Quid Pro Quo by Vicki Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

something?!?”
    Meet ya at McDonald’s in fifteen. There’s a coupon on the fridge for a free burger”?
    And what was that thing about special donuts? I don’t even like donuts. She’s the one who likes donuts.
    Was this a joke? Nah. Andy could never make it through one of her own jokes without cracking up.
    Was she trying to impress someone? Act like the perfect mother? If that’s what she was trying to do, she kind of blew it. Perfect mothers don’t usually leave money in Player’s Tobacco tins because perfect mothers don’t usually roll their own cigarettes.
    Normally, I met Andy around 6:30 for dinner, but I couldn’t wait. I had to find out what this was all about.
    I called the office. I got Atula. She was wild.
    â€œNo, Cyril, I regret that your mother is not in. She has not been in all day. In fact, I just received a telephone call from a colleague of mine. A very important colleague. Andy missed a meeting with him and as a result may have jeopardized future expansion of the Immigration Resource Center. He is not the least bit happy about it, I assure you, and neither am I. I am very sorry to have to tell you this, Cyril, but as of today, Andy no longer works for Varma and Associates.”
    I didn’t know what to say. I just sort of went, “Oh … right … okay … yeah.” I didn’t even want to think about what this meant. Andy might be a little late for a meeting or forget papers she needed or file them under Deveau instead of Devine. But she’d never miss a meeting. She was really serious about work. She wouldn’t screw up something as important to her as the Immigration Center just because she was too lazy or pissed off or freaked out by a little blackmail to show up when she was supposed to.
    I knew right then that something really, really bad had happened.
    I couldn’t stay on the phone anymore. I mumbled something about having to go, but Atula wouldn’t let me off that easy.
    â€œThere’s one more thing I’d like to say to you, Cyril.”
    Oh, geeez, I thought. Now what?
    â€œI want you to know that my quarrel with your mother has nothing to do with you. You are a bright, capable boy, and I very much appreciated your help in the office this summer. You know, or at least I hope you know, that you are always welcome here. If you ever need help—or even just a home-cooked meal for a change—you should come to me. I make a very good chicken curry. Do you understand, Cyril?
    â€œâ€¦Cyril?”
    I didn’t know what to say. “Thanks”? Or “As a matter of fact, I could use some help…”
    In the end, I just said thanks.

chapter
seventeen

Abandonment
    A parent can be charged under
the Criminal Code for deserting his or her child
    I stayed up all that night. There was no way I could sleep. I went back and forth between being really, really scared and being ready to kill Andy. What was she thinking?!? Why did she even let Byron stay with us in the first place?!? Obviously, something terrible was going to happen if you let a jerk like that into your life.
    At 8:30 the next morning, I washed my face and changed my shirt. I left a note in the hall: COME AND GET ME AT SCHOOL AS SOON AS YOU GET HOME22!! I put on my Discman and left.
    I didn’t know where Andy was. I didn’t know what she’d done or why she’d done it or what I should do about it.
    All I knew was that nobody could find out she was gone.
    I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: “What?!? Are you nuts? She could be in trouble! Call the cops!”
    But it wasn’t that easy.
    Call the cops and they’d find out I was thirteen and living alone. Then what would they do? They’d send me to a foster home. They’d have no other choice. It’s not like I had any relatives who wanted me.
    It’s not like I had anybody who wanted me.
    Then the cops would start trying to