A Child's Wish

She didn’t want to be there anymore, even if she could hear about Kenny’s father. She wanted to go home. Right then. She’d tell her mom she didn’t feel good—which was mostly true.

When another sound came from the house, Kelsey pulled on the garage door. She had to find her mom, had to get out of there. She was sweating and her hand slid off the door handle, but she grabbed it again and pulled harder.

And then, staring into the glaring light coming from the garage ceiling, she started to shake.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“KELSEY! What are you doing out here? You shouldn’t have opened that door!”

Don was sitting on a stool at a counter and Mom was on his lap, with her shirt partly undone and Don’s fingers on her boobs. She had a cup of coffee in one hand and Don’s head in the other, and all around them it looked like a science lab with beakers and hot pads and vials and things. In one corner was a huge pile of flares, like the ones she’d seen Don bring through the house that day from his truck.

“What is this place?” She felt like she had on Saturday night, when no matter how mad Dad got, she couldn’t give in.

“It’s my lab, sweetheart,” Don said, his hand slowly sliding from her mom’s chest. He pulled the edges of Mom’s blouse together. “Just a little hobby of mine.”

“What does it make?” she asked, scared to death and wondering how she was going to get out of there.

“It doesn’t make anything, sweetie,” Mom said, standing up slowly. She buttoned her shirt, and grabbing a broom, she started sweeping up red dust from the garage floor. “It’s just experiments to see what different stuff does, like scientists do when they’re looking for cures.”

Kelsey didn’t move. Mom seemed to be feeling a lot better, which was good. “Where are the microscopes?”

Mom glanced up at her. “For what?”

“Everyone knows scientists use microscopes.”

Don stood behind her mom, pulling her back against him, his hands on her hips. “She’s right, you know, love,” he said, with his face on the side of Mom’s neck.

“Don!” Kelsey had never heard her mom talk to Don in her mean voice. She started to shake again, afraid of what the big man would do to her mother.

Mom dropped the broom and it fell to the ground with a crack that made Kelsey jump. “Come on, Kelsey, let’s go.”

She wanted to run away and never come back, but just like on Saturday night she stood her ground. “What does it make?” she asked, looking str

aight at Don. She didn’t know why she did that, but she just wanted to make sure her mom was safe. That she was safe.

She couldn’t come back, if she didn’t know that.

“What do you think it makes?” he asked, coming closer.

Mom pulled at her elbow and said to Don, “Leave her out of this.”

Out of what?

Scared to death, Kelsey glanced at her mom—who was staring at Don. She looked at him, too, and then back at Mom, and neither one of them looked at her at all.

“She’s already in it up to her neck,” Don said. The words were soft, but he sounded mad and his broken yellow teeth were showing a lot.

“No, she’s not.”

“Who’s in it?” Kelsey asked, confused. Her legs were shaking and she had to go to the bathroom.

“No one,” Mom said, putting an arm around Kelsey, who felt like she might start crying.

“You are,” Don said. And then looking at her mom again, he said, “Telling her is the only choice, Barbie. She’s seen it. If she says anything, it’s over.”

Mom’s fingers got so tight on Kelsey’s shoulder that tears did come to her eyes. She was afraid to move.

“She’s just a baby.”