Chapter 6
“I’m sorry. What did you just tell me?” The lawyer for Mary Beth approached her before the court hearing was to begin. “You see, I thought you said that Mary Beth wanted to sell me her kids for the fines she’s going to be racking up with this state thing.”
“What I’m supposed to ask you is if you’ll take the kids for paying her fines if she has any.
I’m to understand she thinks you have that kind of money where you’ll be able to get her out of jail and back to her normal life.
” He winked at her. “She seemed to think that you’d be all for the deal that is just between the two of us.
She knows that it’s against the law to sell her children, but she didn’t think you’d be able to see it that she was selling them to you, but you do her a favor and she’ll do you one by giving you the children in exchange for a lot of money. ”
“That’s selling them to me.” He just grinned. “I don’t know that I’m going to keep this between the two of us. This is against the law, no matter how you put it.”
“I know that. She just thinks you’re stupid enough to see things her way.
For her and Bash, her husband to live in their old home and have the food card again with all the perks that come with her living on the government money.
” She said she wasn’t going to do that. “Not that I blame you, but I did have to bring it to you so that you know. And like I said, it’s just between the two of us.
However, who you tell is going to be up to you.
I’ve made it clear what my client thinks and wants. ”
“Your client is an idiot.” He nodded once but didn’t so much as blink this time. “I’m going to tell the judge when he comes in here.”
“You should wait until your sister comes in to hear you tell him. She thinks I’m going to blab, her words all around that she’s going to get the better of you by telling you the way things are going to go.
” It finally occurred to her that this lawyer was on her side.
She told him she was sorry. “No need for that, Mrs. Dixon. Congratulations on your recent marriage. I hope you get things going in the right direction for those kids. If you don’t mind me saying so, your sister is stupid. ”
“Yes, I’ve known that all my life.” He went back to his seat before the judge was scheduled to come into the room.
She didn’t know what to do with the information that she had.
Looking at Cullen, she told him what the other attorney said and then told Cullen’s dad, Sherman.
“Does she really think that I’m so stupid that I’d just pay things for her—even if there were things that could be paid—and she’d be off the hook? ”
“Stranger things have happened. You let me handle this, and we’ll go from there.
I’ll ask to speak to the judge, and that will be when I tell him.
He’ll either throw the book at her or laugh.
I’m looking for the book to be tossed at her.
This is a serious crime to sell off your kids.
Especially when it comes to paying off something that she’s gotten herself into with the government.
” She told him she’d like to have the book thrown at her. “I do as well, honey. I do as well.”
She sat down next to Sherman and decided that she couldn’t have done any better than to have him in her corner.
So far, he’d given her a running total about what her sister would owe, not in fines but would outright owe the government for what she’d done.
She looked over at the team that was for the government and wondered how many times a month these people had to do something like this.
She’d bet it was a great deal the way they looked so confident in themselves.
Bash was brought in with Mary Beth. Since they both lived in the housing, they would be tried together.
Bash looked like he’d lost a bit of weight, and she wondered if it was because he wasn’t getting his snacks all the time.
The dirty bastard had kept food from his own children, and she hoped that he got life for whatever happened today.
As soon as the judge came in, Bash stood up. He tried to look neater than he was, but it wasn’t working. The jumpsuit he had on was filthy and looked like he had not washed his hair in a good long time. She then looked at her sister.
Mary Beth had only been in jail for four days.
She looked like she’d been in jail for months.
Her hair was dirty, and her jumpsuit was too small and as filthy as Bash’s was.
She had put on makeup, and for some reason, it made her look washed out.
Even her teeth looked like they’d not been brushed for years, in that they were dark with food stains and seemed to be too big for her mouth. In a word, she looked a mess.
Sherman asked to speak to the judge and was granted access to him.
The other lawyers were there too when Sherman told them what Mary Beth had said.
The attorney who told her about it winked at her again and smiled.
He knew exactly what he was doing, it seemed, and she was glad that she’d been able to speak to him.
“I’m sorry, what?” Sherman had to repeat himself for the men standing with him, and it didn’t look like anyone could believe that she’d actually said those things.
Her attorney said that what she’d said was true, but it was supposed to be between the two of them; that’s the way his client wanted it.
“I don’t give a good gosh darn. She wanted to sell her kids. ”
“No, I didn’t.” Mary Beth stood up. “I just want her to pay for things to be the way that they were before. You know, the rent that I’m going to owe, plus the card for food and gas.
That’s not selling my kids. That’s against the law.
I just want her to take them for the money that it would cost me to have to pay the fines that are going to be due for me to live the life I want to again.
” The judge said that she was selling her kids.
“No. You’re looking at this all wrong. She’s my sister, and she by rights should want me to have things the way I want them.
And if that means she pays my fines—see?
No money to me—then in exchange for that she can keep my kids.
It’s a good way for me to get what I want and what she wants.
She likes them better than she does me anyway. ”
“That’s selling them, no matter how you paint it up to be a pretty picture.
” She shook her head, and the judge told the men to go back to their seats.
“I’m going to deal with this when I have everything else taken care of.
That way, we can have a good accounting of just how much she wasn’t selling her kids for but giving them to her for a great sum of money. ”
“That’s better anyway, your highness.” He corrected Mary Beth. “Whatever. You should be called your highness so that people will know what a great person you are. And you will be in my books if we can get this taken care of.”
“Mr. Humphrey? I have to ask you one question before we move on. Do you agree with your wife about the kids and your fines for the government? I’d like to know that before we go much further.
” He said it sounded like a good deal to him.
That he never really cared for his kids anyway.
“I see. Then why did you have two of them?”
“You get more food card money and housing if you have enough of them running around. We only got a four-bedroom because that’s all that was available at the time.
We should have only had a three-bedroom.
But that extra room comes in handy when we need the extra space for crap.
” He asked him again if he agreed with the sale of his children.
“It sounds like a good deal for all of us. That way Emmie don’t have to be paying us for school shit too.
She can just keep right on sending some cash to us, but it’ll be all right if she doesn’t.
I can see where it’s going to be costing her a lot when it comes to paying what we owe. ”
The judge asked if he’d been counting that as income, and he said that they didn’t, they’d been doing it under the table like.
After that, he got down to business about the state of the house when it had been inspected.
Neither one of them could believe that they’d been inspected without notice and thought that was unfair.
They went around and around with that for the better part of an hour before the judge declared it settled.
At noon, the judge called a recess for an hour.
She was happy for it as she had things that she wanted to do.
One of them was to get something to eat.
Then, after that, she was going to check on Marshall and Beth.
They were staying with Cullen’s parents today so that they wouldn’t have to see their parents.
“How are things going? I’ve spoken to Sherman, and he seems to think that the judge is pissed off about how he can’t get them to agree on anything.
” Betty said that the kids were doing well, mostly watching television while they recuperated.
She told her about selling the kids. “Sherman said that he figured that something like this would come along. There is no way that they’d be able to afford the back fines on things the way that they’re going.
I hope you can adopt them both. It’s the best thing that would come out of this. ”
“I agree. I just hate that they’re having to go through this the way that things are.
To think that she thinks that I’d be all right with taking the kids for the amount of money that they’re going to owe.
Back rent for seven years is going to be in the tens of thousands of dollars, then there is the food card, along with the gasoline card, which they get monthly.
I don’t have that kind of money just lying around like they think that I do. ”