Poor Jenny, Bright As A Penny
- Автор: Мерфи Ширли Руссо
- Язык: английский
- Год: Ad Stellae Books
- Жанр: Фэнтези
Электронная книга - «Poor Jenny, Bright As A Penny». Краткое содержание книги:
“It could be worse,” Jenny said. “Crystal’s all right, anyway.”
But how long would she be all right? If we had stayed, Jenny thought, she wouldn’t have run away. We all three would have gone with Lud like Mama told us.
It wouldn’t be any good, though. We would be running from the police. Mama left us. She ran off in the middle of the night and I did the only thing I could, for Bingo’s sake.
But it was hard to convince herself. What would happen to Crystal because of what she had done?
As the weeks passed with no more information about Crystal or Mama, the worry grew into a guilty knot in Jenny’s stomach. It accompanied her even when she thought she had forgotten it for the lovely sense of security she got from having her own room, and a clean bed, and good meals three times a day. Then the old blue Plymouth was found abandoned, as if it might have stopped running at last. Had Mama and Lud bought another car? Or perhaps Mama was not with Lud at all? What would Mama do alone?
She hesitated to tell Bingo, he was so happily settled in. Maybe she shouldn’t stir things up for him. She had never kept anything from Bingo, but now—She was debating what to do when she was taken to meet him on the bench in the hall, and saw him fighting angry tears.
She waited quietly for him to tell her what it was about.
“Mr. Serivan says I’m to be sent to a foster home.”
“What? Why?”
“He says they don’t like to keep displaced children here too long. He says this is the first opening there’s been, so I’m supposed to be happy. Nobody asked me what I wanted! You said we’d be here a long time. You didn’t say anything about a foster home!”
“Well, I didn’t know!” Her sudden guilt at seeing them torn further asunder made her turn her anger on Bingo. “Stop being a baby. You might like it if you tried.”
“I had enough trouble talking myself into liking it here.”
“Oh, come off it. What am I supposed to do? Besides, you knew it would be a long time. Isn’t it better in a foster home than locked up?”
“But I’m used to J.D.H. I want to stay here with you.”
“Well, what you want to do and what you’re going to do are two different things,” Jenny snapped. “It’s part of being alive and growing up that you can’t do as you please all the time!” She knew she was being nasty, but she couldn’t seem to help it. What’s happening to me? she thought. Still, Bingo is acting like a baby. “And what about me. How do you think I’ll feel still locked up while you’re not? Do you realize I spent my sixteenth birthday in jail? Some girls have parties or dates on their sixteenth birthdays. I’ve never even had a date with a boy.”
“What does that have to do with my going to a foster home?”
“Oh, nothing. Only I’ll be locked up and you won’t. You should feel sorry for me.”
“You got us in here,” said Bingo.
*
It was Mama who rescued Bingo. At least she delayed his departure. Before he could be sent away she was picked up and returned to the city. She was tried at once and afterward Jenny and Bingo were allowed to visit her in county jail. Mrs. Dermody said, “There’s another reason for not sending Bingo to the foster home just yet,” but she would not tell Jenny what it was. She drove them to county jail, and though she took them inside, she did not go into the room where they would meet Mama.
They entered the stone building through a sally port, a small space secured on either side by a locked gate. When they had passed through the first gate they stood in a locked cage until the other gate was opened for them.
They were led through an echoing room to another locked gate, and through it to an inner garden with barred windows looking into it. There was one more locked gate, a concrete hall, and a flight of steps leading down into the visitors’ room. Then they were told to sit on stools before a long table that was divided down the middle with a heavy sheet of glass.
Four women in prison gray were sitting at the table on the other side of the glass. Each had a visitor who faced her through the glass and talked to her on a telephone.
Mama was led out. She sat facing them. Her hair had not been bleached for a long time, the roots were black. She looked sullen. The glass reflected lights and shapes across her face as if she were under water. But her scowl was real enough. She picked up the phone and sat glaring at Jenny. Jenny said, “Hello, Mama.”
Mama pushed her hair up in back and examined her fingernails. “I’m surprised you’d come see me at all after walking out on Lud.” It sounded strange to hear Mama’s voice on the phone when she was right in front of them. “And where’d Crystal run off to? Them cops said she went to Mexico. I don’t believe that. Unless they scared her away, snooping. Why didn’t you come with Lud like I told you?”
“I don’t know, Mama.” Jenny said helplessly. “The police will find Crystal.”
“I hope not,” Mama growled. “Them dirty cops, picking me up. I was gonna come back for the trial. They said I jumped bail. Did you bring me any cigarettes?”
“No, Mama.”
“Lud’s gone and they won’t let me have my children; they won’t let me out to take care of my children and hunt for my little girl. Crystal would be home if I were out of here.” Mama began to cry.
Jenny said, “We miss you, Mama. But we’ll be all right until you can take care of us again.” She felt like a hypocrite.
Mama sighed, “It’s terrible in here, terrible. The food’s all starches and gravy, and the cells are so crowded they have mattresses on the floor, you can’t hardly sleep for women talking and shouting and carrying on. And they play the television all the time. It’s enough to drive you crazy.”
“What television, Mama?” Jenny said.
“The one in the cell, all the cells have ’em.”
“Have they sentenced you yet, Mama?”
Mama glared at her. “Ninety days,” almost spitting the words out. “Ninety lousy days.”
“Mama, when you get out, what are you going to do?”
There was a long silence. Then Mama said, “We’ll get an apartment just like we always have. What did you expect?”
“Where are we going to live? Will we stay in one place, and not move from town to town?”
“Well, I can’t tell so far away, Jenny. What are you getting at?”
“Mama—” Jenny looked pale. “Mama, I want to settle down in one place. I want us to rent a house and stay in it until Bingo is through school.”
“That’s a long time.” Mama blurted. “You can’t expect—” She was looking at Jenny as if she didn’t know her.
“Mama. Please listen. We don’t—Bingo and I don’t want to run any more. It isn’t good for Bingo, and it isn’t good for me. We want you to look after us, Mama. But in one place.”
“How do you know what’s good for you, you’re only a child!” Mama shouted so loud the phone crackled.
Jenny held herself very straight and said slowly, “If you want us, Mama, you will rent a house in this city and get a job. Otherwise we won’t live with you any more.”
There was a short, terrible silence. Jenny could feel the anger flare in Mama like water rising to surge over a dam.
“You’re getting pretty big for your britches, missy, when you start planning my life.” Mama stared coldly at Jenny, then motioned for the matron and got up.
When Mama had gone, Jenny turned around on her stool so her back was to the glass and stared straight ahead of her. Tears were streaming down her face.
She was ashamed to go back to the car because the tears wouldn’t stop. Bingo didn’t know what to do, so he went ahead. Jenny came trudging after, but soon she had to catch up to be taken through the locked gate where Mrs. Dermody waited for them.
Mrs. Dermody didn’t say anything. She dug a handkerchief out of her purse and handed it to Jenny. Then later when they were on the freeway she said, “We’re going to have lunch in the city. I have you checked out for the rest of the day.” The sun was so bright it made Jenny’s salt-washed eyes sting. Everything was bright with sun, the rooftops glinted.