Posts
It was strange to board the school
bus without Chuck. I was glad I wouldn’t
be home when his mother arrived to pick him up.
The principal, after talking to Chuck, advised Deryl and mom to return
him to his mother. He felt that in all
probability, Chuck would continue to get into trouble. Chuck was sorry he had been caught, but he
was not sorry for what he had done.
There was no repentance. If he had continued to live with us we would
probably have encountered more of the same.
The
halls of the high school were busy as students walked to morning class.
“Hey
Gloria, where’s Chuck?” asked one of the ninth grade boys.
“He’s
returning to Albuquerque
to live with his mother.”
“Live
with his mother? What’s the deal? I thought he was your brother.”
“No,
he was a just a boy who got into trouble and we were trying to help him,” I
didn’t care if everyone knew the truth.
In fact my whole attitude was different.
I didn’t care if I was accepted at this school or not! I even quit tagging after the click of girls.
(We
never saw Chuck again. His mother wrote
Mom a letter the following year asking us to take Chuck back. He was in trouble again and was facing a term
in Springer Reform School.)
Barb quit writing to me and the following
summer, when I was visiting Albuquerque,
I called her. She hung up on me. She believed the lies Chuck had told her. So much for friendship.
We had given up Childers Drive. Now, I was stuck in Hotchkiss.
