To Trust a Friend by Lynn Bulock

Author:Lynn Bulock
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2008-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

Sitting in the Griffiths’ living room, Josh saw what Kyra meant. Diana Griffith could only be described as sweet-looking and warm. Her light brown hair framed her face in short curls that made her look only slightly older than the six teens living in the group home that she and her husband, Gary, ran. “I’m so sorry to hear that it was Nikki that you found. I always hoped that she was out there somewhere, that maybe she had made it to Alaska.”

“Alaska?” Joshua had found that just echoing someone’s statement sometimes led to a lot more information.

Diana nodded. “Most of the girls that live with us come from pretty rough family situations if there’s any family at all. The ones that aren’t too beaten down have a focus or a dream. For Nikki that was Alaska. She always said that someday she was going to live there, with the moose and the elk and the polar bears.”

Josh knew his expression gave him away when Diana laughed softly. “Okay, you and I know as adults that there are no polar bears in most of Alaska, but I wasn’t about to tell an eleven-year-old that. I had to give her enough bad news without that kind.”

“How long did she stay with you?”

Diana looked up toward the ceiling, with an expression that said she was counting in her head. “Almost three years. It was the longest she ever stayed anywhere. If she hadn’t started acting out, she would have been here even longer. Who knows, maybe if that had happened…”

“It’s no good second-guessing yourself, Mrs. Griffith. It sounds as if you provided as good an environment as possible for Nikki. You said she acted out. What happened?”

“She was fighting with the other girls here, the younger ones, and things got way too physical. We couldn’t take the added stress in the house just then. I was pregnant with Sarah and we couldn’t get Nikki turned around. Then she ran away and that tipped the scale. Four months later I heard that she had been found and put into a…structured facility.”

“Does that mean juvenile detention?” Josh didn’t like euphemisms if there was a way around them.

Diana looked away from him for a moment, pushing her lips into a tense line. “Not exactly. This would have been somewhere between the kind of home we have here and detention.” Before she could say more a sound outside made Diana rise from the armchair where she sat. “I heard car doors. You’ll have to give me a minute.”

Josh watched as she went to the front door and opened it. Two girls came in, letting a blast of damp spring air in with them. “It’s raining!” the younger one exclaimed. “We got all wet.”

She had a delighted giggle and springy curls accentuated by the humidity. Josh had to guess that she was about seven. “Mr. Richards, this is my daughter, Sarah, and Jackie. Besides Sarah she’s the youngest of our kids right now and she goes to the same school as Sarah.

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