Chapter 19: Plain Words

Crispin opened the door.

The man on the landing wore a windbreaker and had a clipboard under his arm.

He checked both our names against the clipboard and handed each of us a thick envelope.

"Have a good night," he said, as though it were true.

Then he went down the stairs two at a time.

Crispin shut the door and leaned his back on it.

I tore my envelope open on the mat.

The top page was headed Emergency Motion.

My parents' names were on it side by side, which I had never seen on a piece of paper.

They asked the court to suspend Hattie's weekends with me.

They said Crispin's household was unsuitable and that an eighteen-year-old had been influenced.

The hearing was at nine the next morning at the county courthouse.

I read the word influenced three times.

"They want to take her weekends," I said.

"They can try."

"They put your name on it."

"I saw."

He took my envelope out of my hand, folded it shut and set it on the table beside the key.

"Nobody's going to take Hattie from you," he said.

"Tomorrow, you tell the judge what you told me. I'll be on the bench behind you."

"You can't come in. They'll say you're the problem."

"Then I'll stand in the hall."

"Crispin."

"Yes."

"You said you'd tell me what I'm supposed to know."

He was quiet for a moment.

He pushed himself off the door and stood in the middle of the floor.

He was a tall man in a gray T-shirt, with nothing in his hands.

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