All-In by Pete Hautman

Author:Pete Hautman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

21

(Cattie)

IF THERE WAS ONE THING CATTIE HAD learned from her mother, Heather, it was that money was the key to happiness, but no matter how much of it you had, that door never seemed to open. One of her earliest memories was of her mother screaming at her dad about money. By the time Cattie entered the first grade, her mother had screamed him right out of their double-wide mobile home and out of their lives.

“Good riddance,” Heather had said.

Cattie hadn’t seen her father since.

That was something she had in common with Denn. Both of their dads had left. Denn’s dad, at least, still gave his mom money. Cattie’s mom had had to go out and get it on her own.

Heather Hart had tried working as a hairdresser. She had sold Avon products. She had cashiered for a while at the Wal-Mart. She had tried selling magazine subscriptions by phone. She worked hard at everything she did, but none of it paid very well.

There was never enough money.

Heather’s dream was to win the lottery. No matter how broke they were, she always bought lottery tickets every night. Once, she won $1000 on a scratch-off ticket. They went out to dinner and a movie, then to the Wal-Mart. They bought a new TV, and Cattie got a pink bicycle, and her mom bought herself two new outfits. She spent the remaining $200 on a long strip of scratch-off tickets from the Quik Mart.

None of the tickets paid off more than a dollar or two. A few days later Cattie’s new bike was stolen, and everything went back to the way it was before, except that they had a better TV.

Finally—Cattie must have been about ten, old enough to babysit herself—her mother took a job as a cocktail waitress at the Grey Goose Lounge.

Heather could be an attractive woman when she made the effort, and she began to bring home a series of boyfriends—as many as three or four a week—mostly men she met at the Grey Goose. These boyfriends, it turned out, could also be a source of jewelry, money, and other gifts.

Some nights she didn’t come home at all.

Cattie did not like to think about those years. She didn’t know which was worse, the nights of listening to the voices of strange men, and the noises they would make, or the nights when she was alone in the mobile home, lying awake listening to the creaks and pops and scratching noises. By the time she was thirteen, she was spending nearly all her time in her tiny bedroom at the back of the double-wide, making occasional runs to the kitchen or bathroom, but mostly staying in her room to avoid her mother—and her mother’s boyfriends.

They had more money then, but it was still never enough, and somehow it was always a crisis when it came time to make the monthly payment on the double-wide.

Often, in the morning, to avoid listening to her mother’s hungover bitching about her latest guy, Cattie

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