Page 27 of Grin and Bear It

“Why don’t you come inside and I’ll make you something to eat? We can sit down and talk this through like we would in a RJ. Would that be OK?”

“What’s an RJ?” I asked.

It was all going to shit, all of it. Just like when–

“Restorative justice,” she replied with a small smile. “It's something we use a lot in schools and it's a great tool. What do you think, boys?”

Seeing surprise and a little confusion on Knox’s face triggered the same response in me. I expected him to tell her to get fucked, the bear growling at that, but instead he blinked and then nodded, just slightly.

“OK, well, come in. The place is an absolute mess and I want to put that down to the plumbing issue, but I can’t.”

The rest of my sleuth hovered around the kitchen as she bustled about, pulling out bread, peanut butter and some plates.

“I wish I could offer you something fancier, but shopping day is tomorrow. Peanut butter sammies and a can of Coke do?”

“Boys?”

I stared intently at them when they didn’t respond, but they edged closer and then nodded.

“Thanks, Miss.”

Food. I hadn’t really thought about that, about how potent it was with teenage boys. I was a bottomless pit at their age and someone could have gotten my attention with a peanut butter sandwich real easy, especially if there was a potential for more. The boys had breakfast and Ty said he gave them a bunch of money before school so they could buy food at the canteen, but right now the two of them watched her make the sandwiches like they were their last meals.

And maybe that’s how they felt.

She sliced several rounds of sandwiches up and then handed them over to the boys before turning to us.

“Did you guys want something to eat as well?”

You, that thought came from nowhere, punching me in the gut, but I just smiled and shook my head.

“Wouldn’t mind a Coke though, if you’ve got one?”

She reached into the fridge and handed me one, my fingers lingering way too long before I pulled it free, wanting to slide down and— Ellie handed them out to everyone else, her eyes seeking mine for just a second, a question there, but then she ushered us towards her dining room table, before reconsidering.

“I… wasn’t expecting company.” She waved sheepishly at the mess piled high on the table. “Maid’s day off and all that. Let's go into the lounge room.” But she hurriedly picked up dirty plates and then put them in the kitchen sink before tidying up a pile of magazines and finally sitting down.

The boys held their plates close to their chests and they ate their sandwiches silently, barely even looking up when Ellie spoke.

“So restorative justice is a process we use in class a lot,” she explained to me. “It could be helpful now.” Her focus shifted back to the boys. “Would you guys be open to going through that? I know your uncles want to make things right, but we could maybe do that in a way that involves less manual labour than what they have planned.”

She waited patiently, something that was driving me fucking nuts. The boys hurt her, jeopardised her fucking job and they were just—

“Sure,” Knox said finally, after Mads stared at him. When he set his plate down, leaving a half uneaten sandwich there, so did Mads.

“And did you want all your uncles here? I know Nash was the one I first talked to, but you don’t have to have everyone involved unless you want to.”

Mads looked over the rest of us before saying, “They can stay,” even as Knox shot him a hard look.

“What we do in this kind of process is we try to state what happened in as clear and unemotional language as possible,” Ellie told me. “Just to get the facts out there at the start. So, boys, did you want to start?”

“We already talked—” Knox started to say with a frown, but Mads cut him off.

“We showed a private photo of you to the class.”

“Mads…” Knox hissed, but my nephew just shook him off.

“We did. Everyone knows so it's not like we can pretend we didn’t.” Mads turned to Ellie. “We’re sorry—”

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