Either is all right. He took out his phone. He found Estelle in his contacts. He set the phone to speaker. He pressed call.
She answered on the second ring. ""Arthur."" "Estelle." It is the middle of the day on a Tuesday. Arthur, you do not call me in the middle of the day on a Tuesday unless something has happened. "What has happened?" A tree fell on Sycamore and Lyndon a little while ago.
It would have fallen on me, but a boy pulled me out of the way. The boy is 8 years old. He has been on the street since March. He has been talking to me for the last 20 minutes. He is sitting beside me right now.
He can hear you. There's also a police officer standing nearby. She can also hear you. Her name is Officer Ray. A pause.
It was a short pause by anyone else's standards. By Estelle's it was a paragraph. ""Hello, Ren." Hello, Officer Ray." "Hello, ma'am." The boy said.
His voice was very small. Ma'am, said Officer Ray. Arr, what are you asking me? I am asking you whether you have a bed tonight. I'm asking you whether if the department finds it appropriate you would be willing to receive Ren as an emergency placement.
I'm not asking you to do anything you would not otherwise do. I'm only asking the question. Another pause. "I have a bed." I have had a bed open since Sunday.
I was going to call the agency tomorrow. Officer Ray, I would be glad to speak with your supervisor whenever your supervisor would like to speak with me. My number is the number Arthur has just called from. My license is current. My references are current.
My home study was renewed in June. Officer Ray had taken out a small notebook she was writing. Ren Estelle said, ""Are you still there, sweetheart?"" ""Yes, ma'am." You do not have to decide anything right now. The grown-ups are going to do the deciding part.
But I wanted to say one thing to you while I have you on the telephone, which is that my house is quiet, and there is a yard with a fence, and there is a dog named Pepper who is too old to do much but sleep, and there is a room at the back that has been empty for a while. That is what is on the table. The rest we will figure out. The boy did not answer. He was looking at the phone in Arthur's hand as though it were a thing he had read about in a book and had not quite believed in.
"Thank you, Estelle," Arthur said. "Call me back, "Arthur."" The line went dead. Officer Ray closed her notebook. She did not say anything for a moment. She was looking at the boy on the step and then at Arthur and then at the fallen oak, which the men in heavy coats had begun to cut into manageable sections with a chainsaw that filled the corner of Sycamore and Linden with a noise that made conversation briefly impossible.
When the chainsaw stopped, she said, ""Mr. Mercer, I'm going to make a call to my supervisor." I'm going to recommend that we contact Miss Whitford and that we expedite the emergency placement. I'm also going to recommend because it is going to come up that you not be present at the placement tonight. Not because of anything you have done because the boy has just been through a thing and because the people who will be making the decision about where he goes next will be more comfortable if they can see that the decision was made by them and not by you. "Do you understand?"
"I understand." Arthur said, I would not have asked to be present. I will not be present. I thought as much. I am telling you anyway because I have learned over the years that men in good coats sometimes need to be told.
That is fair. She walked a few steps away. She made her call. Arthur turned to the boy. The boy was still holding the granola bar.
He had not opened it. "Ren?" "Yes, sir." Two things. The first is that you are not going to go back to the place you ran from.
Officer Ray is making sure of that. The second is that the woman you just spoke with on the telephone is, in my honest opinion, the best person I know. I am not going to tell you everything will be perfect because I do not know what perfect would mean to you and I am not going to pretend to. I'm going to tell you that her house has been a place where children have been able to sleep for 31 years and that the children who have slept there have on the whole come out the other side as people who could sleep in other places afterwards. That is the most I can say.
The boy looked at the granola bar. Then he looked up at "Arthur." "Are you going to come and see me?" The question landed in Arthur's chest the way the branch had not. He took a careful breath.
"If you would like me to, yes." If you would not like me to, no. The choice is going to be yours, Ren. Estelle will not let me come if you do not want me to come. That is one of the things about Estelle.
She's going to ask you in a few days when you have had a chance to rest and eat and look around whether you would like to see me. And she is going to take seriously whatever you answer. So, you do not have to answer now. You can answer when she asks. "Okay."
You can also change your mind. People change their minds. It is allowed. "Okay." Officer Ray came back.