Don’t Let Me Go(14)

“Sure, I don’t mind getting her from school for a few days. But then who’s gonna take care of her until you get home? I mean, what do I do with her then, just leave her in her own apartment? Because I gotta get ready for work pretty soon after that.”

Rayleen’s forehead furrowed, even more than it had been furrowed all along, or, at least, all along since that phone call.

“We’re working on that,” she said. “The only thing I know right now is that she can’t be alone. Which includes being in her apartment with just her mom. She’s got to be with somebody all the time.”

“Billy!” Grace chimed in. “Let’s ask Billy!”

“Who’s Billy?” Felipe asked.

“Our other neighbor!”

Then Rayleen took over and said, “Grace claims she knows the guy who lives across from me downstairs.”

“You’re kidding. Nobody knows that guy. I didn’t even know it was a guy. I’ve lived here three years, and I’ve never seen nobody come or go from there. I thought maybe it was just an empty apartment.”

“It’s not,” Grace said. “Billy lives there.”

“How do you know him?”

“I just do. We just talk. I know all kinds of things about him. He used to be a dancer. And a singer and an actor, but now he’s not. And his name is Billy Shine, but his mother didn’t give him that name. She gave him the first name — I think Ronald or Douglas — and his last name was Fleinsteen, but he changed it because Fleinsteen wasn’t a dancer’s name. I have no idea how he knows what is and what isn’t — a dancer’s name, I mean — but he says you can just know stuff like that. He’s very nice.”

Felipe looked at Rayleen, and Rayleen looked at Felipe, and Grace looked at both of them. She could tell they were trying to decide whether to believe her or not, though she had no idea what was so hard to believe about knowing Billy.

“I think Grace has a very active imagination,” Rayleen said.

“I do!” Grace said. “I definitely do. I know so, because everybody tells me so. Everybody says that.”

“Anyway,” Rayleen said, this time to Felipe. “We just haven’t worked all the bugs out of that after school thing. But Lafferty…you just let me take care of Lafferty, OK?”

“Yeah. Sure. Let me know how that goes. But…sorry, but…I should prob’ly get ready for work.”

“Oh. Right. Of course. I’m sorry. We’ll leave you alone to get ready, now.”

“Bye, Felipe!” Grace shouted.

“Bye, Felipe,” Rayleen added, more downbeat.

Then he closed the door.

When they’d started walking down the hall together, Grace said, “I don’t think Felipe has allergies. I mean, maybe he does. I’m not saying he doesn’t, because how would I know? I’m saying I’m pretty sure he was sad, and I think he was crying, and I think maybe he just said allergies so we wouldn’t know.”

“Maybe,” Rayleen said, but she sounded like she was thinking about something else entirely.

“I don’t really like it when people see me cry, either, except maybe my mom, because I’ve been crying in front of her since I was a baby. But, like, at school, I hate that worse than anything. If I started to cry over something at school, and some of the other kids saw me, I’d do what Felipe did and lie about it. I know I would. I’m gonna have to remember that, actually. Allergies. That’s a good one.”

And Rayleen said, “I have to think where you can be while I talk to that Lafferty guy.”

“Jake,” Grace said. “I think his name is Jake, and also, why can’t I come?”

“Because it might get ugly.”

“So? I’ve seen things get ugly before, you know.”

Grace knew Rayleen wasn’t paying very good attention, but instead was all caught up in something she was thinking in her head, the way grown-ups almost always are. Usually they’re not listening at all, especially not to kids.

“And I have to think who’ll take care of you after school,” she said.

So Grace said, “Let’s ask Billy,” because, no matter how many times she said that, she couldn’t seem to get it to stick in Rayleen’s head.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Rayleen said.

“But he’s really nice. And we know he’ll be home. Because he’s always home.”

“Well, that’s a hard point to argue.”

“I know why Mrs. Hinman and Felipe don’t want to look after me,” Grace said. “I know what they told us, but I also know the real reason why not. It’s because they don’t like me.”

They were all the way downstairs when Grace said it, walking down the hall towards Rayleen’s apartment, because that seemed to be where they were going to stay for a while, at least until Rayleen figured out if Grace got to go along on this Mr. Lafferty thing. But when Grace said what she said, Rayleen stopped.

She was still holding Grace’s hand, except Grace wasn’t sure why, because it’s not like they were crossing the street or something. There’s not too much trouble you can get into walking down a hall, at least, not that she knew of. Grace thought it was because Rayleen was upset and figured Grace must be upset, too, only Grace wasn’t very upset. Or maybe Rayleen just wanted somebody to hold her hand, and Grace was the only one around to do it.