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Easton
“She’s resting,”my mom says, keeping her voice down as she comes out of the guest room. She quietly shuts the door. “I’ll check on her in a half hour or so.”
“I’m going to wait in there with her.”
“You might wake her. Just give her some time to sleep.”
“I’m worried about her.”
My mom smiles slightly and rubs my arm. “I know you are, but there isn’t anything you can do. We need to just keep an eye on her and see if her fever breaks.”
“What do you think it is? The flu?”
“It could be, or maybe some other kind of virus. If she gets any worse, we’ll need to take her to a doctor.”
“No. Mom, she won’t go. If you even bring it up, she’ll run away.”
“Honey, she can barely sit up. She’s not going anywhere.”
“She can’t go to a doctor. Just do what you can to make her better.”
“I’ll try, but I can only do so much. If she gets worse, I’m not just going to sit by and do nothing.”
She’s right. If Nova needs a doctor, we have to take her, but she may never forgive me if we do.
“Why doesn’t she want to go?” my mom asks. “Is it because she can’t pay? Because I’m sure she’s on state aid, which covers her medical care.”
“It’s not that.” I pause. “It’s because she doesn’t want anyone finding out Ted is gone.”
My mom nods. “She doesn’t want the state taking her.”
“Yeah. She’s not going to get a foster family at her age. People never want teenagers.”
“I wouldn’t say never, but yes, they’re harder to place.”
“Which means she’ll be put in a group home. She’s heard stories about those places and would rather live on the streets than end up there.”
“Not all group homes are bad.”
“They’re not all good either. She’ll be 18 in January. She just needs to hide out until then. Mom, please don’t tell anyone she’s on her own. If you report her, I swear I’ll leave. I’ll leave home and I won’t come back.”
“Easton, don’t say that. I’m not going to call anyone, but we need to find her a place to go. Your father would never allow her to stay here.”
She’s worried about my dad? I thought both of them wouldn’t allow Nova to stay. Is she saying she’d be okay with it if my dad was? He wouldn’t be, but I thought my mom felt the same way.
“Where has Nova been staying?” my mom asks.
“With her dad. She moved in with him after Ted died. He lives somewhere outside Chicago. But something happened and she left.”
“Did they have an argument?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me, but I’m sure it was something worse than an argument. She wouldn’t leave because of that.”
I’m still trying to figure out what happened. Did he hit her? If he did, I’ll kill that fucking bastard. Or maybe he decided he didn’t want her there and told her to leave. Anything’s possible with that asshole.
“She’s skin and bones,” my mom says. “Has she not been eating?”
“I took her for breakfast this morning, but before that, I don’t know. She said she ate last night, but got sick and threw it up. She never had food at Ted’s place. He’d make her buy him all this stuff and then not let her have any of it. When I’d go over there, the only food in the fridge was his. I think she lived on peanut butter sandwiches and whatever the school had for lunch.”
