Tracy

042:

Danny had a huge scrape on his face, across his right eye, and down the side. He'd gotten out of his car seat while Jolie was driving, and opened the car door as she tried to pull over and stop. The scrapes were road rash, the bruises were significant, but not fatal.

Tracy picked him up at Casey's and was appalled. But he went and hid when he saw her, instead of running to her like he usually did. His eyes were black and blue, his hair had been cut short, a little boy cut she'd never seen on him. She felt nauseatingly apprehensive. Who had made these decisions? Why hadn't she been consulted? She was a phone call away. Coral and Kirk would have called her.

After finding out what happened, and packing his scant belongings to stay at the new house for the first time, Tracy had tried her best to be polite to Jolie, whose lank hair and sallow complexion was even lanker and sallower if that were possible.

As she stepped over the threshold carrying the screaming three-year-old, screaming for his Jolie and breaking her heart, she turned to say something.

"Jolie, I'm really sorry for what's going on with Casey, and you having to take care of Danny so much. If you want me to take him more while Casey's in--incarcerated, I can. I didn't have to go up to Austin's this weekend. And I'll be around the next four or five months pretty steady. I'm making a movie-- a real one. I've got my own place. It's not far from here." She eyed Jolie's swollen belly, just starting to look uncomfortable.

Jolie's face tried for a sneer that just looked pathetically like a grimace of condescension and hauteur. She leaned against the doorframe in her designer maternity clothes. "You'll probably get your wish and have him permanently."

She'd started walking down the path, not sure Jolie was going to reply, but that hadn't been the answer she'd been expecting. Jolie's track record with her had been distant and cold.

"Get him permanently?" She stopped, trying to hush the sobbing child, who didn't understand that going with his guardian or parent was part of his life, as they--- none of them lived in the same place. It was a disservice and confusing.

"Yeah." Her eyes rose to Tracy's, the sky lowering behind them over the bluffs, the view of the sea behind her.

"What?"

"Casey's got AIDS." Jolie blurted in defiant retaliation and angst.

Tracy blinked in incomprehension. "The gay disease? Excuse me?"

Jolie now wiped tears from her eyes. "I've got it too. They can't cure it."

Tracy walked back up the walk. "What are you talking about?"

"It's not just a gay disease. It is transferred through bodily fluids and people who use intravenous drugs and share needles can contract it too. We've known for a while." Her mouth had formed in a trembling slack-jawed oh, as she smeared more leakage. "As long as Casey's in jail, I don't want Danny here. It's too hard. He wears me out. You keep him."

"Jo-lie, you're kidding me, right? You don't have to take care of him ever. But don't say stuff like this----."

"I'm not just saying it, Tracy! You think I'd say shit like that? Just to say it? Shit! You really have a low opinion of me, Miss High and Mighty, Tracy McCaffrey, the shining girl he loves. God, I hate you." Jolie slammed the front door with a huge resounding latched noise. Expensive wood sounded like that. It rattled.

Tracy stood there.

"Danny, stop it! Stop crying. Momma's gotta talk to Auntie." She set Danny down and he threw himself on the rocks with a smack, as she marched back to that door and opened it without knocking.