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"Oh, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, he was ninety-three and he'd lived a good long life."
"You must miss him though." She insisted.
"Yeah, he was a character. Are your grandparents alive?"
"No, they died in their sixties. Some time ago." She told him. "They never played games with me, though."
"Do you have brothers and sisters?"
"As a matter of fact I have one sister and two brothers. Both my brothers are married and have great jobs, my sister goes to college at SMU too. She'll graduate this year. She's very smart."
"Do you see them now that you don't live there anymore?"
"No, I don't see them anymore. They think my father was right for throwing me out. Anyone who would spend that much money for me to go to college and me just throwing it away, I deserved what I got." She repeated, but it did hurt her feelings. "Why are you so nice to me?" She asked out of the blue.
He stared at her. "I like you."
"You do?" She looked even more puzzled.
"Sure, you work hard. You've done everything my father asked of you. You haven't really balked at anything here. Some of the kids we get from court are pretty wild. They try to sneak cigarettes and booze around; my dad was on to them. Some won't work. They go back to juvenile. But you've been pretty nice about everything. Why wouldn't I like you?"
She figured he was just saying that to be nice.
"I better get to bed, got to get up early." She smiled at him. She just realized she liked Jeremiah in a different way than the others. Maybe because they worked together all the time and were closer, but the feelings he aroused in her went deep, into her soul. Leroy was a protector, but Jeremiah was a comfort. She was just now realizing for the first time in her life, that good morals and clean living was what she had been seeking all along. She just hadn't been looking in the right places for them.
He stared. "Goodnight Leah…"
"Night."
The way he was looking at her made her heart trip just a bit. She liked him too, but she couldn't tell him. After all, he wouldn't really be interested in a girl that had been arrested.
Chapter Six
The night of the dance came and Leah took extra pains to look nice. She ironed her dress and fixed her dark hair so it would hang in the back.
Carol came up to her room. "Leah, I thought you might like a dab of perfume."
"Oh, that's sweet of you." She told her.
It was a very nice, sweet fragrance that made Leah feel much better. She used to have perfumes and nice things when she lived at home. But it had been a while since she'd had perfume. The memory of it, made a tear float in her eye, she did her best not to let it fall, but obviously Carol saw it. She didn't want to go around feeling sorry for herself, she'd caused a lot of her own problems she admitted.
Carol grabbed her and hugged her, "You look lovely Leah. And I've got the shawl downstairs, in case you need it."
"Thank you, you are so kind."
Carol studied her a moment. "Jeremiah's waiting for you downstairs."
"Do you mind if I go with him? I mean I didn't ask, and I don't know if it's against the rules."
"Not at all. He said he asked you."
"He did. But, I wanted to ask if you minded. I mean, I am from juvenile court…"
"Leah, why don't you try relaxing. Everything is fine here. You can be yourself, and you can enjoy your life. We aren't going to spank your hand and send you to bed without supper. We like you Leah."
Without a word, she went to hug her then turned away.
