Who Owns Kelly Paddik by Beth Goobie Read Free Book Online

The staff hold her down until she stops fighting.
    Suddenly we heard a beautiful voice singing its way up the stairs, along with some loud thumping. “Sister Mary!” someone called. The rest of the girls crowded into the hall beside the office, but I hung back. What if Sister Mary figured out that I’d taken her keys? Would she think I’d jiggled the ladder so that she would fall off and I could steal them? I kept thinking of her looking up at me and saying, “Don’t think you can use me as an armrest.” She was such a cool old lady, she probably
knew
. When she turned into the unit, I almost ran for my room. Her leg was all bandaged up and she was on crutches.
    â€œHello, ladies!” She looked past the rest of the girls and smiled at me. “Thanks for trying to catch me when I fell, Kelly,” she said.
    â€œYeah, sure,” I muttered. My eyes looked everywhere but at her face.
    â€œDid you go to the doctor?” Chris asked.
    â€œNo,” said Sister Mary, “but I did drag myself to the nurse. She says I’ll live. Now, ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I have to have a word with Terri.”
    Slowly Sister Mary turned herself on her crutches and hobbled into the back room. I couldn’t believe she was going in there. Pit Bull was rabid.
    â€œWhat’s she going to do if Pit Bull goes for her?” I asked Chris nervously.
    All the girls stood around stiff, listening. Everyone liked Sister Mary, with her old big band songs and jokes. We could hear her in the back room, talking to Pit Bull, her voice calm and steady. Everything seemed okay, but if that nun cried out, there were eight girls waiting to save her. I stood with the others, my arms and legs tense and ready to move. I knew how angry a girl could get. When I got really mad, I didn’t think. Sometimes I lost it, and then I thought anyone near me was my dad coming to get me again. I would fight to save myself, and when I was like that I could hurt anyone around me.
    None of the girls said anything, but I figured everyone was thinking pretty much the same thing. The funny thing was that after a while, Pit Bull got quieter. She stopped banging and yelling, and we heard her start talking to Sister Mary. Then she started to cry. I don’t know why, but when I heard Pit Bull crying, tears stung my own eyes. I guess I’d never thought of her as someone who
could
cry. She sounded like a little kid, like my sister Jolyn.
    Jim came out of the office and smiled at us. “Are any of you mother hens interested in going out to the yard?”
    Chris and I went down the back stairs with him and waited as he unlocked the door at the bottom. For the first time in weeks, I stepped outside. It had gotten colder, and I was glad that Chris had made me wear a jacket. We sat on a bench, smoking and looking around. Jim sat nearby. I kept taking quick glances at the fence. It wasn’t far off, and it looked easy to climb. I was just waiting for Jim to take his eyes off me. No one said much. In my head I could still hear Sister Mary’s voice, talking quietly to Pit Bull.
    â€œWhy is Sister Mary afraid to see a doctor?” I asked Chris. “She won’t see a doctor, butshe’ll walk into a back room with Pit Bull flipping out? I wouldn’t go in there for anything.”
    â€œWhy won’t you talk to Jim?” Chris asked.
    I glared at her. Chris looked right back, though her eyes looked a little scared. She knew I wanted to punch her out for asking me that. People from Churchill have a lot of guts.
    â€œJim won’t hurt you,” Chris said. “Social workers are here to help, y’know. I talk to him lots.”
    Suddenly all I could see was the wall in Jim’s office turning into my dad’s face. “Never,” I snapped. Jumping up, I took off for the fence. It was just a chain-link fence, easy to climb. I could see the street through it, the dead leaves blowing