Love in Darkness (Castles on the Sand 2)

Eight

The next day, when Mom, Hiroko, and I get back from the doctor’s office, I offer to go into town to fill Mom’s prescription, and Hiroko is happy to let me. I change into sweats and jog there and back.

When I return home, I’m distracted and don’t even look where I’m going as I descend the stairs to my front door. A figure darting aside startles me, and a glance reveals it’s Kirsten Beale.

“Sorry,” she says. She’s wearing a strappy sundress, sandals, and has her sunglasses perched on top of her head.

“No, I’m sorry. You waiting for me?” I don’t know why she would be. For that matter, I can’t think of any reason she’d have for being here at all.

“I overheard you and Kailie talking,” she says. “So I kind of found out about you… having… um…”

“Schizophrenia?”

“That what it’s called?”

Well, okay. It’s strange to have Kirsten know, but she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who’ll blab, and I suspect the whole town will find out eventually. One public psychotic episode from me and everyone will connect the dots.

“And I also happen to know that my dad wants to hire you to look after a guest’s disabled child, and that he’d pay you fifty dollars an hour to do it. I’m guessing you can’t.”

At that I shrug. “It’s a little more complicated than that. The company I used to work for-”

“Shut down. I know, but in the state of California you can still be a state subsidized respite care provider if you meet certain conditions.”

News to me. “I take it you looked that up.”

“Siraj did. When I went to the library to ask about work, he had all this material on support provisions for the disabled and he had an idea for me right off. Would you help me learn how to do your job? Just show me the ropes?”

“Um… yeah. I mean…” I rub my forehead. “Okay, first off, the fifty bucks an hour thing isn’t normal.”

“Right.”

“And second of all, I know nothing about the legal requirements or anything.”

“Yes. Siraj and I will figure all that out. Here’s what I suggest, you call one of your old clients, someone with a condition that you think is a good example of the kind of work you have to do, and you ask if I can look after their family member for a day under your supervision. They trust you. Nobody really knows me as a caregiver.”

“Yeah, okay, I can do that.” I unlock the front door and let her precede me inside, then key the alarm off and on again and transfer a sticky note from the alarm keypad to the front door. “Reminder that it’s on,” I explain to Kirsten.

She does not bat an eye. My guess, her having that many kids at her age has given her nerves of steel.

“Okay, I’m going to call Sister Liang.”

“Sister?” says Kirsten.

“Oh, well, Mrs. Liang. Sorry, I know her from church and that’s what we call each other. Charlotte has… well, let me call them and then I can explain.” Charlotte has Prader-Willi Syndrome and a mild developmental delay. In other words, she’s younger than her ten years of age and always feels like she’s starving, and by that I don’t mean really hungry, I mean starving. Walking down the street with her, you have to stop her from grabbing food out of trash cans and stuffing it into her mouth. She’s a good test case because it’s not an easy disability to work with. Charlotte will tire a person out, but at the same time she’s not big enough to be dangerous or even frightening.