Five
S ometimes change is gradual and happens over weeks and months.
In other instances, it’s abrupt and shakes you up, and that can be good or bad.
In the case of the Duchesne household, the events that began with me showing up turned everything upside down in the very best way.
They started talking together, and then individually they started making different decisions, and their responses to things altered.
And of course I didn’t know any different, but I got observations from each one.
“Griff said I could come in his room with Dar and play Minecraft ,” Tatum told me excitedly on Monday night.
His room was clean, I could see the hardwood floor and the great rugs he and his mother had picked out, and now he had space for his siblings.
“Dar came on our walk again,” Griff said to me when we got home on Tuesday night. Griff had stayed home that day from school, but tomorrow he was going. “Two nights in a row.”
“Yeah…” I squinted at him.
“You don’t get it. He never takes time out to do anything but study. I thought his brain was gonna explode.”
I chuckled. “He played Minecraft with you guys last night,” I reminded him.
“That’s true,” he said, studying me.
“What?”
“We need to teach you how to play.”
“I’d rather have to fold your laundry again.”
There had been three loads scattered and in piles on his floor. There had been an endless litany of, Oh, I wondered where that went . I had lamented ever being done, and there was cackling and laughter from all over the house. I couldn’t let him do it alone, though; it would have taken a week.
There were other discoveries as well.
Darwin could not prep meat. He kept gagging and was very concerned about all the diseases one could get from touching anything raw.
He suggested we buy lye for the counters.
I took him off meat duty and put him in charge of kitchen organization and keeping an inventory. He enjoyed making the charts.
Tatum was good with vegetables. She could slice them, dice them, and wore goggles when doing the onions so there was no crying.
Fruit was also something she enjoyed, and she was a big fan of the melon baller.
Much like Dar however, she was not touching raw anything, even eggs.
They were too runny and she didn’t like the look of them.
Griff was naturally gifted in the cooking department.
He combined spices in interesting ways, made marinades, and got interested enough to watch cooking videos on YouTube.
I was not unhappy with this. I met his friends too, Benny and Sean, and liked them both.
They had no problem staying home with him while he was grounded.
There was a Ping-Pong table in the basement, and the three boys played endless games.
They even joined us on our nightly walk, which had changed from a ride, which yes, had only started that Sunday, but still, they showed up every day.
The kids had a hard reset, and because they were kids, Benji advised me when I called him, they basically conformed to their new reality, as they had when their mother left.
“You’ve created new habits, better habits, so they’re changing in response. It will continue over time, even after you’ve gone.”
I was happy to hear that.
“The wheels are turning now, and they’re old enough to say yes, I like this or no, I don’t like that . Logical responses are what we want.”
I appreciated him and sent him a fruit basket he gushed over. Shaw called later and ordered me to stop sucking up to his husband. I laughed until he hung up.
On Wednesday, I had all the locks changed.
New deadbolts with extra-long screws that would not give if the door was kicked.
When I distributed the new keys, Tatum divulged to me that changing them out was a good idea since right after their mother left, a lot of people were coming and going, visiting and dropping off food.
“I think Dad gave out a million keys.”
“Really? You couldn’t have told me that before?”
She giggled and hugged me, which I liked, but I scowled at her instead of smiling.
I put a new deadbolt on the garage door as well. I was taking no chances.
On Thursday, I took the kids to meet their new therapist. Dr. Marlowe was probably in her early forties.
She was funny, sarcastic, and best of all, liked the kids.
I could tell she cared. She only treated children from five to eighteen but assured me that if Griff still needed help longer than that, she would make excellent recommendations.
She was somewhat concerned I wasn’t going to be there long-term, but understood when I disclosed that I was a fixer.
“You certainly are,” she said, smiling.
Early Friday morning, I went running on the treadmill in the basement because I couldn’t leave them alone and unprotected.
Plus, it was raining buckets, so it wasn’t an option anyway.
When I came into the kitchen, there was a message on the machine.
Luke, explaining he had to stay and work through the weekend.
He would be there the following Monday for sure, but he had a new phone, in case they needed to reach him.
I was beyond caring at that point, but I left the message so the kids could all listen.
Surprisingly, they wanted me to summarize.
“He’ll be home Monday,” I said, whisking eggs for breakfast.
“That’s fine,” Dar said, rooting through the refrigerator for the bacon.
“Groovy,” Tatum chimed in with one of my words she’d picked up.
“You know,” Griff began, “if you add ricotta to the eggs, they get fluffy.”
I turned to him. “You come do it, then.”
“Do we even have ricotta?” Dar asked his brother.
“Yeah, I bought some yesterday when I went to the store to get stuff for your lunch.”
“My lunch—oh!” Dar was suddenly excited. “We’re going to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle today!”
Tatum rolled her eyes.
“I can’t believe you forgot,” Griff said, smiling at him.
“I was thinking about Minecraft tonight and how I’m gonna build my aquarium.”
I didn’t want him to become a kid who never left the house, but I also liked him spending time with his brother and sister—though now screen time was limited to two hours and stopped at nine for Darwin and Tatum, and at ten for Griff.
He was still battered and bruised on the outside, but his energy had returned by that Tuesday, and when he went back to school on Wednesday, he’d been greeted like a hero by his classmates. That made me happy.
Chief Wilson was fired, and not simply because of his treatment of Griff.
There was a “preponderance of evidence” against him.
He had taken bribes, terrorized minors, and was facing jail time if convicted.
Weston Kinney had been disappointed he would not get to sue the city of Eena, as that was not what Griff wanted.
If they didn’t have money, how could they hire a good chief of police?
As I found his logic sound, we dropped our lawsuit.
We would retain Mr. Kinney and his firm, however, as there were still criminal charges brought by Newcastle PD against Wilson, and Griff needed his own counsel if called to testify.
“Remember to call,” Weston reminded me before he left the house on Friday.
“That guy needs to give it a rest,” Tatum groused with a scowl.
“He thinks I’m cute,” I teased her.
She grunted. “Everyone thinks you’re handsome, not cute.”
“Oh yeah? Like who?”
“Like my teacher and Anya’s mom.”
I had met her friend Anya and her mother and liked them both.
“But you can’t go to Anya’s house. You have to stay here.”
I made sure not to smile.
“And my principal asked me if you were married.”
“Tell me all about her.”
“Him,” she corrected. “Now go away. Don’t you have fruit to cube?”
I hugged the stuffing out of her, and apparently her irritation left too.
Chief Wilson’s wife and daughter went to stay with her sister Gail in Portland, Oregon, and the house was put on the market.
I got all that information from the next-door neighbor Tabitha, whom I met when I brought in her recycling and trash cans.
When she saw me on Saturday morning, she hit me with all the hot gossip and gave me a coffee cake she’d made.
She was very kind, and I thanked her for looking out for Tatum the Friday and Saturday she was alone in the house.
“That family has been struggling.” She smiled and patted my hand. “But not since you got here, sweetheart.”
I had a real soft spot for older women who called me pet names. Also, I was thinking Miss Tabitha and Miss Melody had been in love a long time, as they were both in their mid-seventies.
“Everyone thinks you two are just friends, huh?”
She winked at me. “But not a hotshot fixer from the big city.”
I scoffed, and she smiled wide.
Mr. Simmons on the other side— call me Burt —was also very nice.
“That kid was skin and bones before you got here, Nash. But it’s better already. I was this close to calling the police to have ’em do a wellness check, but in hindsight, thank God I didn’t.”
Yes. It was a very good thing. Ex-Chief Wilson seemed to be a vengeful man if the way he treated Griff was any indication.
Later that morning, we participated in the annual fall yard sale on the street, and surprisingly, long tables and tablecloths were brought right to our front yard.
It was so efficiently organized that when Mrs. Alvarez stopped by to say hello as we were setting up under a tent they had also provided, as it was raining again, I made sure to let her know she was freaking amazing.
“Oh!” She sounded surprised. “Thank you. No one ever says a word.”
“Well, this is really something.”
“I hope you’ll be staying,” she said, squeezing my hand.
I smiled at her.
The kids had so many knickknacks on the table that I was worried.
“You’re sure you don’t want any of that?” I asked Griff.