Chapter 21

August 20, 1971

Kelly lay in her hospital bed, flipping through a magazine with her good arm. She had been there nearly two weeks, since Sergeant Bradford had nearly beaten her to death. She still wasn't sure why she had so foolishly attacked him. Maybe she had wanted him to kill her, she wasn't sure. Either way she had deserved what she had gotten. She still wasn't clear on what had exactly happened between being knocked unconscious and waking up in the hospital a few days later. Norma Bradford may have saved her after all, she had no clue. Neither of them had been to see her.

And that was just fine with her.

She would be laid up for awhile. The attack had left her with her nose, several fingers, three of her ribs and her collar bone broken and had fractured her left cheekbone, pelvis, right arm and two additional ribs. Her left wrist had been badly sprained fending off his attack. She had suffered a serious concussion and her body and pretty face were covered in nasty bruises, cuts, and scrapes. She had to have seventeen stitches to close the wounds by her right eye and across her right cheek. Fortunately, she had been curled into a ball when being kicked and her ribs and legs had taken the brunt of the attack, preserving her vulnerable insides. There had been some internal bleeding caused by her broken ribs, but it had been stopped before any permanent damage had been done. She was lucky in that matter, but it was hard to feel that way. She looked terrible.

She was also bored and felt more alone than she ever had before. She had received only one phone call and it had been someone from work to tell her that she had lost her job. No one had been in to see her except her attending nurses and a man from the courthouse who had been by to inform her of her upcoming court date. Hopefully, they would let her finish school before sending her to jail. Doctors were hopeful that she would be well enough to start her senior year in September. No sports though, of course.

Kelly was still thinking about this, when the door opened and an older man in a suit walked in. She sat up in her bed, wincing sharply as she did.

His eyes widened in shock as he saw her.

Kelly looked away. She had seen her face and she didn't blame him. The doctors had thought she was the victim of a car accident when she was first brought in.

The man quickly recovered and made his way over to her bed, pulled up the chair, and sat down.

"Hi, Kelly, my name is Carter O'Neal." he said smiling warmly at her. He extended his right hand.

Kelly uneasily looked down at her own right hand which was in a cast, held immobile by a sling over her shoulder. She gave him her bandaged left hand and he shook it awkwardly, trying not to hurt her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

Kelly gave him a rueful smile.

"I've been better." she said quietly.

"You seem to be doing much better from what I've heard." he added trying to lift her spirits.

Kelly nodded her head slowly. She wondered why he was here.

"Can I get you anything?" O'Neal asked her.

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

"Sure?" he asked again raising his eyebrows.

Kelly nodded her head. "I'm fine, sir."

"Well, Kelly. I am with the foster program, and I've been sent to talk to you about your new placement after you're discharged from here."

Kelly ran her tongue over her split bottom lip. That's why he's here.

"I'm probably going to jail after I'm discharged from here. You're wasting your time." she said coldly.

"You won't go to court until early October and you're leaving here in a few days. Until your court date, we are going to assume that you'll need a place to live until you finish school. So, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about your new placement." he went on, ignoring her negativity.

"No." she said.

He seemed surprised. "No?"

"I'm not being placed anywhere else." she said in a quiet but firm voice. She licked her lip again.

He chuckled as if she was making a joke. Then he bent down to look at his file.

He wasn't getting it.

"I'm not kidding. I'm not going to be placed anywhere else." she repeated a little louder.

O'Neal closed his file.

"Look, Kelly, I know this last placement didn't work out for you b-"

She cut him off with a derisive laugh.

"Didn't work out?!" she spat bitterly. "Look at me!"

"Ok, Kelly, I'm aware of that, but just listen to-" he started, raising a hand to calm her.

But she wasn't finished,

"No, you listen." she snapped at him. "None of them have worked out. I'm tired of your goddamn foster homes. Do you even check these people out?! It's like you deliberately choose the worst people possible and sent me to live with them. Are there any requirements at all? Or do you care?" she paused, but not long enough to let him answer "Of course you don't care, as long as you get them out of the orphanages and keep expenses down, am I right? Who's going to complain? Their parents?"

O'Neal stammered. He hadn't expected this.

"So you can tell them whatever it is that you want so you can keep your job, but when I get out of here I'm not going to a foster home and I'm not going to an orphanage." she fumed. She was breathing hard and it was making her side ache. She winced and laid back against her pillow, drained by the exertion of arguing.

O'Neal sat in stunned silence for a moment, then found his voice.

"You're only seventeen Kelly, legally you are still a child, and it's still our obligation to place you in a state sponsored program until your eighteenth birthday" he explained gently. He didn't want to set her off again.

"I'll be eighteen in December." she said quickly.

He checked her file. So she would.

"Yes, but that's almost four months away from now."

"Can't you just take me out of the system early?" she pleaded

"No, I'm afraid I can't do that." he said shaking his head.

Kelly sighed. He was making her head hurt. She brought her hand up and gingerly touched the bandaged gash where she had been kicked.

"I won't go." she said flatly.

"Kelly-" O'Neal began.

She turned to him, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"Please sir, I can't do this anymore. It just keeps getting worse and worse. The next place you put me in will probably kill me." she begged. Her voice sounded shaky and close to breaking.

He looked at her uncomfortably.

"Please." she repeated.

"What will you do, then?" O'Neal asked her wearily.

"I can go to school, get a job, find a cheap apartment, live in a tree, I don't care, I'll manage, I swear to you." she begged him quietly.

"I could get fired for this." he said miserably.

Feeling like she was gaining ground, Kelly pressed on.

"It's only for a little while, please, no one has to know. Ask them if they can just pretend that I'm there, I'll even pay them when I have the money, please"

O'Neal buried his face in his hands. He was sure any couple would agree to receiving government checks and not having a kid to take care of. Maybe he could work it out to where Kelly got the check. Why was he even considering this? This was illegal. If something happened to this girl, he would never forgive himself. But she looked so desperate.

"Let me call in a few favors and see what I can do." he said finally. "But look, you can't into anymore trouble, or they'll have my head."

Kelly shook her head. "I won't. I've learned my lesson, believe me." she said convincingly. She was telling the truth. It had been a hard lesson learned.

He nodded his head. This was horribly wrong, but for some reason, he believed her.

"I'll see what I can do." he sighed. He bid her goodbye and walked out the door.

Kelly spent the remainder of the day anxiously worrying if Carter O'Neal could help her. She was afraid to get her hopes up, but even more afraid of the prospect of being placed in another foster home. She almost made herself sick with anticipation. Sleep did not come easily that night. Her nurse had to sedate her to get her to rest, after checking in with her twice during the night and finding her still awake.

The next morning, O'Neal popped his head into her room.

"Good morning, Kelly." he said as he came in and walked towards her bed.

"Good morning." she said anxiously.

"How are you feeling this morning?" he asked. She certainly didn't look any better.

"That depends." Kelly answered him with a weak smile, indicating that she wanted his answer.

O'Neal smiled and nodded his head. She wasn't in the mood for idle chit chat it seemed. He cleared his throat and cut to the chase.

"Ok, I have a friend who owns an apartment complex. You can't sign a lease because you're too young, but he'll let you stay in any empty rooms he has. It's not exactly in the best of neighborhoods though, so you need to be very careful. Don't go out after it gets dark. When you turn eighteen you can sign a lease and get your own room."

Kelly grinned happily. She wanted to cry she was so relieved.

"What about the foster couple?" she asked.

"They don't mind and I don't think they'll be a problem." he answered. He wouldn't have to worry about them at all actually, he had managed to organize everything under the table. But not wanting to concern her, he left out that information.

"Thank you, sir." Kelly said with a grateful smile. "Thank you so much."

"Uh huh." he replied. " You do know if you get sentenced to something next month then all bets are off. You have to go wherever it is they tell you, right?

She nodded. She was sure she would go to prison, but a whole month of living on her own seemed like the perfect way to spend her last few weeks of freedom. A final parting gift from her sad existence.

"Thank you." she repeated, her eyes shining with tears of happiness.

He patted her affectionately on her good arm and got up to leave. He reached into his jacket and gave Kelly a card with a phone number on it.

"Give him a call when you get out of here." he instructed. "And don't say anything about this to anyone."

Kelly nodded. "Thank you so much."

O'Neal smiled at her as he opened the door and stepped out.

"Good luck, Kelly."