Chapter 8

The trailer was located by the forest. Its muddy pink paint had peeled off here and there uncovering the cold metal wall. There were remains of a campfire in front of one of its oval windows. A little further, where the stream was burbling, was a clothesline set between two trees. An old, flowery dress and some other drenched rags were hanging on it.

Two days earlier, in a peaceful café on Oak Street, Alma Spier had told me what had happened seven years ago. She was at the time better known as Tanya Brick, and was serving her sentence in women's prison in Washington D. C. She had committed several crimes; the worst of them was an armed robbery and the pettiest showing her breasts in public. ("Just the left one actually", she said. "But the judge didn't believe it.")

In prison she had met this ex-drug addict, Alma Spier, and they had talked a lot. Together they had decided to become socially acceptable once they would be free again. Tanya just had this one problem: she wanted to achieve a political career but she was too well known as a criminal. So this kind-hearted woman Alma had agreed to exchange identities.

After Tanya was released she had made as much alterations as possible to her appearance and started her new life as Alma Spier. Two years later the real Alma Spier had got out of jail and changed her name to Tanya Brick. At first they had kept in touch, but over the years it became more and more infrequent. The last time Alma had heard of Tanya was about three years ago. Then she had been living near the south border of Stoneybrook in a trailer with her fiancé.

There I now was with Logan, ready to finally meet my true, biological mother.

I knocked the trailer's door and squeezed Logan's hand. He put his arm around my shoulders. "Oh St.. Mary Anne", he whispered. "It'll be alright." Logan has started to stutter. Every time she calls me by the name he says "st" first. I should suggest him a visit to the logopedist.

There were heavy footsteps and creaking when the door opened. I was face to face with this puffy, sloppy woman. Her brown hair was greasy and tangled, her eyes were bleary and reddish, her clothes were full of encrusted dirt and she smelled like sweat and alcohol.

I couldn't hide my feelings any longer. "Mom!" I exclaimed and threw my arms around her neck.

"Yeah", she said when I had finally let go of her. "You must be my daughter Mary Jane. Alma, urrh, Tanya, well that woman told me you were coming."

"No, mom, my name is Mary Anne", I corrected her.

"Oh yeah, sorry", she replied. "The lack of Subutex sometimes makes me forget things. Come in if you wanna."

Inside the trailer was musty and full up with more or less broken furniture. Logan and I sat down side by side on an unmade bed. The room was divided in half with a veil, and I heard loud snoring from the other side.

"Ignore that", my mother requested. "It's just my husband Kenny. It took him ages to find Daniel and Susan last night. They had fled to the forest again."

"Are Daniel and Susan cats or dogs?" Logan asked.

"Neither", my mother told him. "Susan is our 4-year-old daughter and Daniel is her capuchin monkey."

"So I have a half sister!" I said enthusiastically. "That's great!"

"I wouldn't be so delighted about it", my mother growled. "Poor kid. Even Daniel's IQ is higher than hers." She uncorked a bottle of whiskey. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked reaching us the bottle. "I have some red wine too."

"We are under aged", I reminded her. "Don't you have anything non-alcoholic?"

"Well, there's beer in the fridge."

"Never mind", Logan said quickly. "We're not thirsty."

We chatted an hour or so. I told my mother everything about the BSC, Stoneybrook Middle School and my father and Sharon. She in turn told me what it was like to live with such a lazy man as Kenny was and how she sometimes wanted to stab him to death.

When Logan and I left I promised to visit her again soon. It was a huge lie. But next week she would surely get guests; that is to say from social services department and from society for the protection of animals. It was my duty as a member of the BSC.

"Can you believe that?" I asked Logan when we were walking towards the bus station.

"I know", he replied. "A monkey as a pet! Is that cool or what?"

I sighed. Boys can be so childish sometimes, even Logan.

We walked a moment in silence. "You know, there are a couple of things that don't make sense", he said then. "Firstly, why did Tanya Brick come to Stoneybrook to run for a mayor when here live the people who could recognize that she isn't Alma Spier? They look nothing alike."

"I don't know", I responded. "Maybe she thought it would be easy for her to win when people think she's from here. I guess it's so important to her that she is willing to take the risk."

"Yeah, you're probably right", Logan said thoughtfully. "But then there's this other question that I can't stop thinking about."

"Really? What is it?"

"What the hell did your father see in that woman which made him marry her?"