Gerrold, David by A Rage for Revenge

Author:A Rage for Revenge [Revenge, A Rage for]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

A woman who once faked a lettera

reference by which she could gettera

job much improved,

regretted her move

when they asked her to show her et cetera.

32: Parents

"Even Murphy's Law doesn't work all the time."

-SOLOMON SHORT

Later, after we'd bathed them and tucked them away for naps, Betty-John, still damp from the creek, came up and leaned on my shoulder, momentarily exhausted, but exhilarated too.

She looked up at me. "Are you beginning to get it now, Jim? I mean, about working with their psychoses?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. Maybe."

"Come on," she said. "Bar's open in my office. I'll buy you a drink. You looked so silly trying to give that lump of teddy bear a bath without really getting him wet."

"Yeah, well, I had to. You saw how Alec trusted me." I followed her up the hill.

The drink turned out to be lemonade. I should have known. "I would have had iced tea," B-Jay said; with one foot she kicked shut the door of the tiny refrigerator she kept next to her desk, "but the prices are ridiculous." She sighed and ran one hand through her fading hair, then realized what she had done and patted it back into place. "Stupid, isn't it? I should care how I look." She went back to muttering about prices as she pushed some papers around on her desk. "On the black market we can get bread for only ninety-five cents a loaf-can you believe that? And even beef. I know we shouldn't, but we haven't had roast beef here for . . . you know, I can't remember how long it's been, but other things, like tea and coffee and sugar, we just can't afford them any more, white or black market."

"Is it that serious?"

"It is if you're accustomed to those kinds of things. The kids won't miss it. God knows what most of them have been surviving on. I mean, this is a step up. We've got milk and potatoes and bread and what vegetables we can grow ourselves, so we're okay. We were supposed to get a truckload of canned goods salvaged from Sacramento, but it never arrived. Probably hijacked; we'll be able to buy the stuff on the black market next week." She sighed and sank back in her chair. The chair sank back too. It creaked and squeaked and swung so far backward that for a moment, I thought she was falling, but she was only putting her feet up on the desk. Both shoes had holes in the bottoms.

"You need new shoes," I pointed out, sipping my lemonade.

"I know. I need a lot of things." She rubbed her forehead tiredly, and for just a moment, she looked old.

I didn't know what to say. I said, "Pretty good group of kids, aren't they?"

She grunted.

"I mean, they're not as bad as I thought they would be. I mean, you were telling me about their psychoses. I expected them to be pretty screwed up."

B-Jay shook her head. "No, not this bunch. Most of these kids have been under some kind of human guidance.

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