Ginger was vacuuming when Alex got home a little after seven that evening. The sun was about to set and the house was nearly spotless. He came in through the garage, staggering, a beer in his hand. She noticed it immediately. "Alexander! Social Services are sending someone over in twenty-three minutes and you're drunk? What the hell are you going to do when they ask about that? Do you want me to go to a foster home?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, kid, I'm perfectly sober."
"And the beer in your hand explains that perfectly. Did you drive home?"
"Of course."
"Alex!"
"Shut up, all right? I don't need to hear this from you right now. They won't know, I'll put the beer in the fridge and they'll never be the wiser. I'm fine. You're fine. Did you clean the house?"
"No, the cleanliness is just an illusion."
"Don't talk back to me!"
"You're drunk, Alex. I hate it when you're drunk." He smacked her and she went flying, hitting the ground hard.
"I told you not to talk back to me! We're going to be just fine, kid, so stop your fucking bellyaching! Jesus Christ, you act as though you don't trust me! I'm doing you a favor by taking care of you and I'm doing you a favor of not telling them what a royal pain in my ass you've been since you came here! I was fine here on my own until they gave you to me when Mom and Dad died and all you've done is take money away from me. You rack up the phone bills and all the other bills, you eat all my food, and you don't do anything for it! When I was your age I was balancing two jobs, school and everything else. What do you do? Go to parties on weekends, not even telling me, and spending the night with random guys! I don't want to see them here either, kid, so don't bring one home again. You do nothing, you are nothing, and you should be groveling at my feet because I keep you out of a foster home."
He turned around and went away. Ginger, tears in her eyes and pain shooting throughout her body, sat up and put the vacuum cleaner away. Now she walked with a limp and her arm hurt. She went into the bathroom, took out some slightly old painkillers and downed two. She'd feel better once they kicked in and the damned SS wouldn't be the wiser.
It wasn't the first time this had happened. Alex would come home drunk and smack her around a bit, nothing more than a couple of aches and bruises, and every once in a while he'd yell at her until he was hoarse, but she usually ignored him. He might have complained about it often, but he still did give her a roof over her head, clothes on her back, and food to eat, so she couldn't say anything bad about him. But maybe he was right. Maybe she did need to get a job. She sat at the kitchen counter and winced a bit as her body bent. Things weren't going to be good for her in the morning. Once Social Services left she could call up Kris and ask for help, but until then, she was stuck here.
When the doorbell rang she still hadn't heard from Alex and it began to worry her. If he was passed out upstairs in his bedroom she would have a lot of explaining to do. He always worried her like this! She got up and walked through the hallway to the door and opened it up. There was a well-dressed but still overly evil looking woman standing on the step. "Hello," the woman said, forcing a smile on her face.
"Hi, Mrs. Kindle," Ginger said, doing exactly the same. "Come on in, I'll get Alex for you."
"Your house is wonderfully clean," the woman said, "such an improvement from the last time I was here."
"Well we'd been robbed, you know."
"Yes, I know; because you forgot to lock the door, you said." Ginger turned away and sneered.
"Yes. I'll get my brother. Please sit down in the living room." Ginger went upstairs and looked around for her brother. "Alex! Alex, where are you? Mrs. Kindle is here!" She opened the door to Alex's room and he was quite nearly passed out on the bed, like she had feared. "Alexander! The SS lady is here! Get up!" She pulled her brother off the bed. He woke up.
"Ugh�what? What are you doing in my room?"
"Social Services are here!" She grabbed a clean shirt out of the closet and pulled off her brother's sweaty work T-shirt. "Put this on and come downstairs! Thank God you don't smell as drunk as you are." She forced a mint in his mouth just in case and pulled him out of the room and down the stairs, where he looked suitably presentable and quite awake.
"Ah, Mrs. Kindle, always nice to see you," Alex said, extending a hand to the woman. Ginger hung back by the junction of the kitchen and the living room where Alex spoke with the woman. She was incredibly nervous; if this woman wasn't impressed and impressed to the point of astonishment, Ginger was as good as gone from her beloved home and her brother and forced into a foster home that she'd heard horror stories about.
"How's work going, Alex?" she asked. Ginger excused herself and went up the stairs. She ran into the bathroom and put on some make-up. She was sure she was looking pale and the woman might think she was sick and in turn blame it all on Alex. Once she'd had a broken arm and said it she got in a car accident with one of her girlfriends and the woman blamed it all on Alex. Of course it was a lie and it was indeed Alex's fault, but she didn't know that and Ginger was sure she'd never find out.
When she came back downstairs Ginger was prettied up a bit more and Mrs. Kindle was finishing up with Alex. "Alex, I'd like to spend some time with your sister now, if you don't mind."
"Sure," Alex said. "I'll be upstairs." He stood and walked around the corner and hurried up the stairs. Ginger stayed by the kitchen, as far away from the SS woman as possible.
"You can come closer, dear, you know I won't bite."
"I'm still deciding that for myself," Ginger said, crossing her arms. "What'd you talk about while I was upstairs?" Mrs. Kindle smiled kindly. Ginger knew it was forced. The woman was only trying to get some kind of truth out of her.
"Oh, just some things. I do have some questions for you, though." Ginger nodded. "It's just some routine questions, but I have to ask them anyway. How are you doing in school?"
"School hasn't started yet."
"Really?"
"Yeah, not until after Labor Day�" The woman nodded.
"All right. What'd you do this weekend?"
"My best friend Kris and I went out. A good friend of hers was having a birthday party and she wanted me to come. I ended up spending the night at her house because we were too tired to come all the way back here."
"Do you know Kris's friend?" Ginger nodded. "Okay. How have things been here at home with your brother?"
"Just fine."
"Fine? Nothing spectacular?"
"It's my brother. We just kind of hang out when he's not working and when I'm not busy," Ginger said. "We won't spend a lot of time together once school starts because I'm so busy with that."
"How do you get to school?"
"Kris takes me. Her school's only about two blocks away from mine and I'm on the way. Once I get a job I can get a car of my own and drive but until then, I'm stuck relying on her."
"Why do you have to get a job?"
"Alex says it'll teach me responsibility if I have to pay for the car payments. I don't really need a car, though. I don't go a lot of places."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"I met a guy at the party last night that I like but I wouldn't go as far as saying he's my boyfriend," Ginger said. "Why do any of these questions matter?"
"Everything matters, dear. Back to your brother; do the two of your get along?" Ginger nodded. "Really? No fights, no sibling rivalry or brother and sister spats?"
"Well, yeah, every once in a while we knock heads but we get along surprisingly well. We're very mellow people."
"That's always nice�to live with someone you can agree with. Things sure do seem to be better than they were the last time I was here." Ginger nodded.
"We were pretty shaken up about the robbery. You just came at a bad time. This is what we're like most of the time." Mrs. Kindle nodded and stood up.
"Great. Well I have everything I need, so I'll let you get back to everything. I'll be writing a better report about the two of you this time." Ginger smiled.
"That's wonderful. I'll show you out, unless you want to speak to Alex again." Mrs. Kindle shook her head. "All right." Ginger walked to the door and opened it for her. The woman left and Ginger shut the door. Wiping her brow, she let out a sigh of relief. Things had definitely gone better than she'd expected with the condition Alex was in. She carefully went up the stairs�acting like she wasn't hurt had taken a toll on her body and she was in a lot of pain. She went into Alex's room after knocking on the door. He was passed out on the bed again. "Good thing she didn't want to speak to him," she said. She carefully walked in and rolled him onto his stomach, just in case he decided he wanted to throw up in the middle of the night, and left the room. She went into hers, just down the hall, and crawled into her bed. The painkillers were making her dozy but they weren't doing much for killing pain. Her leg and her arm still hurt.
The telephone rang when she was beginning to drift off. Grumbling, she didn't want to take a chance and have it wake Alex (he would go off on a rampage and hurt her again) so she picked it up. "Hello?" Her voice was groggy from her impending slumber.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you?"
"Why, why, if it isn't Mr. Big Shot himself! I had to admit, I didn't think you were going to call," she said, a grin in her voice.
"Well, I figured I might as well�"
"In answer to your question, I was somewhat asleep, but I don't mind staying up a bit longer to talk to you," she said.
"What time is it?"
"It's eight-fifteen but I'm on medication so it's making me sleepy."
"What for?"
"Because the medication has stuff that makes you sleepy in it," she said. "Duh."
"No, what are you taking medication for?" he asked.
"Oh," she said. She paused, thinking of an excuse. "I get headaches. Nothing too serious." She could visualize him nodding on the other end of the line.
"Okay. Why are you really taking medication?"
"I just told you."
"All right�"
"You don't believe me?" she asked, sitting up with a bit of pain.
"No I don't."
"Well you should."
"All right."
"Stop saying that!" Ginger giggled.