Free Blue by Danielle Steel Page B

time.
    Blue was doing fine at school. He had only been there for two days, and did his homework in an hour on her dining table every night. He said the courses and teachers were boring, but he showed no sign of dropping out yet, contrary to his aunt’s prediction, but it was still early days. Ginny’s fear was that he would drop out after she left. She thought that as long as she was there, he would stick with it, at least for now. But nothing about what he was doing in class inspired him. He said he had heard it all before, and she suspected that might be true. He was both bright and mature for his age, and his sphere of interests was broader than most kids. He seemed to know a lot about world events, and he was interested in music. The public school system was not set up, and didn’t have the funds, to add to the general curriculum. It catered to the lowest common denominator in the classroom, not the highest. By the end of the week, he was being tested for the gifted program, and had been approved for special classes.
    She hadn’t told him about Afghanistan yet, but she planned to in the next few days. She wanted to see the adolescent shelters first. By the weekend, she had seen all three, and there was one she thought was perfect for him. The clients they accepted were between the ages of eleven and twenty-three. Some were reunified with their families after counseling, but it was rare. Most of the residents were in situations like Blue’s, from broken homes where parents had died or disappeared or were in prison. The shelter encouraged everyone to go to school, helped them find part-time or full-time jobs, and offered counseling, medical care, and housing on a drop-in basis, or they could stay for as long as six months. It operated on a harm-reduction model, which meant that some of the residents were still on drugs, but had to meet certain criteria for behavior, and be using the drugs on a diminishing basis and never at the shelter. The program was practical and realistic, and the shelter had a bed available for Blue, but he had to want to be there—no one was going to force him to stay. He would live in a dorm room with five other boys close to his age, and he would get free meals every day. The entire program was free, funded by private foundations and government grants. It was tailor-made for Blue.
    Ginny explained Blue’s situation to the director, and how she had met him. The director, a woman Ginny’s age, commented that he was lucky to have found a mentor in her.
    “I’m going to be gone for three months. He can stay with me again when I get back, but I really want him to be here while I’m away,” she said hopefully.
    “That’s up to him,” Ann Owen, the director, said philosophically. “The entire facility is voluntary, and there are lots of other kids who want a place here if he doesn’t.”
    Ginny nodded, hoping Blue would agree to stay there, and not decide to fend for himself on the streets. He always had that option, and his aunt said he preferred it to living with rules and structure. He had been on his own too much, but so had most of the other kids at Houston Street, as the facility was called. Ginny told Blue about it after she saw it, and he looked glum.
    “I don’t want to stay there,” he said, looking sullen.
    “You can’t go back to the shed. This place will feed you, house you, and give you a bed. There are other kids your age and older to hang out with. If you get sick, they’ll take care of you. Be smart, Blue. Don’t put yourself at risk on the streets. That’s a shit life and you know it.”
    “I can do whatever I want out there,” he said stubbornly.
    “Yeah, like freeze and starve, and get mugged and ripped off. Great choice if you ask me.” She was as wise as he was to what he’d have to face on the streets. “I’ll be back at the end of April, and you can stay here again then if you want to. But you have to make it till then.” It sounded like a lifetime