Calm before...
She’s going to help us.”
Marc stares into her eyes, her blonde hair unkempt and her look of contempt. She looked like a tired social worker who wasn’t paid enough. At 16, Marc has already seen his fair share of those..
“Lawyer? Or… social worker?”
“Both, but at the moment I’m your father’s lawyer, Marc.”
He didn’t like the way she said his name at all, it made his hair stand on end, he didn’t like the way she looked at him, he didn’t like her cheap looking lipstick, and he especially didn’t like the way she looked at his father. Like she found a $10 bill on the sidewalk.
“Marc, me and Miss Smith, we need to go out again to get the paperwork going, I just need to grab some mo…”
“If you’ll allow me, I think it would be more convenient for Marc to go out and explore, maybe…”
Jake didn’t let him hear the rest and Steven didn’t help.
“No, I don’t allow it.”
“Silence, but you’re right, I don’t allow it.”
Marc didn’t want to go out, but from the way his father looked at Mrs. Smith he knew he wouldn’t have a choice, and she wasn’t even nice.
“I don’t know, maybe Marc wants to sta…”
Kate managed to interrupt twice in a single conversation
“I’m sure some fresh air will help him.”
“Well, yes, you’re right.”
They cursed Elias’ weak will for what must have been the thousandth time.
“Much more than a thousandth hermanito.”
“Hush Jake.”
Marc didn't wait to be taken out, he left and walked until he was a block away from the hotel, thank god he was wearing a coat, the wind was strong enough to blow away cans and paper.
"We shouldn't go any further"
"I wasn't going to"
He turned to both sides, he didn't want anyone to see him talking "alone". He walked back and sat down on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.
"I'm getting bored"
This time a woman passing by looked at him worriedly, but walked past.
"Uhm, what am I supposed to do about it?"
"Shut up Jake" "Steven? What was that book you found in the library about?"
“Tuesday? Or Thursday?”
Marc thought for a moment, he didn’t know what either of them were about, but in his opinion Tuesday was better than Thursday, it was more time away from home. “Tuesday.”
“Well, it’s about the ennead and...”
Marc stopped listening after the second time Steven mentioned a certain Osiris, he simply focused on his small voice and calmly looked at the half-rotted bush across the street. When he saw Smith leave the building, he went inside and Steven smiled at the assistant behind the counter, she waved back bewildered. This time Jake took the wheel and hurried to the bedroom, preparing himself for what he hoped he wouldn’t have to see. When he arrived, he knocked on the door and Elias opened it.
He looked put together and with his kippah on properly he looked, normal.
“What were you afraid of seeing, Jake?”
“Nothing”
His father look at him, worried
“Yes Steven, nothing.”
Jake lay down on the bed, ignoring Elias.
"Good night."
"Good night, son."
Jake restrained himself from telling him that he wasn't talking to him. They were in the hotel for three days, and Marc stayed behind the wheel for most of it. As much as he didn't like Kate, he could admit that she was fast at her job.
His father kept his word, he didn't have to see his mother during the whole process, he had to talk to what he thinks is a judge, and a psychologist specializing in domestic abuse, but no sign of his mother.
His father rented an apartment for a few months, while the jury decided, apparently the many warnings Wendy received, her short and multiple stays in AA as well as Marc's psychological profile, allowed that in a little more than a month, they took custody of his mother and gave it to his father, but not before going through a disastrous divorce. He heard her kick and scream before finally resigning herself to signature
The scene only made the jury rush their decision to approve Elias' divorce and give him full custody of Marc,... his mother. His mother spent all the money on alcohol, she couldn't bribe anyone, so Marc was out of her clutches in no time. There were some who wanted to give custody to Wendy, something about him needing his mother.
Though no god ever lifted a finger for him, it seemed like they were now interceding for him.
His father said he put a restraining order on her.
Against his better judgment, and Jake
Marc believed him, Steven encouraged him by telling him about a new school and neighborhood, where no one knew them, a house that didn't bring back memories he'd beg to erase, and a house away from that damn psych ward.
Far from it all, a new beginning, Jake didn't let any of them dream too much, he didn't want them to get their hopes up, he kept his feet on the ground, and it wasn't until some miraculous way, Elias got a house, in Jersey City, in less than two months, that Jake started to get just as excited.
They could finally believe that they might never have to see their mother again, ever. The only thing they didn't really miss was school. Steven missed the books, but they were worried that the new school would be just like the old one.
The teachers didn't give him a chance, they marked him as a troublemaker from the first week, and God knows teenagers can be cruel. He hoped it would be different, but he knows people don't change much from one end of the country to the other.
Kate and her father got a house, in New Jersey in the United States, in less than two months, and as far as he knew, his father hadn't been in debt, plus he had a list of possible schools in the area willing to accept him mid-year.
Either his father had achieved enlightenment and was now working miracles... or it was a deal with the devil.
Jake and Steven were still debating an explanation, babbling about real estate costs and... selling souls? or something like that.
And Marc? Marc was fine.
Or at least close enough.