Nolan's Journal Chapter 26
"Essie has a new friend. Her name is Graciela Marie, but Essie calls her Ella. She lives in one of the multigenerational homes in the neighborhood with her parents and her grandparents. Ella and Essie are in the same class and after-school program.
"From what I've been able to gather from the girls and one of the aides at school, Essie was being bullied for praying before she ate, and Ella jumped to her defense. Apparently, the family, especially the grandparents, are pretty churchy, and Ella is used to saying grace before meals.
"The girls started talking, and Essie found out that Ella really admires how well she reads because Ella struggles with reading. Essie started helping her out with that. I guess that's referred to as peer tutoring these days, but from what I can see, it's just friendship.
"Ella is very much a 21st century girl and she's been helping Essie catch up to what being a kid means to most of the ones around here. That includes video games, but both our families make sure they're appropriate for girls their age. After the Barbie movie and all the merchandising, Ella went all in on Barbie.
"Of course, Essie had never heard of Barbie until after her birth parents were taken from her, but she loves playing with Ella's Barbies and their clothes. Ella's parents and grandparents gave her the dolls for her birthday and Christmas. Essie wants the Katherine Johnson Barbie because of the math. It's pricey, but Bailey and I plan to put one under our Christmas tree for her. In the meantime, Ella is willing to share her dolls and Essie shares all her new books and helps Ella read them. They make a great team.
"Bailey is going through some changes I hadn't expected. She's more content with a supervisory role at fires than she used to be. Responsibility for a child will tend to make one pay more attention to staying around long enough to see the child grow up. I'm trying not to take undue chances at work either, but other than my TO duties, I'm no supervisor. Whatever happens, I have to wade in. Still, I'm trying to do it as mindfully as possible. Crack shot that she is, Stella can be really good backup, even if she is still learning the ropes. Her hunting skills also make her very aware of small clues in the environment, like rustling sounds or snapping twigs. A couple of times, she figured out where a suspect was hiding so we could plan the most efficient – and safest – way to move in. I think she might have a future in Metro.
"If it weren't for Tim's recent history with Metro, I'd ask him about that. As things stand right now, mentioning anything to him about Metro, unless it's absolutely necessary, is high on my list of bad ideas. It's also a little early yet. Stella's still got a lot to get through in her rookie year, which hopefully won't be as long as mine was.
"Celina and Lucy have an off-duty project that may help Lucy with UC work when she can get some again. Lucy speaks pretty good Spanish, but it's not as idiomatic as it might be if she'd grown up using it. So Celina is working with her to learn the colloquial references and slang she'll need to convincingly go UC as someone who grew up around Spanish speakers. One of the things they're doing is going to restaurants and clubs where Spanish is the primary language. Lucy is supposed to be learning to pass herself off as belonging there. From some of the jokes I've heard Celina make, I don't think Lucy has reached the mastery stage yet, but she's determined to get there.
"If I know one thing about Lucy, it's when she's determined, nothing will stop her – except, of course, about Tim. Despite her best efforts, he's still treating her as, at most, a friend and colleague. Everyone can see that it's driving her crazy. As stone-faced as he can be, I think it's driving him crazy too. Sooner or later, something's got to crack."
"Something cracked, but it wasn't a smile on Tim Bradford. The connection between Tim's sister Gennie's dishwasher and garbage disposal started leaking. The water got under the flooring in the kitchen, and the whole thing is a mess. Her insurance is paying to fix it, but she doesn't trust the company they made her use, so she had me check their work. It's a good thing she did. Mold was starting to grow on the supports under the floor, and the repair company wasn't doing any remediation. Gennie got on the phone with her insurance agent, and now the remediation is underway. I would have loved to hear that conversation. Tim's not the only member of that family who can kick butt.
"Unfortunately, it will be a couple of days before Gennie can use her kitchen, so she volunteered Tim's. From what I heard, Kojo is ecstatic to have Tim's nephews around. Apparently, they sneak tidbits to him while Gennie is cooking. Having the boys around also gives Tim less chance to sulk by himself. They've been watching football together with him explaining the finer points of the game to them. Lucy had put a lot of pressure on Tim to coach Tyler's Little League Baseball team, and then taken over a lot of the task herself. I believe Tim's more comfortable with football, which makes his interaction with the boys more comfortable.
"Tim, Lena, Stella, and I all had to work together on a situation that developed today. There's a basketball court on the border between two gang territories. For as long as I've been with the LAPD, it's been considered neutral territory, with any gripes being settled with balls rather than knives or guns. Unfortunately, Ruben, the leader of one of the gangs, who was their best player, met with a fatal accident. As far as anyone in the division knows, it was just an accident. The light at an intersection failed suddenly, and Ruben's car was T-boned. His death was probably instantaneous. No one was at fault except perhaps the light manufacturer. The city is looking into that to prevent any future accidents.
"The gang, however, didn't accept that explanation. They believe Ruben was killed deliberately. So what started out as a peaceful game ended up as armed warfare. Stella and I were first on the scene and we immediately called in Tim and Lena as backup. As the sergeant, he automatically became supervisor. I don't know if it was his military training, his Metro training, or both, but he called in other units, including Lucy, and positioned everyone to break up the conflict as quickly and with as few injuries as possible. Thank God no one got killed.
"The battle earned Tim Grey's equivalent of a gold star. He might even put him in for a commendation. After everything was over, Lucy gave him a hug and in full view of everyone, he hugged her back. With Tim you can never tell, but maybe the thaw is beginning. If Tim needed a confidence boost, he seems to have earned one. That may be at least part of what loosened him up. I think everyone in the division will be watching to see what comes next."