William Lashner - Falls The Shadow

“Ma’am,” said the officer. “Based on the order, he has a right to see the girl if she’s here.”

I heard a light tread bouncing down the stairs. I stepped past the woman into the dark parlor of the little house. I didn’t notice the ragged furniture or the wall hangings, the old shaggy rug, the spicy scent coming from the kitchen, I didn’t notice anything except the small set of white sneakers jumping down the stairs, the thin bare legs, the denim jumper, the little girl with pigtails and wide eyes who was holding on to a brown stuffed unicorn.

She stopped when she saw me staring at her. “Mama,” she said, “what’s going on?”

“Is your name Tanya?” I said.

She didn’t answer. Instead she backed away, back up the stairs, frightened. I was wrong, Dr. Bob had blown it, she wasn’t the right girl, this woman she called Mama was her mother. I didn’t know what else to do except keep on talking.

“My name is Victor Carl. I’m a lawyer. If you’re Tanya, I’ve been appointed to help you in any way I can.”

The girl tilted her head as if I were an idiot telling a nonsensical story in a language of my own devising. I thought about turning around, apologizing to the woman and to Officer Washington, of ducking out of there and avoiding any more humiliation, but then I thought of three more words to say.

“Daniel sent me,” I told her.

Her smile blew a hole in my heart.

And here’s the thing that surprised me and mystified me and cheered me all at the same time: Tanya was okay, Tanya was in good hands. The Reverend Wilkerson, against all my suppositions and, I have to admit, all my prejudices, the Reverend Wilkerson had done his best by the girl.

The woman’s name was Mrs. Hanson, and she was sweet and nervous and scared to death of me. “Are you going to take my Tanya away?” she said.

“I don’t know,” I told her, and I didn’t.

So we sat in her living room and we talked, Mrs. Hanson and Officer Washington and myself. Tanya went back up to her room to play, sneaking down every now and then to listen before running back up again. Mrs. Hanson called her husband home from his work, and while we waited for him, she made us tea and she told us about her family, about her older son, Charles, who attended Central High, the premier magnet school in the Philadelphia school system. And she told us that when she heard from the good reverend of this girl who needed a family, she and her husband talked about it and prayed about it and decided there was nothing they could do but open their door to her. They would make the effort, suffer through the inconvenience, give this poor girl the benefit of a home, whatever the burden. What they didn’t expect was that they would fall, all three of the Hansons, so much in love with the little girl.

After a while Officer Washington raised his eyebrows, and I nodded that it was all right, and we both thanked him for his time. After he left, Mr. Hanson showed up, a short, energetic man in blue work shirt and pants, and the three of us talked some more. They told about the friends Tanya had made, they told me about their trip to King’s Dominion.

“The Elvis karaoke bar in the Northeast?” I said.

“No,” said Mr. Hanson. “The amusement park in Virginia.”

“Ah, yes,” I said. “Of course.”

The furniture was aged, the paintings on the wall were the kind you buy in warehouses, the television was a decade old, one wall was covered with the style of block mirrors they used to advertise on UHF channels twenty years ago. Not rich, maybe not even middle class, but they were a family, the warmth was palpable, and my scalp didn’t itch inside their house, which was a good indication that the abject dysfunction that had marred my childhood didn’t have a hold here.

When I asked if I could speak to Tanya alone, they looked at each other nervously and then led me up to her room.

She was on her bed, surrounded by a sea of small stuffed animals. It appeared that she was putting on a play of some sort, but when she saw me standing in the doorway, she stopped, lowered her hands.

I stooped down so our eyes were roughly level, not that she was looking at me, and I told her who I was, why I was there. I could see she was listening, the way she smiled when I mentioned Daniel, the way her mouth tightened when I mentioned her mother, but she didn’t respond at all until I asked her if there was a place nearby to get some ice cream.

“A couple blocks away,” she said.

“You want to go?”

“Okay.”

Mrs. Hanson wasn’t happy that I was taking Tanya for a walk, but her husband calmed her down and gave me directions. He also, I noticed, followed us from a distance, which I didn’t mind at all. We walked quietly together, Tanya and I, turning left and then right, ending up at a small drugstore with a large white freezer in the corner. She picked the prepackaged ice cream cone with the chocolate and nuts on top, I took the Chip-wich. We found a curb on a quiet street on the way back to sit while we finished off the treats.

“Do you like it here?” I said.

She nodded.

“You called Mrs. Hanson Mama. Why did you do that?”

“She likes it.”

“Do you like her?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“She’s nice. She fusses over me and buys me stuffed animals. Did you see how many I have?”

“Yes, I did. Wow. It’s like a zoo in there.”

“I’m going to fill it up until I can’t hardly walk into the room. Then I’m going to jump right on top of the pile and sleep there every night.”

I glanced up the street. He was sitting on a hydrant about a hundred yards away, just keeping an eye on things. I gave a little wave, and he waved back. “Do you like Mr. Hanson?” I said.

“He’s nice, too.”

“And Charles?”

“Yeah, though he’s not home much. He’s really smart. He’s, like, a brain.”

“Do you think about your mother ever?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you miss her?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to go back and live with her?”

“I don’t know. I like it with the Hansons. Is Randy still there?”

“Not right now. You don’t like Randy?”

“He didn’t like me. Always yelling, smacking me. Can I have another cone?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Just asking. How’s Daniel?”

“He’s all right,” I said. “I think he’s okay now. We fixed his teeth.”

“They sure needed fixing. I miss him. Can you go to my mommy’s place and tell him I miss him?”

“He’s not with your mother right now.”

Her eyes widened.

“Randy was hurting him, and your mother didn’t stop him. So Randy was arrested and Daniel’s now with another family.”

“I want to see him.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Are you really here to help me?”

“That’s right. Believe it or not, I work for you.”

“I don’t have any money to pay you.”

“That’s all right,” I said. “Why should you be different from any of my other clients?”

“What happened to your face?”

“My television bit me.”

“I guess that’s why they don’t let me watch too much.”

“Does that make you sad?”

“Not really. There’s a nice school here. I can walk to it and it’s a pretty color outside and the kids I play with in the neighborhood, they go there, too, and will walk with me. Sam, he has a little pool and we swim together when it gets hot.”

“So what do you want me to do for you?”

“I don’t want to leave. I like the school.”

“Okay.”

“But I miss Daniel.”

“Okay.”

“Maybe he can go to the school, too.”

“He’s still a little young for school.”

“Yeah. Can I have another cone now?”