check this for myself, but I’m expecting you to answer me truthfully. Has the school been sending you letters about Melvin Lee’s absences?”
Junie’s chin jutted out. “You don’t understand. I need help at home while my husband is away.”
“No, ma’am. What you don’t understand is that you aren’t allowed to use your child as unpaid help when he’s supposed to be in school. It’s against the law. You do not want to get social services in your business, and that’s what’s about to happen. You hire help. You call on your adult family members if you need help, but you figure it out now, because your little boy is so overwhelmed by the responsibilities you’ve dumped on him, and by being called stupid at school because he was held back, that when he found out you were pregnant again, he took off in a thunderstorm and had no intention of coming back.”
The defiance on Junie Wilson’s face faded as the shock washed through her.
“I didn’t know kids were making fun of him,” she said. “I need to talk to him.”
“Yes, you do. And you will assure him that you will never keep him out of school to watch your babies again. Those are his siblings, not his responsibility. Do we understand each other?”
Junie’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, sir.”
“Now…go inside and get him dried off and dressed for school. I’ll wait. I’m taking him to school this afternoon, and I will be checking at school every day to make sure he’s not absent again.”
Junie bolted inside. Lon heard kids screaming and a toddler crying, and winced. Poor Melvin Lee.
Within minutes, the little boy came flying out of the house in dry clothes, wearing a little green raincoat.
“Mama says you’re taking me to school!”
“Yes, I am. Pull up your hood,” Lon said, and a few minutes later, they were pulling up at Blessings Elementary. “I’m going to walk you inside,” Lon said.
“Yes, sir,” Melvin Lee said, eyeing the steady downpour. “Reckon we oughta run?”
Lon grinned. “I reckon we should.”
And so they did.
* * *
Duke was still smiling to himself when he pulled up at the back of the house and got out. Having Cathy as a guest at their house for Thanksgiving had changed the whole vibe of the holiday for him. He got out on the run and dashed through the rain to the back porch, then shed all of his rain gear at the door before going inside.
He could hear laughter in the front of the house, and he could smell lemon oil. Cleaning house was in progress.
“I’m home!” he called out.
“We’re in the living room,” Jack shouted. “Grab a dust rag. Hope is on a tear.”
Duke sighed. He’d been on the receiving end of Hope’s penchant for cleaning house before. He paused in the kitchen long enough to get some cleaning cloths, and headed toward the front of the house in his sock feet.
The vacuum cleaner was in the middle of the floor, and Jack was standing on a ladder with a long-handled feather duster, wiping down the blades of a ceiling fan. Hope was near the fireplace, polishing the ancient wood on the mantel, which explained the scent of lemon oil.
“What’s all this about?” Duke asked.
“Since this is my day off, I’m using it for holiday cleaning,” Hope said. “You can dust the books and the bookshelves first, and then we’ll do the dining room table and chairs next. I’m not running the vacuum until all of the wood has been dusted and cleaned.”
“Speaking of holidays, I invited Cathy Terry to Thanksgiving and she accepted,” Duke said.
Jack stopped and looked down from the ladder.
Hope paused and turned around.
“Way to go, Duke. That’s a first,” Jack said.
Duke ignored the insinuation and headed for the bookshelves.
“That’s great,” Hope said. “You know how I feel about holiday dinners. The more, the merrier. How is she feeling?”
“I guess okay,” Duke said. “She’s managing enough that she took off out of the house barefoot and limping to go rescue a little boy she saw out in the storm.”
Sensing a story, Hope paused and sat down on the huge stone hearth.
“Oh my gosh! Was it a toddler? Was he lost?”
“No. Nothing like that. It was Danny and Junie Wilson’s oldest son. He’s seven, almost eight, he said, and he was running away from home.”
Jack climbed down from the ladder. “I remember running away once. But that was because I broke a window.”
Duke grinned. “I remember, and Dad sent me to find you.”