“Sure you can, Daniel. Do you have many friends?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who are some of your friends?”
“Can we be quiet now?”
“Not yet. Do you ever go to the park?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you do there?”
“The big slide.”
“Who watches you in the park?”
“My mom.”
“Does your mom have a boyfriend?”
He waited a moment without saying anything and then picked up the remote control, increased the volume.
“What’s his name, your mother’s friend?” I said.
“I don’t know.”
“Sure you do.”
“Randy.”
“Randy. Good. How does Randy treat you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does he play with you much?”
“No.”
“Does he read to you?”
“No.”
“Does he give you baths?”
“No.”
“Does he ever hit you?”
He picked up the remote, raised the volume again.
“Turn it down in there,” shouted Julia Rose from the kitchen.
Daniel lowered the volume. He was pretty good with the remote, was Daniel Rose. I didn’t know if he was good with LEGOs, with puzzles, I didn’t know if he liked to turn the pages of picture books, but he was pretty damn good with the remote.
“Hey, Daniel, would it be all right if someday, with your mom’s permission, I took you to the park?”
“I don’t know.”
“I could buy you some ice cream. What kind of ice cream do you like?”
“Chocolate.”
“Okay. Good. Do you like sprinkles?”
“Yeah. The pretty ones.”
“All the different colors? Okay, chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. Just do me one favor, Daniel. Can you smile for me? A big smile? Give me a smile to let me know we’re friends and I’ll leave you to watch the television all alone.”
He turned his head and faked a big smile and then turned back to the cartoon, and my throat tightened on me.
“Julia has agreed to go to the parenting classes,” said Isabel when I returned to the kitchen, where the two women were sitting. Isabel was now holding the neighbor’s baby. “No excuses, right, Julia?”
“That’s right. I promise.”
“I’m going to make sure the judge keeps you to that,” said Isabel. “And the doctor’s appointment. You can’t miss that. You understand, Julia, that this is getting serious? If these things don’t happen, if you don’t appear before the judge at your next hearing and follow all her recommendations, then we might be forced to take your son away and put him in foster care.”
“You won’t do that,” said Julia. “Promise me. You won’t.”
“We will do what we have to do to protect Daniel.”
“I’m going to follow all the things you told me to follow. And the doctor’s visit you set up. I will, I promise.”
“And you know how to get to the courthouse?”
“The bus is expensive,” she said. “That’s why I missed it last time. I wanted to show up, but the bus is, like, a couple bucks each way, and they make me pay for the baby.”
“How about if I pick you up and drive you to the hearing?” I said. “Would that work?”
“Okay. Yeah.”
“I’ll pick you up at your apartment, you and Daniel and Randy.”
Her head snapped, her eyes widened. “What? No. Not Randy. He can’t make the hearing. He works.”
“Where?” I said.
“I don’t want to talk about him. What does he have to do with Daniel?”
“Doesn’t he live in your room above the bar?”
“Not really. Not no more. He left. He’s gone.”
“He’s out of your life?”
“Yeah, out of it. Good riddance, the creep. Just don’t bring him in it, okay?” There was a fear in her eyes that I didn’t like. “I’ll do whatever you tell me to do, but he don’t want to be involved in my mess.”
Isabel looked at me. I shrugged.
“Okay for now,” said Isabel. “Let’s see how you do before your next court hearing. If everything’s going well, we’ll create a new action plan then. Do you have anything else to add, Victor?”
“Yeah, I do,” I said. “What’s up with Daniel’s teeth?”
24
“How did you know she’d be there?” said Isabel as we made our way back to her car.
“I have my sources.”
“So you’re not just showing up.”
“What did I tell you?”
“That he’s your client. But I’m not sure what that means?”
“Why’d you become a social worker?”
“To help families in trouble. To make a difference, I suppose.”
“See, that’s where we diverge. I’m not out to save the whales, or save the planet, or save the children. Frankly, I don’t want to make a difference in the world, because I’d probably just screw it up. I’m only a lawyer trying to do his best for his clients. Daniel Rose is a client, four years old or not, and so he gets everything I’ve got. It’s that simple.”
“Even if the file was dumped on your desk and you’re not getting paid?”
“That’s the part that sucks.”
“I don’t know if I find you admirable or appalling.”
“When you figure it out, let me know. So what do you think about my client?”
“I think he’s a little kid living with a mother who doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.”
“But do you think he’s in danger?”
“Of getting messed up by his mother? Sure, like every other kid in America.”
“I could tell you stories about my childhood that would leave you weeping,” I said.
“But I don’t see any reason to pull the mother and son apart. You do that, there are always scars, and good foster homes are scarce. But I want to keep an eye on her and the boy. It seems like a fragile situation. And you’re right, those teeth are a problem. We’ll have to get a dentist involved.”
“Which is always bad news,” I said. “And the boyfriend still troubles me.”
“Julia said they broke up.”
“Yes, she did, and she was so truthful about everything else there’s no reason to believe she wouldn’t be truthful about her boyfriend.”
“Did Daniel say anything about him?”
“He seemed like he was too scared to talk.”
“You’re going to have to learn more about him,” she said.
“How?”
“He’s your client,” she said. “You figure it out.”
Figure it out indeed. I thought about the boy, the mother, the boyfriend, Randy, thought how I could find what I needed to find out, when Isabel let out a gruff “Hrumph.”
“Excuse me?” I said.
“That’s all right, Victor. I’ve heard a belch before.”
“I didn’t belch. You said something.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
I stopped, looked around, saw the front brim of a black porkpie hat peeking over the railing of a porch.
“Why don’t you go on ahead,” I said to Isabel. “I need to make a call.”
When she was far enough down the block, I took out my phone, wandered over to the edge of the porch, leaned against the brick, pretended to make a call.
“Was that you clearing your throat,” I said into the dead phone, “or was someone plunging a stopped-up toilet?”
“Watch your mouth afore I smack it closed,” said Horace T. Grant from behind me. “Although it sounds like someone else done that already. I see you found the place. How was your visit?”
“Fine.”
“Twenty minutes is all you give it and you come out saying, ‘Fine.’ You on a tight schedule, boy? Got you a pedicure appointment you don’t want to miss?”
“We were there for an hour,” I said calmly. “We set up parenting sessions and a doctor’s appointment, and I’m going to personally drive Julia and Daniel to the next court hearing. Does that meet with your approval?”
“It’s not up to me to approve, which is about the only reason you still breathing, other than a nose that could fit on Mount Rushmore.”
“Why, thank you.”