Letty Rose and the Mistaken Identity

Fire Squad Heroes

Letty struggled to insert her key into the door of apartment number eight. The night's events and her walk to Grace's apartment robbed her of her basic motor skills. Her hand shook from the lack of energy and riding the coattails of her drug trip earlier.

Letty felt jealous of Grace. Grace had enough funds, probably from their parents, to live this close to the river. The closer to the river you went, the more North-like the homes became. Of course, the houses on this side of the river were still nothing like the sprawling single-family homes on the other side.

Grace's apartment had been renovated within the last few years. Something that Letty's apartment complex had never gone through. Windows didn't have a film of dust or mold to them, and the paint hadn't started to chip off yet.

As Letty opened the door, an audible gasp greeted her.

"Jesus, Letty, you scared me," her sister whispered as she clutched her worn-out, navy blue nightshirt. Her sister sat on the old couch that used to sit in their parent's living room. Another gift from their parents that Letty never received. Letty never asked about it.

She felt lucky enough to have Grace still in her life. None of her other siblings or parents talked to her since she discovered her pregnancy. She didn't need to bring the past, nor their family, into their current relationship. Still, it would have been nice when her father kicked her out, three months pregnant, with nothing in the world.

"Is he okay?" Letty asked. She scanned the room for her son. The apartment floor had been littered with toys, papers colored with crayons, and old newspapers. The toys and crayon drawings came from Scotty. Letty didn't know where the newspapers came from or why.

Grace's living room felt grand compared to her apartment. Letty's entire place could probably fit inside the living room here. More than that, Grace had actual furniture here. A matching love seat sat next to Grace's couch. A wooden coffee table held more of Scotty's toys between the two. The apartment looks like a toy war zone.

"Sorry," Letty apologized. "I didn't want to wake anyone. Is he okay?"

Grace nodded and smiled, then looked into Letty's eyes. "There's some new toy he's winding up to ask you for. All the kids at school are making fun of him for not having one."

Letty exhaled her anxiety. She didn't need something else to pull from her bank account. The older Scotty got, the more expensive the toys got. It hurt her just as much as it hurt him when she couldn't get him the toys that everyone had. The other families might live on the same side of the river, but she doubted that most of them dealt with the same kind of issues she did.

Grace leaned forward and examined her. Another thing Letty hated. It would always lead to them fighting. While her parents had enough of her for her drug use and teen pregnancy, Grace had stayed in her life for some unknown reason. But Grace still had the passion for fixing her sister.

And Letty hoped that one day, she could fix her.

"Are you high?" Grace asked. It came out more of a statement than a question.

"I was up all night."

"That's not an answer."

Letty shrugged.

Grace managed to make her older sister feel as small as an ant. Letty knew she shouldn't be getting high. Knowing and doing are two different things, though. It was only a matter of time before Scotty caught her.

She had tried to quit before, but it never stuck. The drugs always called her back. The only time she ever stayed clean had been after she found out about the pregnancy. She even managed to stay clean for a couple of weeks after Scotty's birth. At the time, she planned on staying clean.

But it was hard to raise a baby with no sleep, money, or support.

"We bought pizza tonight."

"I'll pay you back for that." Letty already took advantage of her sister. If she could give her sister all the money in the world, she would, but money was scarce. One day, Letty would make it up to her, though.

One day.

Letty's hand grazed over her pocket. She felt her little baggie. She wasn't sure she had the strength to part with the drugs. Scotty could go without a toy for a while. Another fad would sweep the school by Christmas time, and she'd have to buy something else then. She could use that money to replenish her stash. Just in case she needed it.

Her heart plummeted passed her toes. She tried to stop the train of thought as quickly as possible, but freight trains took a while to stop.

Scotty deserved a mother that wouldn't put her addiction before her child. He deserved to live on the other side of the river, where he wouldn't have to worry about what was around the corner. He deserved a parent that wasn't strung out or working most of the time.

Before his birth, she had contemplated giving him away. Selfishly, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Being a mother turned into the best accident she ever had.

If only she could bring herself to quit her hobbies, and maybe find another job. Then she wouldn't drag her son down.

Grace sighed. She seemed tired of Letty already.

Letty owed them both more than she gave.

The door to the guest room swung open. A little three-foot, red-headed boy stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. His Captain America pajama pants were already a few inches too short for his legs, and they didn't match his Star Wars pajama shirt. She needed to get him new clothes, and soon. Another subtraction from the bill she wasn't getting paid for.

"Is it time to wake up?" Scotty rubbed his eyes as he walked into the room. Their conversation must have roused him. When he realized his mother stood in the middle of the living room, a weak smile formed on his lips. "Mom?"

Letty smiled, her heart lifting from the depth it had reached just moments before. She moved to him quickly and scooped him up. It reminded her of those first few days when he had been born. She smelled his hair. He still smelled like her tiny baby, even if she had to strain to hold him. He eased her of her burdens.

But every time she held him, she feared it might be the last. He grew so quick. He wouldn't need her soon. He might not want her anymore if he found out what she did when he wasn't around.

She needed to quit.

"Yeah, honey, it's mommy."

He buried his face in her shoulder, rubbing his nose on her shirt. She didn't care; she loved it. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, buddy," she smiled. "Go get your things. We're going to get out of Auntie Grace's hair today."

She put him on the ground, but he looked up at her. "Mom?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Can I get a Fire Squad Hero action figure?" he pleaded.

"I'm not sure, buddy. I'll have to look into it."

"Okay, but everyone at school has one. I'd be the best boy in the world if I got one," he said. He turned to go back into the room. She already knew the truth. He might not change if she bought him the toy, but she already thought he was the best boy in the world.

"Did you close the case? Do you have enough money?" Grace asked as he left the room. She already knew the answer to the second question.

"Haven't gotten paid yet," Letty admitted. She didn't think Grace would care about the details.

"That's not like you."

"There was a kid involved," Letty said.

"Was?"

"Yeah. Still working on those details," Letty shrugged.

"Are you going to get paid?"

"I don't know."

"I hope this client is loaded."

"Me too," she said as she worried about the entire thing too. She just hoped she could keep the lights on a little longer.