I said, “I have to go back to DC tomorrow. I hope I won’t have to stay long. What I’m doing in DC is really important to me.”
Mary Catherine still had her arm around my waist as she said, “If it’s important to you, it’s important to us.” When she didn’t get the rousing response she’d expected, Mary Catherine looked at the kids and said more forcefully, “It’s important to us, right, guys?”
Now I saw where the term commandant came in. Every kid immediately chimed in. It was very impressive to influence so many people with just one command. She could work for the NYPD. Maybe even the marines. Either way, I was glad she’d taken on this job instead.
I owed Roberta Herring a lunch. Hers was the best advice anyone had ever given me. I’d been home only a couple of minutes and I already felt like a new man.
Chapter 48
I took my time making the rounds. I was careful to spend alone time with each of the kids.
Most everything was the same. Shawna was working on some secret project with my grandfather. She only hinted that it had something to do with artwork.
Jane was a little tougher to corral. I sat next to her at the dining room table, where most homework was completed. I said, “How’s school? Anything giving you a problem?”
The teenager let out a laugh. “I’m a little stuck in Calculus II. Think you can explain it?” Her look effectively communicated what she thought of my math skills.
“What about creative writing? I’m good at that.”
“If you mean supportive, you’re right. All you ever say about any of our essays is ‘Good job.’”
“Can I help it if you are all so talented?”
Jane scowled as she looked at the empty page in front of her.
I gave her a few seconds and said, “Talk to me. What’s wrong?” I knew each of the kids’ moods. Jane got frustrated but not openly angry.
She looked at me, and I saw a tear in her left eye. “I’ll admit I’m annoyed. I’ve been journaling since I was eight and always get an A on any English or writing assignment. Trent, who spends more time thinking about sports, gets recognized for the first thing he’s ever written.”
“But his subject matter might have helped. He has a unique view of adoption and culture.”
“And I don’t? I’ve written essays on being one of ten adopted kids. On what it’s like to be obviously Asian in a multicultural family. I never even had a teacher bring it up. Trent writes the same sort of essay and he’s going to meet the mayor.”
“I’ve met the mayor. It’s not much of a thrill. In fact”—I lowered my voice to sound conspiratorial—“he’s a bit of a dick.”
That made her laugh. She gave me a spontaneous hug. If I’d made her feel a little better, she had put me in a great mood.
Then I found Brian, who wasn’t in school anymore. He was also the source of most of my concerns. Since coming home from prison, he’d given us a few scares. At first, he had been sullen and he disappeared all day long. Later, I learned he was going through air-conditioning repair school. He had wanted to surprise me. And he had.
We sat together on the couch. He was still wearing his gray uniform shirt that said BILL in lovely embroidery across his right chest.
When I asked him about the name, Brian said, “At first it was just because they didn’t have a uniform for me. Then everyone thought it was funny. Now I just sort of answer to the name Bill.”
I laughed. “That’s exactly how things happen at the police department. Usually it’s with a nickname. You do one thing you regret and the next day you’re stuck with some nickname you don’t like. I almost got hung with the label Kickback.”
“What’d you do? It doesn’t sound like that bad of a nickname.”
“Unless you’re on your third week in uniform and you step behind a mounted unit, then slip in the horse’s poop.” I paused as Brian laughed. “What made it worse was, the cop on the horse looked behind me and shouted, ‘Get out of there, you idiot. Do you want to get kicked back into the Stone Age?’”
Now a couple of the other kids had wandered in to hear the story.
“A few of the other rookies heard it, and I had the nickname before I went home for the night. Thank God it was the end of my week and I had a two-day break. The nickname was forgotten by the time I went back to work. I think I would’ve been named Kickback to this day if I would’ve had to go right back and face those guys.”