“Ben! Ben, I want to talk to you.” Suzie banged on the door again. She wasn’t sure if she should barge in next or what. He’d never been so slow to call out a welcome before.
The door creaked open with the air of a haunted house. Not exactly the welcome she was looking for. She wasn’t about to walk away, so she pushed it the rest of the way open, just in time to see him hop on his bed. So he must have at least opened it for her. She walked, then closed the door behind her.
“About your homework….”
“I told you already. It wasn’t my fault. The teacher has it in for me.”
“If we were talking about Mrs. D I’d believe you, but Mrs. H too? Could it be that the assignment got mislaid? We could check your locker….”
“You don’t understand anything! You’re totally useless.”
Though she could feel her blood pressure rising, Suzie didn’t rise to the bait. She took a deep breath, told herself to stay cool, and mentally regrouped. Maybe it was something else on his mind. Who knew what his father might have said the last time they were together.
“Is there something else on your mind? Something besides homework?”
He flinched and looked away. She’d struck pay dirt.
“There is something, isn’t there,” she said. “What is it?”
“Please don’t close me out.” She went over to his desk and sat in his chair.
“You don’t understand how I feel at all!”
“Then tell me!”
“What can YOU do to help?”
“How will I know until I know what’s wrong. Ben, you know I’m on your side, right?”
“That’s not the way it sounds, always nagging me about homework.”
“You don’t think worrying about your future is important? Ben, if I wasn’t on your side, I wouldn’t worry about the homework. The only reason I do is that homework is important to your future. Yours, Ben. Not mine. I’ve already done all my homework.”
“Fat lot of good it did you,” he grumbled.
Suzie gritted her teeth and prayed she wouldn’t have to keep backing off like this. But right now he needed a hand that wouldn’t hit him if he bit it. After all he’d been through, she felt she owed it to him.
“Is it something your father said? Or Mrs. D?” Both were logical assumptions, knowing how his day normally ran.
“How did you know?” His eyes went wide, reminding her of how innocent he still was. “I over heard the two of them talking about me. Mrs. D wants to put me in an institution, like Lake Mendota.”
He was referring to the sane asylum set up on the north side of town.
“Dad agreed! He’s going to sign the papers, and they are going to come and take me away!”
“Your father can’t do anything of the kind. He doesn’t have full custody of you. In order to turn you over to any institution he has to get my signature too, and that isn’t ever going to happen.”
“It’s not?”
“No. Not as long as I still have a say in the matter, it won’t.”
Ben got off the bed and came over to her. He was all shoulders and big feet now, and looked about as coordinated as a new born colt. He couldn’t seem to make up his mind where he wanted to put his hands or where to look, but he sidled up to her and gave her a hug.
She hugged him back, washed through and through with a sense of relief.
“Um… Mom? About the homework,” Ben looked away uncomfortably. “I didn’t do it.”
“Well get a pencil and paper and do it now. All right?”
“Ok. All right.”
She left him too it, feeling much, much better. Looks like she’d have to take Mrs. D on again, but she was up to it. Ben’s problems didn’t seem so insurmountable to her now that she knew what they were. So long as they could keep the lines of communication open, it would all work out.
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