that had once secured celery and gathered her dyed midnight-black tresses into a ponytail. “I’m gonna run next door and use the bathroom before Cassie goes to work.”
Mari nodded; they’d been using their neighbor’s bathroom since the electric was disconnected. Darlene went out the front door, inviting an arctic blast in, and Mari shivered.
She sure hoped it would be warmer in Delaware. Wisconsin winters were brutal. If it wasn’t for the kerosene heater, they couldn’t have stayed there the past two days. She rewrapped the wool scarf she wore and gazed around. There wasn’t anything about the old single-wide trailer with its ratty carpet and water-stained walls that she was going to miss. She had very little to show for eighteen months in Friendly’s Mobile Home Park: few belongings and no real friends. She and Darlene had become housemates only because they worked on the same assembly line at the local plant and were both single mothers. They weren’t really friends, though. They were just too different.
Feeling the need to do something besides stand there and feel sorry for herself, Mari grabbed a broom and began to sweep the kitchen. She couldn’t wash out the refrigerator or wipe down the cabinets, but she could sweep at least. That didn’t take water or money, which was a good thing, because she didn’t have either. She almost laughed out loud at the thought.
Money had been short since the plant closed and her unemployment ran out. Even shorter than it had been before. Jobs were scarce in the county. Mari had picked and sorted apples, cleaned houses and even tried to sell magazines over the phone. She read the want ads every day, but employment for a woman with an eighth-grade education and few skills was nearly impossible to find.
She pushed her hand deep into her pocket to reassure herself that Sara Yoder’s letter was still there and that she hadn’t just dreamed it. Sara, an old acquaintance from her former life, was her only option now. If it hadn’t been for Sara’s encouraging letters and her unsolicited invitation to come stay with her in Delaware, Mari didn’t know where she and Zachary would be sleeping.
Mari swallowed hard. She shouldn’t dwell on how bad things had gotten, but it was hard not to. First her car had died, and then she couldn’t keep up with her cell phone bill. She’d found a few days of work passing out samples of food in a supermarket, but, living in a rural area, without transportation, it was impossible to keep even that pitiful job. Her meager savings went fast; then came the eviction notice.
Mari had tried her best these past few years, but it was time to admit that she was a failure. A bad mistake, poor judgment and a naive view of the world had gone against her. She had nothing but her son now, and she was worried about him. Worried enough to move a thousand miles away.
At nine years old, Zachary was becoming disillusioned with her promises and forced optimism. She was always saying things like “When I find a better job, we’ll rent a place where you can have a dog.” Or “I know it’s a used bike, but maybe next year I’ll be able to buy you the new bike that you really wanted for your birthday.” Secondhand clothes, thirdhand toys and a trailer with a leaky roof were Zachary’s reality. And her bright, eager child was fast becoming moody and temperamental. The boy who’d had so many friends in first and second grade now had to be dragged away from watching old DVD shows on the TV and coaxed to get out of the house to play. In the past month, he’d brought home two detention notices, and most mornings he pretended to have a stomachache or a headache in an attempt to avoid school. She was equally concerned about the envy Zachary had begun to exhibit toward other boys in his class, boys who had name-brand clothing, cell phones and TVs and PlayStations in their bedrooms.
She’d wanted to dismiss Zachary’s unhappiness as just a stage that boys went through. A few bad apples in his classroom, a difficult teacher, an ongoing issue with a school bully, would make anyone depressed. But those were all excuses.
Mari knew she had to do something different. She couldn’t keep relying on neighbors or roommates to keep an eye on Zachary while she worked odd shifts and weekends. She needed a support system, someone who cared enough about them to see that he got off to school if she had to leave early, someone to be there if he was sick or she had to work late.
Mari had thought she could raise him alone, but she was beginning to realize she couldn’t do it. Love wasn’t enough. It was her concern for her son that had given her the courage to agree to move to Delaware. She needed to provide for her child, and she needed to give him what he had never had: structure, community and a real home where he wouldn’t be ashamed to bring his friends.
Seven Poplars, Delaware, the town that Sara Yoder had moved to, had become a refuge in Mari’s mind, the hope of a new beginning. In her dreams, it was a place where she and Zachary could make right what had gone wrong in their lives. Sara had offered her a room in her home and the promise of a job. There would be a tight-knit community to help with Zachary, to watch over him, to teach him right from wrong. And if it meant returning to the life she’d thought she’d left behind forever, that was the sacrifice she would make for her son’s sake.
The groan of brakes one street over told Mari that Zachary’s bus had entered the trailer park. She put away the broom and began to stack the few bags they had on the couch. Sara had hired a van and driver to take them to Delaware.
The door banged open and Zachary came up the steps and into the trailer, head down, his backpack sagging off one shoulder.
“I hope you had a good last day.” She tried to sound as cheerful as she could as she closed the door behind him to keep out the bitter wind. “There’s still a couple of things—” She halted midsentence, staring at him. He wasn’t wearing a coat. “Zachary? Did you leave your good coat on the bus?” Her heart sank. It wasn’t his good coat; it was his only coat. She’d found it at a resale shop, but it was thick and warm and well made. “Where’s your coat?”
He shrugged and looked up at her with that expression that she’d come to know all too well over the past months. “I don’t know.”
Mari suppressed the urge to raise her voice. “Did you leave it on the bus or at school?” She closed her eyes for a moment. There was no time to go back to school to get his coat before the hired van came for them, and she had no way to get there even if there was.
Zachary dropped his old backpack to the floor. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, hood up, but he had to be cold. He had to be frozen.
“I’m sorry about the coat,” he muttered, not making eye contact. “But it wasn’t all that great. The zipper kept getting stuck.” He hesitated and then went on, “It wasn’t in my cubby this afternoon. I think one of the guys took it as a joke. I looked for it, but the second bell rang for the buses. I knew I’d be in trouble if I missed my ride home.” He swallowed. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
She took a breath before she spoke. “It’s all right. We’ll figure something out.” She dropped her hands to her hips and glanced down the hall. “You should see if there’s anything left in your room you want to take. Check under the bed. The van will be here for us soon.”
Zachary grimaced. “Mom. I don’t want to go. I told you that. I won’t have any friends there.”
And how many do you have here? she thought, but she didn’t say it out loud. “You’ll make new friends.” She forced a smile. “Sara said the kids in the neighborhood are supernice.”
He wrinkled his freckled nose, looking so much like his father, with his shaggy brown hair and blue eyes, that she had to push that thought away. Zachary was his own person. He wasn’t anything like Ivan, and it was wrong of her to compare them.
“You’re talking about Dunkard
