Seasons Under Heaven (14 page)

Tory fed Rachel, Leah, and Daniel at her house that night, an event Brittany and Spencer considered the highlight of their week. They thought it was a party, but the Dodd children knew better. They had seen their little brother lose consciousness on the floor of the Adventure Museum, and it hadn’t been the first time. Watching the ambulance carry him away had been traumatic for all of them. Now Tory hoped she could keep their minds off his condition until they heard from their parents.

But when Sylvia came over and asked her to step out on the front porch, she knew that the news was not good. “Brenda’s been really busy and preoccupied with Joseph, so she hasn’t had the chance to call,” Sylvia said, keeping her voice low. “But she asked me to come tell you what they found out.”

Tory waited.

“They told Brenda and David that Joseph needs a heart transplant or he’ll die.”

Tory felt the blood draining from her face. Slowly she reached for the chain on the swing and felt her way down. “Heart transplant?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Poor Brenda.” The words came on a rush of breath.

“You said it.” Sylvia sat down next to her, and the swing began to creak with their forward and backward motion. “They’ve admitted Joseph to the hospital. He’ll have to stay there until a heart’s available.”

“How long will that be?”

“We don’t know. It could be days, weeks, months…”

“And Joseph will have to be there all that time?”

“That’s right. His heart’s only functioning at fifteen percent. They have to keep him stabilized.”

“So what’s she going to do? I mean, with the other kids?”

“I’ll help as much as I can. But that’s not the most pressing problem right now. The biggest problem, according to Harry, is the money.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they’re self-employed, so their health insurance isn’t very good. They’re going to have to come up with at least thirty percent. A heart transplant is very expensive.”

“What will they do?”

“I’m not sure. David told Harry a second mortgage is out—they already have one. He’s thinking about selling the house.”

“
What?
” Tory exclaimed. “They can’t! Don’t they have social services or something to help people who can’t pay?”

Sylvia hesitated before answering. “David refused to contact social services. He had some stubborn idea that Joseph’s care would be inferior if the hospital knew of his financial condition. He’s determined to raise the money himself. But I don’t think he can, and I’m like you—if he has to sell the house to do it, I don’t want him to. But their share of the expenses could easily be more than David makes in a year.” Sylvia met Tory’s eyes. “So I’m going to do my best to help raise the money, before he has to sell the house. But I’ll need help.”

“Of course. Barry and I will do what we can. We don’t have much extra, but—”

“I’m not asking for money from you,” Sylvia said, “but I need some ideas. Ways to get the community involved. People would help if they knew. My church, your church, her church…”

“Of course. Surely people will help.”

Spencer burst through the front door. “Mommy, Britty got out the gummy bears and she won’t give me some. And there ain’t enough for all of us.”

“Aren’t enough,” Tory corrected. “Spencer, go back in there and tell her I don’t want her to have any sugar before bedtime.”

“But it ain’t sugar. It’s just gummy bears!”

“Tell her not to give them out till I come back in.” She got up, and Sylvia followed her to the door.

“I should take the Dodd kids home,” Sylvia said. “They need to sleep in their own beds.”

“Are you sure?” Tory asked. “I’d be happy to watch them.”

“No, it would really make me feel better to do something.” Sylvia sighed. “And heaven knows I don’t have anything better to do. Harry’ll come over and help out when he gets home. Besides, they’re good kids. They won’t be a problem.”

“All right. Are you going to tell them about Joseph?”

“No,” Sylvia told her. “I’ll let David do that when he gets home.”

Tory’s pale eyes settled on the Dodds’ house. “How are Brenda and David taking it?”

Sylvia struggled for words. “It’s hard. Really hard. They’re taking it like we would, if Joseph was ours.”

“This will be tough on the whole family.”

Sylvia nodded. “We’ll just have to help.” She glanced at the house directly across from the Dodds’. “Look, before I take the kids home, I think I’ll run over to Cathy’s and tell her what happened. I know she’ll want to know, and maybe she’ll have some ideas.”

Tory nodded mutely and watched Sylvia cross the cul-de-sac.

Cathy sat at her computer in the dining room, typing in addresses for every home she’d been able to find in the school district. Since the school board had refused to give her names and addresses of all the families in the district, she had spent the previous two weekends driving down every street in the area and recording the addresses. She would do a blitz mailing—send a letter to every taxpayer in the district, addressed to “Parents of School Children.” It wouldn’t apply to every resident, but at least she would know she was reaching nearly all the parents that way.

“So what’s this for again?” Mark asked as he faced the stack of letters she wanted him to stuff into envelopes.

“For your education and your moral health,” Cathy explained matter-of-factly.

Annie, who had also been enlisted, made a derisive noise of disgust.

“What?” Mark asked.

“It’s about sex ed at our schools, meathead,” Annie told her brother. “And the fact that Mom is trying to ruin our lives.”

“How am I ruining your life?” Cathy flung back.

“Get real, Mom,” Rick said, coming in from the other room. “Our friends are already calling you ‘the condom lady.’ They think it’s a big joke that you’re fighting the school on this. I may never show my face in that place again. I’ll probably run away before school starts in the fall.”

“He’s right, Mom,” Annie said, and Cathy would have marked this rare moment of sibling agreement on the calendar if she hadn’t been so appalled at their attitudes. “You wouldn’t believe what a hard time we’re getting. Today at the Y pool, Selena Hartfield started telling everybody that our mom didn’t want them talking to her kids about sex at school ‘cause we don’t know the facts of life yet. It embarrassed me to death. If you wind up making any more of a deal about this than you already have, I’m going to live with Dad, ‘cause I don’t need this.”

“I’m doing this for your own good,” Cathy said. “The school doesn’t have the right to pour junk into your heads, and if they can’t even let a mother view the video they showed you, something’s wrong. If I didn’t care about you, I wouldn’t go to all this trouble. You think I like spending every minute of my spare time on this?”

“Yes,” Annie said. “I think you do. It’s given you a life, even if it means that we can’t show our faces out of the house for the rest of the summer.”

“Isn’t that just a little dramatic?” Cathy asked her. “So far, you haven’t spent two straight hours in the house, unless you’re sleeping. I think your social life is fine. Too good, in fact.”

Annie shrugged. “Well, maybe for now. But when you start making speeches at the school board meeting…Besides, look at poor Rick. His social life was already bad enough, and now he’s practically an outcast.”

“I am not!” Rick said. “Why don’t you shut up?”

“
You
shut up. Mom and I are having a conversation.” She turned back to her mother and crossed her arms belligerently.
“Mom, I’m sorry, but I have to take a stand. I refuse to be a part of this. Rick and Mark can stuff envelopes if they want, but I’m standing up for my principles.”

“Principles? What principles? You’re standing up for the right to have condoms passed out in the school?”

Annie looked flustered, then quickly rallied. “Mom, you just don’t understand. Some people need them.”

Cathy couldn’t believe her ears. “Annie, tell me you don’t mean that.”

“I
do.
Not me, Mom, but other people. They’re going to do things anyway, so you might as well arm them so they don’t get diseases and stuff.”

“She’s brainwashed,” Cathy said to no one in particular. “I’m too late. They’ve already brainwashed her.” She covered her face with her hands, then realized she couldn’t just play dead. She looked up, breathing in enough energy for the fight. “Annie, it’s wrong to have sex before marriage, no matter what your friends or your teachers or your boyfriends say.”

“Why?” Annie demanded. “If two people really love each other, and they’re not, like, sleeping around, then why shouldn’t they?”

“Because!” Cathy racked her brain for a ready reason, but they all seemed to escape her. “It’s not the decent thing to do. It’s…it’s bad for you. For a lot of reasons.”

“Okay, it’s bad because of, like, pregnancy and AIDS. But if they’re protected so those things don’t happen—”

“It says not to do it in the Bible!” Cathy said, suddenly relieved that the thought had come to her. “It says it clearly.”

“Where?” Annie asked. “Show me. Sarah Beth says that it tells you not to have adultery, but that’s because someone’s getting hurt in adultery. If it’s between two consenting people who aren’t hurting anybody—”

“Sarah Beth is fifteen years old!” Cathy shouted. “You’re going to listen to her word over mine?”

“At least she has documentation.”

Cathy wanted to throw something. “Look, I don’t know where it says that in the Bible, but I
know
it talks about fornication. I’ll find it.” She felt flustered and frustrated, and furious at herself for not knowing Scripture.

“Well, even if you do, I’m not sure I buy into the Bible, anyway. It’s outdated, Mom. Those rules may have worked in the Stone Age, but things have changed.”

“Yeah, things have changed,” Mark agreed.

“Things have
not
changed! The Bible is still true.” Her voice broke off with the last words, and a lump rose in her throat. How could she have let this happen? How could she have raised her kids without the one value system they needed? How could she explain morals to them if they didn’t have anything to base them on?

“I believe it’s wrong to have sex before marriage,” Rick said quietly, as if he could see his mother needed help.

Cathy fought to hold back her tears. “Thank you, Rick. That gives me some comfort.”

“That’s just because you’re afraid of girls,” Annie told her brother.

“I am not!”

“He’s shy, Mom. Look at him. How often does he even go on dates?”

“I’m going to homecoming, doofus. I can get a date anytime I want!”

“That’s enough!” Cathy belted out. Red-faced, she stood up and grabbed a stack of envelopes. “Sit down, Annie, and don’t say another word.”

“What? I told you I’m not helping with this! It’s propaganda, and I don’t want any part of it!”

“Sit!” Cathy shouted. “Now!”

Annie didn’t sit, but she jerked the envelopes out of her mother’s hand. “Rick, you too,” Cathy ordered. “Start stuffing. Mark, you take these.”

Annie shook her head with disbelief. “Guess I’ll have to run away and live with Dad.”

“I’m the one who’s about to run away!” Cathy shouted. She forced herself to rein her temper in, and sat back down. “Oh, and Annie?” she said in a quieter voice that simmered with fury. “Don’t threaten me with your I’m-going-to-live-with-my-daddy routine anymore, because it sends me into a rage, and I’ve been known to take away privileges for entire months for that, haven’t I, Rick?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rick muttered.

“And you want a good reason not to have sex before marriage? Try this one. Because if I think you’re even
thinking
about it, I’ll ground you for life. How’s that?”

The doorbell rang. Angrily, Cathy shouted, “Come in!”

Sylvia pushed the front door open and came tentatively into the living room.

“Oh, hey, Sylvia,” Cathy said, wilting. “Sorry I didn’t get up. I figured it was one of the kids’ friends. I was ready to lambaste them, too.” She noticed Sylvia’s somber look. “Everything okay?” she asked. “Harry isn’t making you pack for Nicaragua, is he?”

“No,” Sylvia said with a faint smile. “I thought you’d want to know that little Joseph’s back in the hospital.”

“Oh, no. Is it his heart again?”

The kids stopped stuffing and looked up at Sylvia.

“I’m afraid so.”

“What’s wrong with him, Sylvia? What did they say?”

“He needs a heart transplant.”

Silence. Even the three children were stunned. Cathy stood slowly. “A heart transplant? Sylvia, isn’t there something
else
they can do before that? I thought that was the last resort.”

“This
is
the last resort,” Sylvia said. “He collapsed again today, and his heart almost stopped for good. They revived him, but apparently, without a transplant, he’ll die.”

Stricken, Cathy turned back to her children. Shock and amazement were evident on their faces. Even Annie was speechless. Little boys weren’t supposed to experience failure in major organs. They weren’t supposed to have to fight for their lives.

She forced her thoughts into a logical sequence. “Sylvia, is there anything I can do?”

“Well, maybe,” she said. “We need to raise money. The Dodds don’t have adequate health insurance, and David just doesn’t make that kind of money.”

“Sure,” Cathy said. “We’ll think of something. Won’t we, kids?”

The children all nodded. It was the quietest she’d ever seen them. Crisis always quieted them, she realized. When their father had announced his intentions to divorce her, they had been silent for days.

“So what hospital is he in?”

“St. Francis,” Sylvia said. “Harry’s not his doctor, but he’s keeping an eye on him.”

“Good. I’m sure that gives Brenda some comfort.”

“I hope so. Well, I’m going to take the Dodd kids home and put them to bed. Brenda and David are both at the hospital.”

Cathy nodded thoughtfully. “Annie and I can do some babysitting, if that will help.”

Annie shot her mother an unappreciative look, then shrugged and grudgingly said, “Yeah, sure.”

“And maybe Mark and Rick could help keep their yard cut.”

Rick leaned forward on the table. “Whatever I can do.”

“I’m sure they’d appreciate that,” Sylvia said. “And they’ll probably take you up on it. It could be a long haul. There’s no telling when a heart could become available.”

Cathy sat again. “Boy. And I thought my problem with the school board was bad.”

When Sylvia was gone, Cathy stared down at the letters she’d been so feverishly addressing. Somehow, they just didn’t seem that important anymore.

“Mom, how do they get a heart?” Mark asked quietly.

“What do you mean, how?”

“I mean, like if they take it out of somebody else, won’t they die?”

“That’s kind of the point, dooms,” Annie said.

Ricky’s voice was kinder. “They take it out of somebody who’s going to die anyway, don’t they, Mom?”

Mark still looked confused. “You mean, out of somebody who’s sick and isn’t gonna get better?”

“No, nothing like that,” Cathy said. “It’s usually an accident victim. Somebody who’s technically dead, but their heart is still functioning. They’ll take it out and put it in somebody who needs it. They do that with all kinds of organs.” Cathy had never imagined that she would have the need to explain this concept to her children.

“So somebody’s gonna have to die to cure Joseph?” Mark asked.

“Looks that way.”

The kids were quiet for a moment, and finally, Annie lost her belligerent look. Her voice was softer as she asked, “What if they don’t get one in time?”

“They have to,” Cathy said. “That’s all there is to it.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and she wanted more than anything to reach out and hug each of her kids, hold them until her arms got tired, rock them as she had when they were little. But she knew they wouldn’t allow it. Somehow, she’d lost her privilege to do that years ago. Now she didn’t know how to get it back.

She closed her eyes and let the tears flow for a moment. When she opened them, the kids had all dispersed to their separate rooms to deal with their own thoughts. And even in their stubborn rebellion and their maddening defiance, she found that she was thankful they all had functioning hearts.