CHAPTER ONE
Kaida peered anxiously out the window of the patrol car. The late October days had started to grow cooler. She’d been on the streets for nearly two months now and the thought of a real meal and a warm bed for the night was tempting, even in a jail cell. She knew they didn’t have anything to hold her on longer than a day and they couldn’t send her home. She been able to pass for eighteen for several years now and no one could prove otherwise. She was careful not to carry anything that could identify her. But they’d driven right past the police station. She considered asking the silent driver but figured if he wanted her to know where they were going he’d have told her by now.
As they pulled up to the curb, the second officer opened the door and let her step out. Keeping a firm grip on Kaida’s arms, the officers escorted her into a bright, informal building. Stepping through the doorway, she caught a glimpse of an inscription reading ‘Youth Justice Centre.’ Kaida stopped short but her escorts forced her on down the hallway.
“You can’t take me to court,” Kaida protested. “What are you charging me with?”
“You aren’t being charged with anything, at least not yet,” one of the officers told her.
“Then why are we at the courthouse?” she asked.
“We were told to bring you here. Someone wants to see you.”
“I don’t know anyone in Toronto,” Kaida told them. “I’ve only lived here a few weeks.” They stopped in front of a solid wooden door and one of officers knocked boldly.
“Come in,” a stern voice directed.
“Go ahead,” the officer told her, “She doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
Kaida pushed open the door and walked into the large spacious office. “Miss Mitchell,” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“I was transferred here to oversee the development of a regional youth court system. One in which I hoped never to find you. Do you remember what you promised me the last time I saw you?” the social worker asked.
“You said you’d let me go home if I promised never to show up in your office again under escort. That you only wanted to see me again if I chose to come on my own, to ask you for help.”
“Those two officers in the hallway sure look like an escort to me.” Miss Mitchell paused, the disappointment clear in her voice. “I thought you were working things out at home.”
“So did I. It seemed like things were finally calming down. Until my dad called.”
“Your dad? I thought you said he was dead.”
“No one ever talked about him, so I assumed he was. Then my grandma called me into the living room a few weeks ago and told me that my dad would be in town on Saturday and that he wanted to see me.”
“So you’re in Toronto with your dad?” Miss Mitchell asked.
“As if,” Kaida told her. “He walked out on us the day he found out that my mom was pregnant and we never heard from him again until a few weeks ago. Life was just starting to calm down for me and he has to show up and stir things up again. He said that the reason he’s wanting to get to know me now is that when he stopped drinking he realized how much he’d missed of his children’s lives. He’s been sober for a year, but wanted to wait until he had a job and a decent apartment before he contacted me. If he’s so responsible, where has he been for the last sixteen years? How am I supposed to trust him to stick around this time?”
“I know it must have been hard, having your grandmother spring the idea on you like that but did you even consider giving him a chance?”
“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a father. I knew my grandma would make me go meet him if I was still around on Saturday, so I ran the first chance I had. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Did you try talking to your grandmother about how you were feeling?”
“She has no idea what it’s like. But she sure thinks she knows what’s right for me.”
“She’s doing her best,” Miss Mitchell told Kaida. “You’ve got to give her a chance.”
“She’ll never understand. Out here, at least people have some idea what it’s like to have a hard life.”
“Your grandmother didn’t have a perfect life either. Everyone has their own problems.”
“That was a long time ago. She couldn’t possibly understand the sorts of things we go through now. I couldn’t stand
listening to her pretend to understand me for another day. I had to get out of there.” Kaida sighed, “I suppose you’re going to send me home and make me go meet my father. Well, I won’t enjoy it, and no one can make me call him dad.” She stared at Miss Mitchell, waiting for her to pick up the phone and call her grandmother as she had on so many other occasions.
“Do you know why the officers brought you here?” she asked Kaida instead.
“What does it matter? You’ve got me now, so hurry up and send me home. I don’t like this office any better than your old one.”
“Every once in a while, a case comes along that I just can’t get out of my head, and I follow those kids as long as I can and try to help them how ever I can. Just because I moved away doesn’t mean I’ve given up on you, Kaida. I’m still here to help you. I left a letter with Captain Jones to contact me if you ever got yourself brought back into his station. I’ve never been blessed with children of my own, but God has given me a lot of children to care about. I’ve got all of your pictures on my wall and the judges and social workers around here have all heard the stories about my kids. The officers must have seen your photo and known to bring you here.”
Kaida wandered over to the wall and searched until she found a photo she recognized. She was playing on the beach with her mother. Ky was just a baby, so she must have been about three. It was one of the few happy times they had had together before everything started going wrong. Beside that was a photo of the three siblings with their grandmother a few years later.
“What difference does it make that I’m here,” she asked. “What is sending me home going to accomplish?”
“At this point, not much,” Miss Mitchell said. “We’ve tried that and you’ve proven it’s not the answer. I think you need to be away from your grandmother’s for a little while.”
“Foster care. Great,” said Kaida sarcastically. “Show me what a real family’s like and I’ll be all better?”
“Actually I was thinking of something a little different.”
“Juvie?” Kaida asked. “Like that will teach me not to run. Besides, you’ve got nothing to charge me with.”
“Not Juvie either. I’ve got a friend who runs a wilderness school a few hours north of here. I think some adventure and hard work would do you good.”
“I’m not going to some school for messed up rejects,” Kaida insisted.
“You can go voluntarily,” Miss Mitchell told her, “or I can have a judge send you officially. If you’re thinking you can talk the judge into doing something different, remember that I choose all the judges in this court personally and they respect my opinions. If you choose to go voluntarily, we can keep this off your permanent record.”
“I guess I can give it a try,” Kaida finally relented. “But I’m not meeting with my father.”
“We’ll leave your father for another time,” she reassured Kaida. “Right now this is about you.”
“How long will I have to stay?” Kaida asked as Miss Mitchell led her out of the office, dismissing the officers from the doorway.
“That’s up to you. When your counsellors think you’re ready, they’ll make plans to get you home. Once you’re out,
I’ll always be here for you. We’ll head over to your place so you can pack and say good-bye, but we’ve got to be on the road in an hour if we’re going to make the boat.”
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As soon as their launch reached the dock, Miss Mitchell jumped out and tied it securely before beckoning for Kaida to follow her. Kaida hung back, unsure. Everything had happened so fast, and she still wasn’t quite sure what to think about it all. Clearly Miss Mitchell had been here before, but Kaida was having second thoughts about being here even once.
“It’s really not so bad here once you get used to things,” Jason told her. Their pilot had said he was one of the counsellors from the school but he was nothing like she had imagined. He was dressed casually and had kept their attention the whole ride over from town with his stories of outings he’d taken with his students.
‘What kind of school is this,’ Kaida wondered as they walked towards a cluster of buildings. Jason continued down the path as they turned into one of the buildings. Kaida wasn’t sure she liked that. Whatever was about to happen, he clearly didn’t want to be a part of it.
Miss Mitchell led her confidently down the hall, opening the door labelled ‘Director’s Office.’ A tall dark haired woman looked up from the desk as they entered. “Janice!” the woman exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you.”
“Hello, Meredith,” Miss Mitchell replied. “It’s been a long time. How are things here?”
“Challenging, as always, but I have faith that God is going to bring something good out of this.” The strain was evident on her face, and she looked like she hadn’t slept in days.
“Are you alright?” Miss Mitchell asked.
“Only by God’s grace,” Meredith replied. “The last few days have been pretty rough.”
“What happened?”
Meredith seemed to ignore the question. “We can catch up later,” she told Miss Mitchell, looking over at Kaida. “Welcome to Arrow Ridge,” she said. “Normally we’d have a lot of things to go over before we took you to get settled in, but your group is ready to leave, so we’ll delay the formalities until you get back.”
"Leave?” Kaida asked. “I just got here.”
“Well, not leave, exactly. They’re heading out on a hike. I’ve got a pack ready for you and the rest of the group is waiting so I’ll fill you in on the way.” The three of them headed out of the office, pausing when they reached the outer door.
“I’ll check on you whenever I can,” Miss Mitchell promised, “and I’ll write you as soon as I can.”
Kaida didn’t even have time to say goodbye as Meredith hurried off down the path and she had to rush to keep from getting left behind. Meredith gave her a quick overview of the school and their rules as they walked but there wasn’t time to go into much detail. She led Kaida up to a group of teens gathered around the picnic tables in the centre of the yard. Pointing to a blue pack resting by the table she waved goodbye to Kaida as she ran back towards the office. Slightly dazed at the abrupt changes in scenery, Kaida sat down on the edge of the table and tried to get a grip on what was happening.
“It’s not usually this crazy around here. We're all just a little preoccupied right now,” the girl beside her said. “I’m Melanie. Usually you get time to adjust before they send you off into the woods, but things are a little unusual right now. You’ll get used to the way we do things here eventually. For now, stick with me and I’ll try and keep you in the loop. You better keep up or we’ll get lost. There’s a lot of forest out there.”
Kaida followed the students into the woods, careful to stick close to the girl who had befriended her. As they hiked, Melanie talked about Arrow Ridge and told Kaida about the rest of their group. When they finally stopped for a rest, Kaida knew she couldn’t go a step further. She’d never been much of an athlete and except for their stop for burgers on the drive to Arrow Ridge, she hadn’t had much to eat for several weeks. “We’re almost there, right?” she asked Melanie.
“Not even close,” Melanie told her. “Probably several more hours before we make camp. We won’t get back to campus for a couple days.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. What kind of school is this?”
“An interesting one,” Melanie told her, smiling ruefully. “Almost anything can be a reason to go for a hike. Hikes give us time to think and process things. It’s important if we’re going to move on.”
“Do you really believe all that stuff?” Jared asked. “Don’t listen to her,” he told Kaida. “They just like to make us suffer.”
Cathleen called for their attention. “We need to get going,” the counsellor told them, “if we want to make camp before dark.”
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Kinds of feedback I'd prefer:
-Does the dialogue seem realistic/plausible to you? Any suggestions on how to fix what sounds forced or odd?
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