sitcom rerun while Noreen and I sat at the kitchen table, both of us nursing a cup of coffee.
“I’ll make sure Devon gets his homework done before dinner.”
“Thanks, Noreen. He seems to focus better earlier in the evening.”
Noreen, a forty-something divorcee who looked older than she was, had had a hard life, and it showed on the road map of her face. Her shoulder-length blonde hair showed no trace of gray, however, and her teeth looked perfect—almost too perfect. And, possibly due to her outgoing personality, Noreen always had a boyfriend. While they never stayed around long, she always had one, and she almost always managed to procure some sort of favor from each one before he moved on to greener pastures, whether that favor be repairing her fence or patching a hole in the drywall. Noreen’s current beau, for example, was teaching her son to drive.
I gazed into my coffee cup as I took a sip, trying not to judge Noreen’s love life. Meanwhile, she lowered her voice, asking, “So what’s goin’ on with Sarah?”
Although I didn’t quite trust the woman to keep the information to herself, she was a caregiver for my children and probably needed to know something—so I told her about the incident at school before revealing my suspicion that maybe something else had been going on that triggered Sarah’s new behaviors. That led to a question. “Have you noticed a change in her behavior over the last year?”
“Honestly, hon, you’d get more info if you asked Jeff and Jackie. They spend more time with your kids than I do. I’m too busy cleanin’ or cookin’ while they’re here.” Or gossiping on the phone. No matter what I thought about Noreen personally, though, the woman provided a safe place for my kids to stay when I wasn’t home.
That was all I needed to concern myself with.
“Well, she refuses to go to her stepfather’s house tomorrow night.”
“After what you told me about him, I wouldn’t want to go, either.”
“But the last time she went there, she had a lot of fun.” I took a sip of my coffee. “When I talked to her dad, he said Sarah acted weird this summer, too.”
“You said you was taking her to the doctor tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah. We’re going to a therapist.”
“Do ya think it’ll help?”
“I’ve got to try something. What I’ve been doing obviously isn’t working.”
“Guess not.” Noreen’s cell rang, and she glanced down at it, obviously torn between me and the caller.
“Go ahead,” I said, taking it as my cue to leave.
After draining the cup, I set it in the sink before waving to Noreen. Then I moved to the living room and kissed my kids on the foreheads, telling them I’d be by later to pick them up. Devon hugged me like there was no tomorrow and said he loved me. Sarah hugged me, too, but it felt more like she’d dropped herself into my arms than responded to the gesture. Then I said goodbye and darted out the door.
Once I was on the road, I glanced at the clock in the van. The trip to Winchester Community College from here till I’d sit my butt in a classroom chair usually took about twenty minutes—which meant I’d probably spent more time having coffee with Noreen than I should have. After parking, I snagged my backpack from the passenger’s seat and darted up the slope toward the building. When I entered, I glanced at the clock in the hallway, refraining from grimacing. The time was 4:59—but if I was late, it was my own damn fault. Still, I had a chance. It wouldn’t have been so bad had the prof in my lit class not been such a fanatic about promptness.
But maybe I could make it.
I sprinted up the stairs and halfway down the empty hall on the second floor, entering a door on the left. The professor had just started lecturing as I walked through the door, so I hustled toward an empty seat near the middle of the room. I felt self-conscious, like everyone was staring at me as I dug my books and notebook out of the backpack, the noise seeming to echo throughout the room. But, of course, no one was ogling me. The prof was talking and the students were paying attention to his words. “The exam will be over everything we’ve studied so far this semester. I recommend you spend the next few days reviewing your notes and the stories we’ve read.” I had