Free In All Deep Places by Susan Meissner Page B

over the cigarette she was trying to light.
    The man didn’t knock on the door—he just opened it and yelled, “Ma! Are you home?” And then the four of them disappeared inside Nell’s house.
    Ethan went back to drawing looping circles on the cement. I noticed that the van had California plates. I pretended to draw, but really I was listening to see if the open windows in the Janvik house would reveal what kind of reception the man would get. The man had to be Darrel, I thought—the son Mrs. Liekfisch had said was born to break a mother’s heart. Those little kids must be her grandchildren. I had heard Mrs. Liekfisch tell my mother that Darrel had two kids with that woman he lived with, so I knew Nell was somebody’s grandma—but I’d never really thought of her as a grandmother until that moment. It didn’t seem possible Nell Janvik would know how to act like a grandma.
    I could hear noises inside the house, but I couldn’t tell if they were happy noises or sad noises. Then the front door opened and Darrel stepped out. Nell was right behind him. She looked mad. I quickly looked down at the driveway and drew a large circle with my chalk, peering at the two of them with just my pe ripheral vision.
    “Would it have killed you to call first?” Nell said. She had her hands on her hips.
    “We wanted to surprise you. Ma,” Darrel said, putting his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.
    “I hear nothin’ from you in two years— two years —and then you just show up on my doorstep! That’s one heck of a surprise, Darrel. Are you in trouble? Is that why you came?”
    “Come on, Ma! No, I’m not in trouble. Me and Belinda have been doin’ really good.”
    “Congratulations.”
    “I mean it. I’m startin’ a new job in two weeks, it’s a good job. Benefits and everything. We’re doin’ great, Ma. I just wanted to see you before I start this new job. I won’t get vacation time for a while. ’Sides, I thought you might want to see your new grandson. You know, we gave him Kenny’s initials.”
    I heard Nell sigh.
    “You could have at least called me, Darrel,” she said, in as gentle a voice as I had ever heard her use.
    Darrel stepped forward and put his arm around her. “But I wanted to surprise you! And I did!”
    “Yeah, you did.”
    Out of the corner of my eye I could see Nell was smiling.
    “I would have washed the sheets in the guestroom if I had known you were coming,” she said, and I heard the van door open again. Darrel was pulling some cardboard boxes out.
    “Ah, that’s no big deal, Ma.”
    Nell was looking at the boxes. So was I. The boxes were full of clothes.
    “Are those your clothes? Don’t they use suitcases in Cali fornia?”
    Darrel laughed heartily. “Well, I’m sure they do in Hollywood! But we just make do with boxes from the grocery store. Look! They got handles!”
    The two of them carried the boxes inside.
    “I’m tired of drawing,” Ethan said, getting to his feet and walking toward the front door. After a few minutes alone on the cement, I got up and followed him inside.

    That night, while Nell was at work, and while I tried to fall asleep in my bedroom, Darrel and the lady named Belinda sat on Nell’s porch, drinking beer and smoking. They were laughing, too, and I couldn’t fall asleep. I got up and went downstairs to announce my problem. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table having ice cream. I stood at the foot of the stairs. They did not see me.
    “I bet you ten dollars she’s not Dutch,” my mother was saying, scraping up the last bit of ice cream from her bowl with her spoon.
    “Well, I bet you ten bucks those aren’t cigarettes they’re smoking,” my dad replied, pushing his empty bowl toward the center of the table.
    “Jack! Are you serious? Should we call the police or some thing?”
    “I think they’ll be gone in a few days. That takes care of that problem. We still have to live next door to Nell when they go, you know.”
    “But