December twenty-third. Two days before Holiday. I was staring at Mrs. Marchant’s back when the room began to spin. Next thing I knew, Hal was hovering over me with a glass of water, and I was lying on the bench previously occupied by the Child Protective Services women.
As quickly as I rose, I fell back down.
“Drink this,” Hal intoned. “You will feel better.”
Hesitantly, I propped myself up on my elbow. When I was sure I wouldn’t collapse again, I took a sip.
Mrs. Marchant glided over to me. “You’ll be as well as one could expect.” She dismissed Hal. As the door closed behind him, she said, “Your tutor will be a great help with this.”
“Who?” I raised myself to sitting.
“You are beginning tutoring in ancient sciences soon, are you not?”
Rosie. My Cliste Galad lessons. How did she know? “Not for a while. I couldn’t…”
“I understand. No matter, you will learn other things. You are far from alone.”
“I need to go home. Gran and Pops must be worried sick.”
“Yes, you should go straight home.” Mrs. Marchant handed me another tissue. “Now that CPS has the case, they will do whatever they will do.” She checked the wall clock. “You have friends. Ask for their help.” She whirred back to her desk.
“Thank you,” I said.
“The truth will out, Miss Oberon.” She didn’t even look up from her papers. “Carry on.”
V
When I got outside, Wei was waiting for me. “You look terrible. What happened?”
I glanced around, this wasn’t something I wanted overheard. “There’s been a Writ of Unsuitability filed against Gran and Pops. CPS came and questioned me in Marchant’s office. Someone’s trying to take Dee away.” I checked out each student who filed out of the building, hoping against hope to see Sal. “Where’s Sal? I saw him with Paulette when I was going to Marchant’s.”
“He… yeah, business.” She gave me a knowing look.
“Yeah, right.” It took a minute for me to stop peering at the faces trickling past. I bit my tongue. Sal had been straight with me. I had no reason to doubt him. But Paulette… Gah! I didn’t want to waste more than that one sarcastic moment on Paulette. I’d talk to Sal later.
The last bell rang. “Skivs! Dee’s been waiting.” I called her on my PAV. She’d taken refuge from the cold inside a designer shop and was wondering where I was.
“We’ll be right there.” I clicked off and motioned to Wei. “Come on. I’ll tell you the details while we’re walking.”
I filled her in: “You know, I could ask Mr. Long if he’ll let me work full-time. If Gran and Pops can’t… Well, I can. I’ll quit school and look after Dee. I will not let her go.” A thought grabbed me. “Wei, what if it’s not the CPS system they send her to? What if they send her to Ed’s family? I can’t let that happen! I—”
“Dad will know what to do,” Wei said.
Dad. What about my dad? And my sister’s dad—her real one, that is. Wei’s mother was the only person besides my father and me who knew that he was Dee’s father, too. Surely he’d do something if they took her away. He had to, right? But then I realized what would happen. It wasn’t safe for anyone to know that Dee was really Alan Oberon’s daughter—things were dangerous enough after the incident with Ed. And the only way anyone could be absolutely sure that Dee would be safe was if she went into hiding with him. Underground. Disappeared, presumed dead—just like him. Chills ran through me. I’d lost my mom; I never had my dad. I couldn’t lose my sister, too—there had to be a different way.
“Hey, Wei, did you talk to your friends?” I asked. Maybe, just maybe the Sisterhood could help. How, I didn’t know.
“Yep. Whenever you can come over to my house, you can meet them. We’ll set up a face-to-face.”
“I don’t work again until tomorrow. So, maybe tonight?”
We were still trying to figure out timing when Dee came running out of the shop. “They were about ready to throw me out.” She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Oh, never mind that. Guess what? Miss Maldovar chose me to be her assistant for the rest of the school— Zats! Nina, you look awful.” Like a little nurse, she swiped her wrist across my forehead. “Are you sick or something?”
Wei gave my arm a quick squeeze. “See you later. Bye, Dee.”
Taking a deep breath, I explained the situation to Dee, stopping only long enough for us to board the trans.
When I was finished, instead of breaking down or crying, although her chin did quiver once, she said, “That’s ridiculous. Pops is not a drugger.” Fire lit her eyes. “I’m going to tell that… that crow-faced woman who bullied you…” She smacked her fist into her hand.
“Deeds, calm down.” I quickly surveyed the other passengers, to be sure no one was watching us. I don’t think I’d ever seen my little sister so visibly angry. “Wei is going to talk to her dad. He’ll help. Right now we need to get home and find out exactly what happened.”
She bounced back in the seat, a determined set to her mouth. “Nobody is going to take me away from Pops. Nobody.”
I hoped she was right.
When we got home, Gran and Pops were in the middle of a heated debate, which stopped as soon as Dee and I entered the room.
She ran to Pops’s side. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, curling her arm around his shoulders. “I don’t care what anyone tries to do.”
“So you’ve heard,” Gran said to me.
“Uh-huh. CPS came to my school and questioned me,” I said. “I told Dee on the way home.”
“I’m calling my friends,” Pops growled. “We’ll take care of this. Get me that dang—”
“Hush up!” Gran wagged a finger at him, but left the room, then returned with the scrambler, taken from its hiding place above the chiller.
Dee watched her plug it in and turn it on. “What is that?”
“Keeps prying ears from hearing everything we say,” Gran said.
“It scrambles sound waves so that audio surveillance can’t understand what we’re saying,” I said. Gran had showed it to me a few weeks ago and explained how to use it. I’d gotten some good use out of it when Ed was still alive. But Dee had never even known it existed before now. I didn’t think she’d even known something like that could exist.
“Surveillance? Why would they listen to us?” Dee glanced from Gran to me. “Because of your father? He’s dead. Don’t they know we’re not a problem?”
“The GC doesn’t let the past lie,” Gran said. “They’ll hound us till we’re in our graves.” She turned to Pops. “Now, don’t forget, old man, when it starts beeping, turn it off.”
Brushing her away, he said, “I know. I know. It’s my machine, remember?” He fumbled with his PAV receiver until he got one of his cronies on the other end.
Gran motioned Dee and me to follow her into the kitchen. “We will fight this thing.” She sat at the table, rubbing her chest. “You know, arguing with your grandfather takes it out of me. I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“Are you okay?” I asked. She was breathing hard, her face ashen.
“I’m…” She paused, taking a ragged breath. “I’m not used to getting all het up about things.”
Dee glanced at me, a concerned frown creasing her forehead. I mustered as much reassurance as I could into a weak smile.
Gran slid a paper across the table. “Here’s the writ. I can’t imagine who could’ve done such a thing. Why would anyone think that we’re unsuitable to take care of our own grandchildren?” She drew in another uneven breath. “I wonder if it’s because of Dee’s father? Maybe he isn’t missing. Maybe he’s—” She took in Dee’s expression and quickly changed course. “I have the papers from Ginnie, signed and notarized, appointing us as guardians to both of you. There should be no question…”