One Moment - 14. Chapter 14

One Moment

Chapter 14

By early July it was time for Dr. Marshall to start looking for another place for Matt to go.

“It’s absolutely appalling they won’t let you take him,” he said shaking his head as he looked at Mark who was sitting across the desk from him.

Mark shrugged his shoulders; though he was more than a little upset about it himself, he was used to the world’s shit by now. “He doesn’t have to live with me for me to be able to still see him all the time. We just have to find a good home for him right here in town.”

Dr. Marshall nodded and looked down at his watch. “Damn social workers, they are never on time,” he said seeing it was about five minutes later than the time the lady was supposed to show up.

Mark smiled up at the doctor, rarely seeing the guy in a bad mood. “You really don’t want him to leave do you?”

Sighing Dr. Marshall shook his head. “By all rights he should have been out of here two months ago. I didn’t release him for two reasons, one I don’t want to stop working with him, and he’s made an awful lot of progress in the last 10 months. The other reason is I hate to upset his lifestyle, he’s gotten used to things here, and he’s been through so much I hate to keep bouncing him around.” He stopped talking as the phone on his desk buzzed and Janice’s voice came through the intercom.

“A Mrs. Sanders is here to see you Sir.”

“Okay, can you bring her down here please?”

“Be right there.”

Alicia Sanders walked into the office and shook hands with both Dr. Marshall and Mark as she introduced herself. She was not the same social worker that had brought Matt out there, though that didn’t surprise either man as they both were familiar with how people came and went at the Department of Social Services.

She sat down beside Mark and across from Dr. Marshall and opened her briefcase, pulling out Matt’s file. “I’ve read through his file. I have to be honest; I was only assigned his case a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t make it a priority as I knew he was safe and sound out here.”

Dr. Marshall nodded smiling at the woman, liking her honesty and her reasoning.

“How’s he been doing here?” she asked poising a pen over an empty page in her file.

“Excellent.” Dr. Marshall spoke up just like a proud father. “He’s really ready to go anytime, though it’s okay with me and this facility if he stays another month or so. We just want to find a family for him and have them be able to visit a few times before he leaves with them. I’m sure you’ll agree the boy’s already been through enough, none of us here want to see him put in a bad placement.”

Alicia nodded; the department had gotten weekly updates on Matt’s rehabilitation though she’d just had time to scan them that morning. She was aware of the additional circumstances to Matt’s situation, the abuse he’d suffered growing up, the situation he’d been in as a runaway, what had led him to breaking the law, things that they had had no idea of when he’d been placed there. She considered it nothing short of a miracle that Matt’s previous case worker had picked Matt out of all the kids they handled to go into such a program. If there was ever a kid who had been misjudged it was Matt.

“It’s really great news we have a month. I have the perfect family in mind and one of their foster kids happens to be going away to college on August 20th. That would give Matt a couple of weeks to get moved in and settled before school actually starts.” She pulled another file out of her briefcase and handed it to Dr. Marshall; she’d been hoping that they would be willing to keep Matt a little longer as she couldn’t think of a better home for him than the Parkers.

“You’ll see they’ve been taking in kids for a long time.” She said as the Doctor flipped through the file. “They usually have four at a time, and this one going off to college is only one of many they’ve had going off to college over the years. They are very loving and encouraging to the kids they have, they take in any age range. They say they want anyone that needs a good place to live. She’s in her late forties and stays home while he’s in his early fifties, works for the newspaper but works at home, he writes quite a few of their articles.”

Dr. Marshall’s eyes lit up as he looked up over at the file and back at her. “Oh that’s good, Matt’s quite a little writer himself. He’s written some very impressive papers since he’s been here.”

Alicia nodded, “That’s great then, I’m sure Mr. Parker will love that.”

“Have you talked to them yet?”

“No, not about Matt specifically, but I do know they want another placement come mid August. And there’s nothing about Matt that’s going to make them not want him.”

“Will they be able to come out here for a few visits?”

“I don’t see any reason why not. They’ve always done visits before. When do you want to set the first one up?”

“Is this weekend too soon?”

“No I don’t think so, I’ll stop over and see them this evening, and I’ll call you in the morning just to verify everything. Is Saturday or Sunday better?”

“Saturday, that’s when we do our visits. If possible morning would be best, say ten or eleven. I’d like them to come out a half an hour early if possible, I’d like to go over a few things with them before they meet Matt. If they decide against taking him I see no reason to have them meet him.”

Alicia smiled and nodded as she slipped Matt’s file back into her briefcase. “That sounds like a very good idea. I’ll give you a call in the morning.”

Matt was on his hands and knees in the fenced in garden that was behind the facility when Andy walked up and stood over him. Since it was summer, there were no classes though organized activities still took up much of the day. Matt had signed up for gardening as soon as he saw it on the list. Being dirt poor most of his life he thought growing your own food would be a very valuable thing to learn. He’d had no idea when he’d signed up that he’d absolutely love doing it, and had no idea he’d be so good at it, something Jack, the gardening instructor, told him at least once on a daily basis.

“It’s almost time for lunch.” Andy said kicking at some dirt. He’d signed up for gardening as well, but didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as Matt.

Matt nodded not looking up from the dirt he was mounding up around the tomato plants. “I’m almost done.”

Not caring about getting dirty, as he’d been digging himself in the garden all morning long, Andy sat down in the dirt. He pulled his knees up near his chest and rested his arms on them. “I almost don’t want to leave.”

Matt stopped working and looked up at Andy, wiping the back of his hand across his sweaty forehead. “Are you serious?” He knew he didn’t want to leave himself but all he ever heard was Andy bitching about the place.

Andy nodded solemnly. “I know once I’m out I’ll be fine, but I really kinda like it here. And I know I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll be out soon too Andy, and Dr. Marshall says I’ll probly stay right here in Asheville. So we should even go to the same school. And I’m sure your mom will let me come over for sleepovers.” They both got a good laugh out of that thought before Andy spoke again.

“We’ll be friends out of here right?”

Matt, who’d turned his attention back to the tomato plants, looked back up at Andy. “You sure you want to Andy? I mean I imagine you got lots of cool friends, are you really gonna want to hang out with a loser like me in a place that doesn’t make you?” He was surprised at the hurt look that came over Andy’s face.

“I know I was an ass before Matt, but I thought, over the last six months or so you’d think a little more of me than that.”

Matt slumped his shoulders not having meant to hurt his friend’s feelings. “I’m sorry, I just know how peer pressure and shit is. I do want to be your friend out of here Andy; I’m not going to know anyone. I’ll definitely need a friend, and I can’t think of a better person.”

Andy smiled then looked over at Michael, a new student that had started a couple weeks before, as he walked out of the back of the building and into the garden. Andy’s smile quickly faded and a look of scorn crossed his face.

“They let those people everywhere now.”

Matt quickly turned his attention back to his plants. He hated when Andy went off about Michael, it made him very uncomfortable as it reminded him that Andy was a small minded bigot. He liked Andy in almost every aspect, and did want to be his friend, though he knew if Andy ever found out about him, what he really was that the guy would totally detest him. Michael didn’t hide his sexuality from anyone, he was an ‘if you don’t like it tough’ type of person. Not the incredible wimp Matt felt like every time he was in his presence. He wished he could be brave and not care like that.

“It’s like they are trying to test me before I get out or something.”

Matt looked up at him furrowing his brow, certainly confused. “What do you mean?”

“That they know I can’t stand that shit, they want me to mess up.”

“What does it matter to you Andy? It doesn’t affect you in any way. Why let it bother you so?”

“It’s just gross.”

Matt tilted his head to one side. “Well, so isn’t taking a shit, but you don’t hate everyone ‘cause they have to take a shit, it’s not something you have to deal with ‘cept when you do it yourself. Sure if someone came up to you and took a dump like on your desk or something you could get mad. But Michael hasn’t hit on any of us, he hasn’t bragged about his sexual escapades. I really don’t see the difference.”

“It’s just nasty.”

Matt sighed, shook his head and set back to work on his plants. He knew there was no sense in arguing about it, and he didn’t want to argue too much, as he was no Michael, he was far too chicken to stick his neck out, even if it was for himself.

Andy didn’t get a chance to say anything else before Mark walked out into the garden and stood over them. “Dr. Marshall wants to see you for just a minute before lunch Matt.”

Matt nodded, stood up and brushed himself off then followed Mark back into the building and into Dr. Marshall’s office.

Dr. Marshall smiled at him, unable to get over how different he looked from just 10 months ago. He carried himself with a little more confidence, had filled out in all the places that were lacking due to a long life of malnutrition and just had an overall glow of healthiness. His self esteem still needed some work and he knew the boy still grieved deeply over the loss of his first love but the improvements so far outweighed the negatives, he knew it was definitely time to let him back out in the world no matter how much he didn’t want to, he knew it was what was best for Matt.

“As you know you’re going to be getting out of here soon,” he said as Matt sat down. “Your social worker was out here this morning and she says she’s got a nice family in mind for you to stay with. This isn’t a sure thing yet, but I’m telling you now because there’s a good chance they will be here on Saturday to meet you.”

Matt’s eyes widened. “Already?” He asked panic running through him.

Dr. Marshall nodded. “It’s just a visit though; you won’t actually be leaving until near the end of next month.”

Matt nodding relaxing slightly, he like Andy, didn’t really want to leave. The place had grown like a home to him over the last year. He supposed he was ready to go back into the world, and this time with advantages he didn’t have before, he just wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to.

“Do you know much about this family?” He asked.

“They are a middle aged couple. They will have three other foster kids by the time you get there, they usually have four but the other is going away to college. She’s a stay at home mom and he works from home. He’s a writer.” Dr. Marshall smiled at the intrigued expression on Matt’s face.

“Wow really?” Matt couldn’t think of anything cooler, one thing he was now sure of after his stay there was that he wanted to be a writer. He didn’t know yet what kind of writer, but he was sure he wanted to write. He was also happy that he wasn’t going to be the only foster kid. He’d heard enough about that from the other kids on the streets. They had said if you were the only foster kid in a big family you were always left out and treated differently. “So I get to meet them on Saturday?” He asked almost excited now at the prospect.

“Well I get to meet them first. I have to make sure they are good enough for you.”

Matt snorted something he often did when a laugh caught him off guard.

“I’m serious Matt,” Dr. Marshall said chuckling. “I’m not going to send you off to a place if I don’t know its going to be good. I care a lot about you, we all do, just because you leave here doesn’t mean we still won’t be looking out for you.”

Matt sobered up quickly and smiled at the man, he couldn’t believe he’d actually hated him the first day they’d met. He’d been so wrong; he and most of the others at this place were great. He, over time, had finally understood why everyone was calling him lucky that first day. He hadn’t seen it then but he sure saw it now. “I won’t ever forget about you guys. I’m really going to miss this place.”

Dr. Marshall smiled warmly. “We’re really going to miss you too Matt. But you make sure you come back and visit us now and then. And I’ll probably come out and see you a time or two if you’ll let me.”

Matt’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Really?”

The doctor nodded, pleased as hell at Matt’s excitement.

“Of course I want you to. I already know I’m going to be seeing Mark plenty but I really figured that he’d be all I’d get to see. I’m glad I don’t have to really say goodbye, it’ll be easier going knowing I’ll see you again.”

Dr. Marshall stood up and walked over to Matt’s chair, where Matt stood as well. The man put his arms around the boy and the boy wrapped his arms around the man. They hadn’t hugged before and Dr. Marshall was not accustomed to hugging his patients but Matt was special, he just couldn’t let the boy go without getting at least one good, well deserved, hug in.

Saturday morning Matt woke up nervous as hell. He’d never had to meet anyone that would be his ‘parents’ before. He wanted them to like him and he wanted to like them. He’d heard a few horror stories, but deep down had faith that Dr. Marshall would find him a good home. As the time drew nearer to 10am he grew even antsier despite Andy’s attempts, who was getting ready to go home for good himself, to calm him down.

“You’re gonna be fine Matt!” Andy said as he stood with his packed suitcases just outside the living room door.

“I know, I know.” Matt said rubbing his hands together nervously.

They both looked up as Mark walked into the hallway and grabbed a couple of Andy’s bags. “Your limo awaits.”

Matt’s mouth dropped open as he looked at Andy. “Limo?”

Andy chuckled as he nodded. “Yeah, back to the life of the rich and… well the rich!”

Matt laughed as he threw his arms around his friend knowing he was going to miss him like hell. “I’ll see you next month. Don’t forget, you promised to be my friend,” he said only half joking.

Andy laughed hugging him back. “And you promised to be mine too!”

Matt nodded as he stepped back. “Hey now I’ll actually have someone to call with my phone privileges. Who should I say I am in case your mom answers?”

Andy looked down the hall to make sure Mark, who’d left with his bags, was out of earshot. “Mom get off her fat ass and answer a phone? Yeah right!” He turned and started walking off then half turned back and smiled. “I’ll see you in a month, and I’ll be looking forward to your calls!”

Matt nodded and waved, smiling even though he felt very sad to see his friend go. He was close with a couple of other of the boys, but since about Christmas time he and Andy had been pretty much inseparable. He didn’t know what it was about Andy that he liked so much, since the guy was a complete bigot, but despite that, and despite the fact that he knew he could never fully be himself while they were friends, he couldn’t shake the good feelings he got from the friendship they shared.

Dr. Marshall met Nathan and Ellen Parker at the main door of the facility. He’d used the excuse of talking to Jeanine so he could be the one to actually greet them. He was nearly as nervous as Matt was to meet them as he really wanted everything to go well. As soon as he saw the couple he got a good feeling about them. Both had dressed nicely, obviously caring about the impression they made which was always a good sign of conscientious people.

She was tall and lean with dark brown hair and a smile that he imagined could brighten any room. He was just a hair taller than she was, his dark hair grayed at the temples and his dark eyes warm. He shook both their hands the moment they walked in and introduced himself.

He led them back down the hall to his office where they sat down together on the sofa in his office. “Would either of you like a cup of coffee or anything to drink?” he asked, knowing they’d be there a while.

When they both declined he added. “We have lemonade and iced tea too.”

The man looked at his wife and smiled and shook his head again. “No we are fine really; we just got done with breakfast about an hour ago. I think we’re both a little nervous.”

Dr. Marshall chuckled as he sat down. “You and I both, and I won’t even mention Matt; I imagine he’s boring a hole in the floor as we speak from all his pacing. I don’t want to keep him waiting too long; I just wanted to go over a few things with you first.”

They both nodded, looking very agreeable, and he smiled again pretty certain this was going to be a good match.

“What have you been told so far about Matt?”

“Just the basics really, why he’s here, how he’s doing here, how his parents were, that he was a runaway.”

Dr. Marshall nodded glad that the worst of the news already seemed to have been given and even more pleased they’d still shown up. “Okay well let me fill you in on some of the good stuff then shall I?” He smiled at Mrs. Parker as a warm smile filled her face. “He’s been here about a year. In that time I’ve seen him grow from a scared kid into a pretty confident mature adolescent. He’s got a heart that’s got to be the size of an ocean and tries to find the good in any situation. He’s helped the new kids feel welcome, he’s helped the other boys with their chores if they were behind, he genuinely cares for those around him. That is however if they show care for him. He won’t waste his time trying to make someone like him. If they don’t then they don’t, but if they do, that person will be rewarded in the friendship that Matt has to offer.”

“We don’t have many kids here that come from situations like Matt’s; in fact he’s been the only one in his time here. The other kids, who all come from money, gave him a really hard time at first. But he did his own thing, he didn’t get in anyone’s way and he rode it out. Today his best friend left, the two became inseparable, and that best friend was one of the ones that gave him such a hard time in the first place. So you can see he’s a very likeable person.”

“He’s overcome a lot; I think he’s well on his way to thriving as a responsible adult. He still has his heartaches,” Dr. Marshall paused and looked the couple over, he didn’t want to ruin anything, he knew how small minded people could be, but he wasn’t going to have Matt hiding anything and thought it best to get everything right out in the open. “Were you told he’s gay?”

He watched as Nathan Parker shook his head but neither of them showed any look of distaste. “We don’t really care if he is gay, straight, black or white, near sighted or far sighted, if they need a home we are there for them.”

Dr. Marshall smiled very glad to hear that. After filling them in on a few more details he nodded and stood up. “Well I think you two are perfect!” He said happily. “I’ll go and get Matt and you can then tell us a little about your home.”

He left the office and found Matt in the living room. “You ready?”

Matt looked up from where he was sitting on the couch slaving over another blank notebook. He was half tempted to shake his head, but knew he had to get it over with. “How do they seem?” He asked as he stood up.

“Very nice, I think you are really going to like them.”

They walked to Dr. Marshall’s closed office door.

“Wait a minute.” Matt said holding up his hand. He straightened his shirt and adjusted his shoulders, standing up straighter then looked up at the doctor. “Do I look okay?”

Dr. Marshall smiled and nodded. “You look good Matt honest.”

“I shouldn’t dress up more? I should have put on something fancier shouldn’t I?”

The doctor put his hand on the boys shoulder and squeezed it. “Try not to be so nervous Matt, these are very nice people, I already told them all about you, there’s nothing to worry about it.”

Matt nodded and taking a deep breath, he motioned towards the door. “Okay I’m ready.”

Dr. Marshall nodded again and opened the door. He stepped inside and turned to find Matt standing, just looking at the open door, just out of view of Mr. and Mrs. Parker. He smiled encouragingly and motioned him in.

Matt walked into the room, his eyes immediately falling on the couple. He couldn’t help but smile a little, they certainly looked very nice and neither seemed appalled to see him.

“Oh my,” Mrs. Parker said a bright smile filling up her face. “You sure are handsome!”

Matt blushed from his head to his toes but managed to keep the smile on his face.

“Oh honey, you’re embarrassing him.” Mr. Parker said as he stood from the couch and approached Matt. He extended his hand and shook the boy’s hand.

“I’m Nathan Parker son, this is my wife Ellen.”

Matt finished shaking the man’s hand then shook the wife’s, who was now standing by her husband. When she pulled her hand out of his she reached out and pulled him into her arms and gave him a quick hug.

“Sorry hon, but a handshake just wasn’t suitable for me in this situation,” she said after she’d released him with a big smile on her face.

Matt smiled back at her liking her instantly, liking both of them for that matter. “It’s nice to meet you too,” he finally said remembering his manners.

“Well let’s all have a seat.” Dr. Marshall said after another minute. “The Parkers want to tell you all about their house.”

Matt nodded as they all sat down but before they could start talking he did. “So you are a writer?” He asked Mr. Parker too excited about it to not ask about it.

Nathan smiled very pleased the boy seemed so interested in it. “I write quite a few of the articles for the local paper, most evenings you’ll find me typing away in my office. I hear you are quite a gifted writer yourself.”

Matt looked at Dr. Marshall then back at Nathan blushing all over again. “Well I’ve been told that.”

Dr. Marshall laughed from behind his desk. “Like I said he’s pretty modest.”

Nathan smiled at the doctor before he focused his attention back on Matt. “Well I’m very excited to be able to read some, and I’m sure if you’re interested you can help me out with a few articles.”

Matt’s smile got even bigger looking very forward to that.

“Okay,” Nathan said sitting back on the couch. “Well I don’t know how much you’ve been told about us so I’ll just start from the beginning. My wife and I both grew up in very large families. I had seven siblings and she had six. We knew right off we wanted to have a lot of kids. But when it came time to actually have them, we had an experience with a young man who was about ten years old. His home life was very rough and he continually ran away to our house. After a lot of talking and a lot of paperwork we became official foster parents and the boy stayed with us from then on. We realized at that point that there was really no need to conceive our own children, that there were plenty right around here that needed good homes. It didn’t take us long to fill our home once we’d made that decision. We started out taking in six or eight but realized as the years passed by that we could probably make more of an impact if we didn’t have so many. It’s really hard to give deserved individualized attention when you have so many.”

“So about ten years ago we narrowed it down to four and that seems to be working perfectly for us and for you kids. You’ll have your own room. We’ll have three other kids, Jack who’s 14, Megan who’s 12, and Shawn who’s 9. They all have their own rooms too. We usually go on a day trip and do something fun one day out of the weekend. The other day is for catching up on school work, cleaning out your rooms, and when that’s all done you can basically do what you want.”

“You have study hour on weeknights once school starts and basic daily chores but really there’s not a lot of rules and rigid schedules to follow.”

Ellen Parker patted her husband’s knee and chuckled. “No offense, honey but you’re boring.” She looked at Matt and smiled. “You’ll fit right into the routine hon, it’s not hard. The most important thing you need to remember is that we are there for you, any questions you have, any concerns, anything you need, you come to us. Don’t ever be shy, we run a very open house, if something’s on your mind we want to hear about it.”

Matt nodded smiling at her; he had a very strong feeling he was really going to enjoy living with the Parker’s. He’d been pretty sure Dr. Marshall wouldn’t let him down, but now, after meeting his future foster parents he was pretty darn sure of it.