Throw Away Teen (39 page)

“
I’m not into moldy oldy westerns.” I passed over the
sack of potato chips.

“
You’ll like this one.” Willa repeated.

In a couple minutes, a young, hot John Wayne came on screen. Only his name in the movie was Ringo. There was only one thing to do with a friend like Willa. I grabbed one of the little pillows from the couch and bashed her over the head.

CHAPTER 27

At breakfast the next morning, the phone rang and Willa answered it. “It’s Liz,” she said, holding out the receiver to me.

I hastily swallowed my bite of cereal and grabbed the phone. “Hey, Liz. What’s up? Willa and I were about to run for the bus.”

“
I’m glad you’re being responsible.” Her response was normal but her tone sounded strained. “I’ll see you after school.”

“
Sure. How’s Guard?”

Liz laughed a little. “He’s fine. He missed you but we took good care of him. B.J., By the way, Jocelyn lost her wedding ring on Wednesday. You haven’t seen it, have you?”

“
No. Why? Is she saying I stole it?”

There was absolute silence for an instant. “She’d better not. I’ll talk to her. You go to school.”

“
Yes, ma’am.” I hung up and turned to Willa. “I think Jocelyn is trying to pull some crap again. Seems she’s trying to make her folks believe I stole a ring.”

“
What a witch.” Willa put the carton of milk back in the fridge. “Come on. We better hustle.”

“
Okay.” I scraped up the last of my oatmeal and rinsed the bowl so I could put it in the dishwasher.

We’d grabbed our back-packs and were headed for the door when Dr. Jackson came into the kitchen. He grinned at both of us on his way to the coffee-pot. “Glad I caught you girls. Willa, Evelyn Tiernan called me at school yesterday. Somebody returned one of her puppies and your name is first on the waiting list. Do you want to go look at it this afternoon?”

“
Willa stared at her dad, then at me, then at him again. “Sure. Why did they bring it back? What is it? A girl or a boy? Is it related to Guard? Does it look like him?”

“
Slow down,” he said, grinning. “Let’s see.” He rubbed his chin and tried to look like he had to think about the questions. “She came back because she jumps up on people and wets in the house when she gets excited.”

“
All puppies do that,” I said, starting to get ticked. “You’ve got to train them.”

“
And clean up behind them,” Willa said, “and not get mad when they make a mistake or things will get worse. What else do you know about her?”

“
She’s gold and white and has heeler mottling on her paws. She’s bigger than Guard and will probably try to boss him around.” Dr. Jackson poured his coffee. “And she doesn’t know her name so she won’t come when she’s called.”

“
Well, that’s good,” I said. “You get to name her and teach her what she needs to know. I mean if she’s the right one for you.”

Willa nodded and eyed her father speculatively. “Dad, I have straight A’s again in all my classes. Could I take today off? Could we go get her now? Before somebody else does?”

“
I don’t know.” He drank some java. “What would your mother say if I let you skip school to bring home a puppy?”

It sounded like a typical adult question until I saw him trying to hide a big smile behind the mug. “You already did it,” I guessed. “You called your wife and she said to go for it. And that Willa deserves a holiday because she’s a good kid.”

“
I always knew you were a smart cookie, B.J.”

Willa squealed, dropped her back-pack and ran across the room to hug him. Then she raced back and hugged me, jumping up and down. “B.J., you’ve got to come, too.”

“
Sorry, no can do.” I hugged her. “Your puppy needs time to bond with you. And if I blow off school, it will mess up my grades. I just started getting good ones and I really don’t need Saturday School. Why don’t you bring your dog by puppy class tonight? But make sure you have treats or Dallas will go ballistic.”

“
You’re the best, B.J.! I’ll watch her and I won’t let her beat up Guard.”

“
He won’t care. He likes to play hard.” I headed for the corner and the bus. When I looked back through the window, I saw Willa hugging her dad again.

***

One of the kids who worked in the office brought me in a note during third period. It said I was supposed to report to Dr. O’Malley right away. Weird. I hadn’t done anything wrong and this school wasn’t like the others I’d attended where I was always somebody’s favorite scapegoat.

Ginger gave me a friendly nod when I walked into the office, but kept talking on the phone. She signaled for me to go on back to the counselor’s office. His door was left open and Carol and Annie waited with him. My heart fell into my feet. What were they doing here? Were they going to move me? Why? This was the best home ever and I had barely screwed up.

“
What’s wrong?” My voice croaked. “What did I do?”

“
Nothing.” Annie jumped up and hurried over to hug me. “B.J., this isn’t about you. We need your help.”

“
My help?” I stared at her and Carol. “Why? Nobody ever wants my help.”

“
It’s Gabe.” Carol’s face was all blotchy and her eyes were red like she’d been crying. “I’ve lost him and I don’t know where to look.”

“
But you found him a home.” I went to her. “You said they had horses and he liked it there.”

“
Yes, but I was worried that they only thought of him as a stable-hand.” Carol wiped at her nose with a tissue. “And I kept trying to bring the whole family in for counseling appointments and the dad and other boys kept blowing me off. I should’ve removed him, but Gabe didn’t want to go and this is the first time he’s really tried with a family since I became his caseworker.”

I put my arm around her. “Carol, believe me. Gabe’s super tough. If he didn’t want to live there, he’d have told you the blunt truth to your face. You know how he is. Besides, he’s seventeen.”

“
He did want to be there,” Annie said. “But the Tacoma cops called Carol last night and said there’d been an incident. Four teens jumped Gabe and he split once the fight was over. We don’t know where he went.”

“
Did you check his new school?” I dragged over a chair. “Gabe needs a diploma to join the Marines. He’s determined to graduate.”

“
He didn’t make it to school today,” Carol said. “I went in and checked first thing. I’ve called all the emergency clinics and hospitals. He hadn’t made any new friends down there so he’s couldn’t be staying with anyone.”

I frowned and looked around the room. Dr. O’Malley sat behind his desk and didn’t say a word. I tilted my head to one side. “Jump right in here. You’re a guy. Where would he go?”

“
Probably somewhere he does have friends. People he can trust to take care of him,” Dr. O’Malley said. “So, where is that?”

“
Downtown Seattle. He knows a lot of street kids and he used to run with a gang until he got busted and put in Evergreen with the rest of us losers,” I said.

Carol gave me one of the looks she must’ve stolen from a TV shrink. “None of my kids are losers. You’re all amazing and I don’t know how all of you manage to defeat the knocks life has handed you.”

“Yeah, well as Ted says, survival beats the alternative.”

***

When Annie and Carol left to go hassle the Seattle cops, I went back to class. I was worried about Gabe. Where could he be? Would they find him in time? Even though he was tough, four on one wasn’t an easy fight to win. How badly was he hurt? He had to be the
‘walking wounded’
as Ted called it, otherwise Gabe never would’ve blown off school. He’d have hung in at the house until he could get Carol to come pick him up.

In Photography, it was all I could do to listen to Mr. Lee’s lecture and take notes. Then, he turned us loose with our ancient 35 mm cameras to walk around the school and take pictures. Ringo followed me out to the courtyard.

“
You’re not shooting me glares or sniping at me. So, what’s the matter?” Ringo asked. “Something is.’”

“
It’s Gabe. There was a fight and he split. Nobody knows where he is.” Tears burned and one slid down my cheek. “I’m scared. What if they can’t find him? What if he dies?”

Ringo stiffened. “Does he mean that much to you?”

I nodded. “He saved my life when I was little.” Another tear fell. “They always say we’re supposed to be brothers and sisters when we get moved around. But he’s the only one who ever treated me like family, who took care of me. What am I going to do?”

“
What do you want to do?” Ringo asked.

“
Go look for him.” I wiped at my face. “Will you take me to Seattle?”

***

When the last bell rang, we headed for Ringo’s truck. He’d already called his mother and left her a message at home. I called the house and left one for Liz. Then, after a quick stop for gas, snacks, and first aid stuff, we headed for Seattle. I had a few ideas of where to look for Gabe, but I had to admit that having Ringo along made me feel a lot safer.

He didn’t talk much on the way to the interstate, so I emptied out my back-pack and put the books on the back seat. I figured I’d put the first-aid kit in my pack. That way it would be handy if we came across Gabe. When I unzipped the small inside pocket where I kept some of my extra cash, I felt something bumpy.

What’s that
? I fumbled for a moment and then pulled out a gold ring. I froze in my seat. “That bitch.”

“
What?” Ringo glanced at me quickly then returned his gaze to the road.

“
Jocelyn.” I took a deep breath and tried to think. “Liz called me this morning and told me that Jocelyn was missing her wedding ring. It’s in my back-pack and I swear I didn’t steal it.”

“
Hey, I believe you. I know what she’s like. We’ll take it back to her as soon as we find Gabe.”

“
Yeah. Well, I hope Liz and Ted believe me, too. They’re her folks and I don’t want to get kicked out because their daughter is trying to get rid of me.”

I realized I wasn’t scared, just pissed. There was a time when I’d have used this as an excuse to run away, but not now. Not after living with the Driscolls for almost six weeks. They were great people and I knew Liz loved me. I couldn’t wait to get back home and let Liz and Ted know the truth and slap that stupid ring right back in Jocelyn’s hand.

Still, if it turned into one of those cases where everybody believed Jocelyn and not me, I wasn’t afraid to walk away. She was a better liar than I’d given her credit for, but I wasn’t about to go to jail for something I hadn’t done.
And I had a new guy. A good guy
, I thought. This was the first time I’d been with a guy like Ringo. Not once did he suggest we take the ring to a pawn shop for the cash.

No fight. No hassle. He was willing to go with me to do the right thing. I could live with that.

***

Luckily, we were headed into downtown Seattle instead of the other way, so the traffic wasn’t too bad even though it was rush hour. We parked between Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market, so we could check out both places and hunt down Gabe. First Avenue was where the homeless lurked and it connected the two landmarks.

Before we got out of the truck, Ringo opened up the bag from Safeway and added the package of disposable diapers to his back-pack.

“
What’s that for?” I asked. “Gabe won’t have any little kids with him.”

“
Bleeding,” Ringo said. “If he’s hurt bad, those small bandages in the kit won’t work. Actually, Mike’s mom says the pads girls use for their periods work better for pressure, but I didn’t want to embarrass you or Gabe.”

I laughed. “Next time, go for it. I could harass Gabe for years about wearing pads.”

“
You sound like Dally,” Ringo said.

We got out of the truck and I felt a breeze off Elliott Bay ruffle my hair. I reached back inside and pulled out my blue Academy blazer. Ringo did the same. I slung my back-pack over one shoulder. Because I still needed it at night, I’d taken my heavy flashlight with me to Willa’s. I put it in the outside pocket of my pack where I could easily reach it.

“
You got a picture of Gabe?” Ringo asked me.

“
Yeah.” I’d taken it out of my wallet and stuck it in my jacket, so I walked around the truck to show it to Ringo. It was one of me, Irene and Gabe last Christmas. “Let’s hurry.”

We started our search at Pioneer Square. A couple guys we met said they’d seen Gabe, but not lately. We steered clear of the shops or art galleries on First Avenue. Gabe wouldn’t be there. We stuck to hassling the old duffers drinking themselves to death or the kids we found smoking under the overpasses. And even a few panhandlers. They wanted money, of course, but if they refused to look at the picture, I told Ringo not to give them anything. I didn’t want to get thumped on the head for the cash in my pocket.

We reached the Pike Place Market at four-thirty. Three floors of tourist shops, fancy and not so fancy restaurants, coffee shops and cafes lined the wide aisles. Further down, I saw the fish stalls where the guys threw salmon back and forth, attracting an audience.

Once upon a time, Gabe said, the market was set up as a place for farmers to sell their produce to city slickers. Now, it was a tourist trap, movie set and a fun way to spend the afternoon, although shoppers could still load up on fresh fruits, flowers, and veggies.

With no sign of Gabe on the first floor, we headed down to the next level. We walked past the small custom jewelry shops. Ringo paused to look in one of the windows at a comic-book store. More concerned with finding Gabe than window shopping, I kept walking.