn’t even thought of that,” I tell him as I shake my head and wonder why I’ve never thought of that before. “We could do that with returns to our stores too. We can send the things to be recycled, say once a month or something like that, and write all that merchandiseoff.”
Kate’s smile is enormous as she says, “Then my original return policy can beaccepted.”
With a nod, I agree, and she hugs me again. “Blaine, this is going to work! I’m soexcited!”
Kent pats me on the back. “Let’s go get some drinks and celebrate this bigchange.”
“I can’t. I have something going on I need to attend to.” I pull my jacket off the back of the chair I was sitting in and turn toleave.
“What’s the thing you need to attend to?” Kate asks as she grabs my arm, stoppingme.
Looking back at them, I say, “Delaney is moving in with metoday.”
“What?” Kent says with a slack-jawedexpression.
“Seriously?” Kate asks with a similar expression on her face. “Why didn’t you say anything about this before? This is exciting news,Blaine!”
“I just asked her a little while ago. She was in my office after that last meeting. I asked her then, and she agreed to do it. I think things will be better for us, with her living with me. I can’t go back to that hospital again.” I try to turn to leave, but my sister has yet to let my armgo.
“Whoa,” she says. “Why can’t you go back to thathospital?”
“It’s too upsetting. Too depressing,” I say and pull out of hergrip.
“Think how the kids feel,” Kent says. “Think about them, not yourself,Blaine.”
“Yeah, they’re sick and hurting, and you were a ray of sunshine in their dismal days. And you just stopped going all of a sudden,” Kate says. “I thought you’d at least be going back around the week of Christmas, but it sounds like you won’tbe.”
“I won’t. I can’t take all that suffering for no damn reason. It sets off bombs in my head that I’d rather leave dormant. It’s better this way. And the kids don’t care. How could they? They don’t even know me,” I say, then put my jacketon.
“I saw you with some of those kids, Blaine,” Kent says. “You did manage to make them your friends. You need to get over yourself and go back. Really, it’s just mean notto.”
“Mean?” I ask, as I’ve never thought of not going back as being mean toanyone.
“Yes,” Kate agrees. “It is mean. You made them think you cared about them, but then you just stopped going to see them. They have so damnlittle.”
A pain starts in my heart, and I have no idea why that is. Could they be right? Could I actually be hurting any of them? Do I really care if Iam?
“I need to go. Delaney will be waiting,” I say and turn toleave.
“Think about what we’ve said,” Kate calls out afterme.
“And give Delaney our love,” Kentadds.
I wave behind my head and nod as I leave her office. I have no idea why, but my brain is in a whirl as I try to wrap my head around things. I never meant to hurt anyone.Notever.
Maybe I am selfish. Maybe I am being weak by letting my problems with humanity and the lack thereof in this world interfere in any good I can do for people. Maybe it’s time to stop being thisway.
