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Life From the Moon
~The Beginning~
Chapter 32
Life moved forward. The attempt to move Mary-Anne into a respite foster home was never spoke of again. Bobby’s tree fort was not rebuilt. The neighbour started to nitpick the new neighbours who moved in across the street and left the Parsons alone. Mary-Anne’s weekend visits with her father continued on a regular basis. Melody was released from hospital a week after waking from her coma with no serious side effects.
From the surface all appeared to be doing well. Shortly after Melody was released from hospital, a school meeting was called. The decision was made - Mary-Anne would be expelled for one month plus 20 hours of school service upon return, to be completed during lunch and recess. Melody was given a 2 week suspension and 10 hours of school service. Despite proof the fight was initiated by Melody, Mary-Anne’s record of bullying worked against her. The administrators at the school, including the principal believed it was time that Mary-Anne was made accountable for her actions. They viewed Melody as a bystander who was simply caught up in the web of Mary-Anne’s anger.
Through it all, Mary-Anne’s upbeat energy disappeared. Her counsellor moved. Mary-Anne was given a new one who she hated on sight, forcing counselling to end. Maggie, her social worker, quit, stating the pressures simply became too much. Mary-Anne stood stiff as Maggie held tight, begging for forgiveness, for leaving when Mary-Anne needed her the most. Lisa intervened, telling Maggie to “get your act together, life doesn’t fall apart simply because you decide to move on, we survived before you came, we’ll survive after you leave.”
Officer Harris stopped in on a regular basis, checking up on the family and giving them updates on the investigation in Winnipeg. After a few short meetings with Mary-Anne, down at the station, she refused to answer any further questions. It was as if the spark flickered and died within Mary-Anne. She had become numb.
Bobby tried to make her smile. He’d pull the stupidest jokes upon himself and she wouldn’t even raise her eyes. One time he pretended to slip and fall on the newly washed kitchen floor. In the process he twisted his ankle and still kept up the charade. Mary-Anne walked out the back door, ignoring his antics while Bobby bit his lip trying not to cry out in pain. Nothing he did could make her smile.
The time came that they had all been expecting and hoping wouldn’t happen. John applied for increased visitation. Over the past three months since being released, he began a job as a maintenance man, attended church with his daughter every Sunday and never missed an AA meeting. His parole officer spoke highly of Peter, emphasizing the positive changes - how Peter had become a responsible citizen and father, in such a short period of time. Mary-Anne’s new social worker didn’t familiarize himself with the case and recommended increased visits, based on the parole officer’s report. Through it all, no one talked with Mary-Anne. No one that could have made a difference in the decision that was handed down from the judge.
The judge granted temporary interim custody to John - Mary-Anne move in with her father and spend week-ends with the Parsons. When the social worker arrived to deliver the news, Mary-Anne walked over and kicked him hard in the shins before anyone could stop her. She spit in his face and stormed away. Bobby followed behind as she quickly walked outside and down the road. Bobby ran to catch up, then fell into silent step beside her. Eventually they came to a park. Mary-Anne settled on a swing and rocked herself back and forth. Bobby sat on the other swing.
“Doesn’t anyone want to know what I think?” Mary-Anne stated, “Doesn’t anyone care?”
“You know I do, Mary-Anne,” Bobby said, scuffing his feet on the ground as he twisted the chains of the swing, “I want you to be happy again. You’re never happy anymore.”
Mary-Anne jumped up and glared at Bobby, “Like I have something to be happy about. You try to be happy when you have to be with that man every weekend and now, they are forcing me to live there! Like are they all stupid? I don’t love him, I don’t like him and I don’t want to be with him.”
Bobby moved back on the swing, trying to get out of her way. Mary-Anne stomped her foot and continued,
“He’s going to AA Mary-Anne, he’s got a job Mary-Anne, he’s going to church with you and praying to God Mary-Anne. He’s trying to be the father that he never was Mary-Anne. Just give him a chance Mary-Anne and you’ll see. He loves you Mary-Anne. He’s just doing his best for you Mary-Anne.”
“Bah!”
She spat onto the ground and broke away in a quick walk. Bobby scrambled off the swing and quickly fell into step beside her. She stopped and turned,
“They don’t know! They don’t know what he does! I told that stupid no good idiot of a social worker that he has a bottle hidden in the couch that he drinks at night. So what do they do? They tell him, TELL HIM that he’ll be going in a for a drug test. He stops drinking and almost beat the shit out of me for telling on him. But I told him, you touch me they’ll see the bruises and you’ll be in even deeper trouble. So you know what he said, Bobby? DO YOU?”
Bobby gulped, wondering if anything he said would be right, “Um, no”
“He said that he could beat me without any bruises showing, that he learned how from prison. And that with all the other lies I’ve told, no one would believe me. So I just shut-up. And he didn’t. He took the stupid test. He passed and I was called a liar. A LIAR!”
Mary-Anne turned and walked away.
“Stay away from me Bobby. I’m poison. Or haven’t you figured that out yet?”
With those final words, Mary-Anne broke into a run. Bobby stood there stunned.
***********************
Lisa handed a face cloth to the social worker.
“You really aren’t surprised, are you?” she asked, “After all, you only spoke briefly with her and you didn’t represent her well in court.”
Robert broke in, “I fail to understand why you refused to place her on the stand. She’s 12 years old. She can speak for herself. Yet you ignored all the evidence before you and went on a parole officer’s word. A parole officer! HIS PAROLE OFFICER!”
Before Tim could speak, Robert went on,
“You could have subpoenaed the counsellor’s files. You could have entered Maggie’s file and evidence into the court proceedings but no, you ignored it! All for what? To keep the family together? John was never been a father to Mary-Anne. He molested her! Molested her! That wasn’t even brought into consideration. What? Do you believe he’s reformed? Look at her. Does she look like a happy child who’s eager to spend days with her father? What is it with you people? You come in with all your know how, your university degrees, you preach family unity, you go on about forgiveness and you forget about the very child that you are supposed to be protecting!”
Robert slammed his fist into the wooden door frame. Lisa sat stunned. Tim sat absolutely still.
Robert turned and stared at Tim, motionless on the couch.
“Get the hell out of my house” he said, pulling the front door open.
Tim sat motionless.
“You heard me, get the hell out of here!” Robert’s eyes narrowed as his fists clenched, “Now!”
Lisa added, “I think you better go.”
Tim grabbed the file, cramming it down into the brief case, as he walked towards the door. He stopped in front of Robert, “Mary-Anne will be moving out by Sunday night. She has one more week here. She has to be ready to…..”
“I said, get the hell out!”
“This is not making it easier, she isn’t your daughter.”
Lisa took in a quick gulp of air as she saw her husband move towards Tim. She pushed Tim out the door, placing herself between her husband and the social worker.
“Not one more word, just go.”
Tim stumbled out, then looked back, shaking his head.
“She’s not your daughter, you are only the foster parents. You have to let her go!”
He jumped as the door slammed in his face. He heard Robert yelling threats and hoped Lisa would be able to hold her husband back until he reached the car. He sped off, determined to lay charges of assault against Robert and to be removed from the case. This was not the reason he became a social worker. Instead of sympathy when he reached the office, he was met with severe discipline from his superiors for failing Mary-Anne and her foster family in court. Yet the deed was done and could not be undone, all they could hope for was Mary-Anne to tell someone what was really happening in that home.
**************************
“Mum, Dad, is anyone home?” Bobby asked as he walked into the quiet home, “Mum, Dad?”
Lisa came walking down the stairs from the bedroom. Her eyes rimmed red and filled with tears.
“Your father went out for awhile, where is Mary-Anne?”
“She hasn’t come home?”
“No, I thought she was with you.”
“She was but then she got really angry and told me to bugger off. And she took off. Running. I don’t know where she is.”
Bobby followed his mum into the kitchen.
“Mum, does Mary-Anne really have to live with her dad?”
“The courts think so Bobby. We got a call from Officer Harris. He’s trying really hard to find something to prove that John was involved in Tracey’s death but nothing is adding up.”
She leaned up against the kitchen counter and continued, “There is no record of Mary-Anne and Peter being in Manitoba. The trail ends in Saskatchewan. None of the alias that he used in the past show up anywhere. And now that Mary-Anne has stopped talking, Officer Harris has nothing more to go on. Even the place where she claims Tracey was killed, doesn’t match with her descriptions.”
“Mum, Mary-Anne kept saying she was poison, that she lies all the time, could she be lying about Tracey?”
“I don’t know son. She did have the necklace. And she knew about the tattoo. You didn’t even know of the tattoo. And there are other things. Stuff she told Officer Harris without us, before she shut down. Stuff that no one knows except someone who actually saw Tracey before she disappeared.”
“And I can’t believe that Mary-Anne would make up that terrible story of pushing Tracey over the riverbank, into the falls unless it happened,” Robert cut in, walking in through the back door, “She’d have to be very unbalanced to make up a story like that.”
“Dad, do you think she’s crazy?”
“No son, I think she’s hurting. I think she gets mixed up because she was so young when it all happened. But I think they’re going to push her over the edge if they don’t stop soon.”
They stood there lost in worry. The phone rang, jarring the silence with its harsh ring. Lisa grabbed it, her face draining of colour as she listened to the other end. Bobby and Robert stood anxious, waiting to find out what happened. Lisa hung up and grabbed her keys.
“Mary-Anne threw herself into traffic on Barnett Hwy. She's in critical condition and being transferred to the Royal Columbia Hospital. They don’t know if she’ll make it.”
No one spoke. Within moments, they were in the car and speeding towards the hospital, praying they’d make it on time.
© 2001
~~~End of Live From the Moon, The Beginning (Part 1)~~~
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