Read Online Forever Beach by Shelley Noble - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Shelley Noble
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the sports news.
She walked out the front door, turned around to lock it, though she didnât know why she bothered; she lived in a safe neighborhood. Down the front steps, where rosebushes used to grow, the rhododendrons that had replaced them several years earlier had begun to straggle. How could you kill a rhododendron? They grew in the wild.
Trying to ignore the feeling that the bushes were an indictment of her life, Reesa walked to the curb, threw her overstuffed briefcase onto the passenger seat, and climbed in after it.
What had happened to her?
While she was out saving the world, sheâd lost herself.
At the Child Protection and Permanency field office, she parked between a beige Honda and a gray Chevy truck and went inside. There was always someone working in the Main Street CP&P office. And it wasnât always the most dedicated workers. Today two of the newer recruits, fresh faced and clueless, were plugged into their tablets, most likely playing games or gambling, while they waited for any emergency placements to come in. Eddie Quinones was sitting at his desk behind a stack of folders eating a bagel and drinking coffee from a cardboard cup.
Reesa should have stopped for another cup, herself. Actually there was no reason not to go out and get one, except that her legs felt like lead this morning. What she should be doing was not cruising Eddieâs bagel but running in the park.
âHa,â she said, laughing out loud. Eddie looked up; the two recruits were oblivious.
âAnd you find something in this office to laugh about?â
âNo, just imagining me in a spandex running suit.â
Eddieâs eyebrows flew almost to his bald head. âNot really your look, hon.â
âDonât I know it,â Reesa said, as she slipped out of her faded track jacket and hung it over the back of her chair.
She sat at her desk and booted up the clunker of a computer sheâd inherited from an unused cubicle when hers had crapped out five years earlier. While she waited for it to come to life, she called the hospital.
The White boys were still hospitalized. She learned that on the second transfer. But it took three more transfers and a threat to come to the hospital with a police escort before she could find someone who had the authority to give her an update on the boysâ conditions. The baby had been moved to an NICU in another hospital. Pete was stable, but there was possible kidney damage in the younger one, Jerome.
Damn, he wouldnât have a chance if he had to be on dialysis for the rest of his life.
Reesa pushed down the anger that even years of futility hadnât quite quenched. That anger, more than anything, was what kept her going.
She pulled their file to the top. Unless a responsible relative came forward willing to take both the older boys and the baby, Reesa was going to advise they be put directly on a permanency track. Maybe even if a relative did show up. In a better world, they would have a family who would take and love the boys, a family who would already have realized they were in jeopardy and done something to fix it. Hell, in the best of worlds, they would be at home with their loving parents.
And Reesa would be out of a job, and that would be fine with her.
There were hundreds of things Reesa could do if she had the time, the money, the energy. Child services ran her dry, beat her down. And just when she thought she would hang it up and quit, a child found a good home, she saved a lifeâor sheâd lose oneâand then she knew she couldnât give it up. She just couldnât.
Thatâs when anger kept her going.
I LONA WIPED THE sweat from her brow with her wristband. It was time to put this baby away. She concentrated her energy, bounced the tennis ball a couple of times. Good. She liked the feel of it. She touched it to her racket and in one smooth move smashed the ball into the opposite court.
âLet.â
Damn. She
She walked out the front door, turned around to lock it, though she didnât know why she bothered; she lived in a safe neighborhood. Down the front steps, where rosebushes used to grow, the rhododendrons that had replaced them several years earlier had begun to straggle. How could you kill a rhododendron? They grew in the wild.
Trying to ignore the feeling that the bushes were an indictment of her life, Reesa walked to the curb, threw her overstuffed briefcase onto the passenger seat, and climbed in after it.
What had happened to her?
While she was out saving the world, sheâd lost herself.
At the Child Protection and Permanency field office, she parked between a beige Honda and a gray Chevy truck and went inside. There was always someone working in the Main Street CP&P office. And it wasnât always the most dedicated workers. Today two of the newer recruits, fresh faced and clueless, were plugged into their tablets, most likely playing games or gambling, while they waited for any emergency placements to come in. Eddie Quinones was sitting at his desk behind a stack of folders eating a bagel and drinking coffee from a cardboard cup.
Reesa should have stopped for another cup, herself. Actually there was no reason not to go out and get one, except that her legs felt like lead this morning. What she should be doing was not cruising Eddieâs bagel but running in the park.
âHa,â she said, laughing out loud. Eddie looked up; the two recruits were oblivious.
âAnd you find something in this office to laugh about?â
âNo, just imagining me in a spandex running suit.â
Eddieâs eyebrows flew almost to his bald head. âNot really your look, hon.â
âDonât I know it,â Reesa said, as she slipped out of her faded track jacket and hung it over the back of her chair.
She sat at her desk and booted up the clunker of a computer sheâd inherited from an unused cubicle when hers had crapped out five years earlier. While she waited for it to come to life, she called the hospital.
The White boys were still hospitalized. She learned that on the second transfer. But it took three more transfers and a threat to come to the hospital with a police escort before she could find someone who had the authority to give her an update on the boysâ conditions. The baby had been moved to an NICU in another hospital. Pete was stable, but there was possible kidney damage in the younger one, Jerome.
Damn, he wouldnât have a chance if he had to be on dialysis for the rest of his life.
Reesa pushed down the anger that even years of futility hadnât quite quenched. That anger, more than anything, was what kept her going.
She pulled their file to the top. Unless a responsible relative came forward willing to take both the older boys and the baby, Reesa was going to advise they be put directly on a permanency track. Maybe even if a relative did show up. In a better world, they would have a family who would take and love the boys, a family who would already have realized they were in jeopardy and done something to fix it. Hell, in the best of worlds, they would be at home with their loving parents.
And Reesa would be out of a job, and that would be fine with her.
There were hundreds of things Reesa could do if she had the time, the money, the energy. Child services ran her dry, beat her down. And just when she thought she would hang it up and quit, a child found a good home, she saved a lifeâor sheâd lose oneâand then she knew she couldnât give it up. She just couldnât.
Thatâs when anger kept her going.
I LONA WIPED THE sweat from her brow with her wristband. It was time to put this baby away. She concentrated her energy, bounced the tennis ball a couple of times. Good. She liked the feel of it. She touched it to her racket and in one smooth move smashed the ball into the opposite court.
âLet.â
Damn. She
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