Free Invisible Ellen by Shari Shattuck Page B

comes with him to a new country and he deserts her with his baby and goes back to Russia.”
    â€œWell,” Kiki contributed, “I’m sorry, but if you’re going to run off with a married man, you can’t expect him to treat you any better than he did the last one.” She gave a superior sniff.
    Rosa raised an admonishing finger. “She was desperate to get out of that horrible place. He must have seemed like the answer to all her prayers. And how would she know he’d leave her and the baby?”
    â€œOh please.” The sardonic Kiki snorted. “I’m sure it was pretty clear what kind of person he was. I saw him talking to the Boss at the company picnic and the second he was ready to leave, he gave Irena a jerk of his head and she went all pale and sweaty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman look so frightened.”
    Caught up in the rush of gossip, Rosa added, “Because he beats her, I’m sure of it. I told you about those bruises I saw on her arms, and remember that black eye she had about a month ago, right before he took off? Ran into a shelf, my foot!” She made a sound like a raspberry.
    Kiki pursed her mouth, deepening the lines around it. “Why would she keep the baby if it’s not hers? That’s suspicious.”
    Rosa exhaled impatiently. “Because he said he’s coming back for it, and she’s scared of him. And I think she has reason to be. I have a niece who married a Russian man who turned out to be a criminal. She divorced him and he sent her death threats from prison, saying he would take back his child, until she moved and changed her name. It’ll be the same for Irena.” She nodded and sighed. “It’s a tough spot.”
    â€œIrena said the real mother died,” Kiki said, earning a shushing from her friend, who glanced nervously toward the corner of the lockers, on the other side of which Irena sat. Kiki leaned in and whispered, “I’ll bet he killed her!” Then, jerking a long bony thumb in Irena’s general direction, she said, “She’s lucky he took off.”
    â€œI wouldn’t call her lucky. She’s stuck with someone else’s baby, no husband, and no friends in a strange country where she’s not welcome.”
    Kiki sniffed again, more subdued this time. “If it’s not her baby, then it’s not her problem. She should hand it over to social services.” She made this statement as though suggesting that Irena should return an ill-fitting skirt to a department store.
    â€œHe told Irena he’s coming back for him,” Rosa repeated. “You heard what she said. Plus, if there’s a dad somewhere, they can’t put the kid up for adoption. They have to wait for his permission, so it’s foster care for that baby.” Ellen shivered involuntarily at the mention of the black hole in her past. There were good foster parents, she had heard, but she had known none.
    Kiki slammed her locker and, having exhausted her interest in Irena’s problems, changed subjects as easily as flipping to a new article in
People
magazine. “Did you hear about the Boss’s marriage?Oh, you’ll love this. I heard . . .” The Crows began to move away, their heads still close together, and the only thing Ellen caught as they passed her was “. . . apparently, she’s fed up . . . don’t mess with . . .”
    Ellen waited until they were gone and then she went back to her locker, only three down from where Irena was still slumped despondently. The Russian woman, of course, did not acknowledge Ellen’s existence, but that was nothing unusual. As she prepared for work, Ellen watched Irena and thought that she had never seen anyone who was still alive look so dead. There seemed to be almost no animation in the thin woman’s body, no hope, no will. Ellen was tempted to poke her just to see if