Teeny

 

 

I’m sweating like mad even in the air-conditioned air of Franklin Air. I like working here in the summer months, even with the toad skulking around sexually harassing me, because it’s like stepping into a freezer once I pass the front doors.

The offices are small, with only five women working the phones and odd jobs while the men contract out all day installing systems in the houses, but I just putter in the background, filing and making coffee.

Right now, I am sweating though because, as cool as it is in here, I’m about to expire from nerves. Savannah looks up from her monitor where she’s no doubt playing solitaire again and gives me a look.

“What you doing here today, girl? Ain’t it your day off?”

“Yeah, but I, uh, need to talk to him,” I say, hustling past before she can stop me to ask why.

I don’t need anyone knowing I’m here with my hand out, especially not with the way things have been going lately. They’d all assume I was sleeping with him for favors, and I don’t need office gossip clinging to me.

Taking a deep breath, because I’m so nervous I’m breathing in short gasps, I knock at his door and pray I don’t go in there to see him with another of his office chippies.

Franklin likes to hire receptionists regularly, girls he uses and then onto the next best thing. Which was not me, thankfully.

“Yeah!”

Taking another breath, I open the door and slip in, stopping with my hand on the doorknob just in case I need to open it fast and get out.

“Teeny? What are you doing here today? I thought it was your day off?” he asks, though I can hear the anticipation when he stands and starts coming towards me.

Oh gosh, I really wish he didn’t make my skin shrink with revulsion because that’s exactly what happens when he stops in front of me and reaches out a hand to touch me.

I flinch away before his hand can make contact and try to suppress the shudder, but he sees it and gets that angry look I am now so familiar with.

“One day you’re gonna look at me without all that disgust, and it’ll be too late, Albertina.”

Spitting out that will only happen when pigs fly isn’t going to help me, not now, so instead, I slip past him and take a seat in front of his mess of a desk, clenching my hands against the need to tidy it because I need something to do.

“I need an advance.”

There, I’ve said it, and I can only wait for his answer.

Franklin huffs because I don’t make small talk the way he expects, and goes around to sit, hitching a hip up to the corner of the desk. I hate it when he does this because it’s his way of lording it over me, intimidating me with his size and superiority, and it always works.

I’m so freaking on edge sitting is hard, but I manage to look up at him and meet his eyes, praying that today is a better day and that just once he’ll be a decent human being.

“What for?”

Asshole.

“Franklin, please, just tell me yes or no—”

“Tell me what you want money for over a week before payday and I might just do it, Teeny. If not, you can turn around and go home.”

I know Franklin, know that he’s just waiting for a chance to bad-mouth Ally to me. He’s never liked her, not since he made a pass at her and she told him off.

For some reason, the pig only chases after women who tell him off, but with Ally, he took it personally.

“I need to buy food and pay—”

“Your sister’s rent,” he snarls, flicking me a sneer. “I don’t give a shit what happens to that bitch, and I am not giving you an advance just so that you can run after her paying off her debts. You may not believe this, Teeny, but I care about you, and I won’t let you use money you don’t have to give to that…”

I know that answer already, but I’m not ready to give up, more fool me.

“Please. I’ve been a good worker, Franklin. I come in even when it’s my day off, if we’re short-staffed or one of the girls is sick. I never shirk the hard work, and I’m easy to get along with. Please,” I beg, hating that I have to do this, knowing even now that it’s not happening.

“No, Teeny. If you need food, if you need to pay for something, then I’ll take you and pay.”

“But—”

“And I’d expect you to repay me,” he replies so honestly I almost believe he’s being honorable. “With something I want.”

The meaning there is clear, so clear that I flinch and open my mouth, rearing back when he shifts over the desk and leans into me, his hands on the chair arms caging me in.

“I’ve been watching you for two years now, Teeny. You don’t date. You don’t go out with anyone but that stripper you hang out with. All you do is fix that rundown house of yours and run after Ally. Don’t you ever want more? A man who will give you an easy life, sex, pleasure, security?”

Of course I want all those things! I once dreamed of meeting someone who would love me and take care of me, cherish me, love me, pleasure me.

I wanted that once, but once bitten is a lesson I learned a long time ago, and now all I want is peace. A nice home that I made for myself, because I am the only person I can depend on. Food. A warm bed. Good friends.

That’s all I have wanted for three years, and I will have it. If only I could get Ally to be more responsible.

“Please, Franklin. I need…just enough to see me through the next week and a half, and then you can take it off my pay.”

“Teeny—”

“I am not sleeping with you! I won’t do it, especially for favors, Franklin. I have my pride and—”

“And you’re gonna starve with that pride, Teeny. Clear out your desk. You can come get your money next week when payroll is done.”

“What? Oh God, no, please don’t fire me. I won’t…you don’t have to give me the advance, and I won’t ask again,” I stammer, afraid now because this job is a good one.

It doesn’t pay as well as some others, and I work five days a week, six if you count all the Saturdays Franklin makes me come in for no pay. But it’s what I have right now, and I need it!

“Go. I’m tired of paying you to do a job Angel or the others could do, just to keep you around. If you’re not going to wake up and see what’s right in front of you, I don’t need to keep you here.”

“Because I won’t sleep with you!” I rage, jumping to my feet with tears coursing down my cheeks.

Franklin shrugs, his big shoulders rolling beneath his thin T-shirt.

“Because you’re a waste of time if all I get from you is some paperwork and your skittish scuttling around the office. Go home. Go suffer under that sister of yours. I offer you more than just sex. When you’re ready to accept, you know where to find me.”

I’d argue but I know him, and I know I’m done, sunk. I can have my security here, with him, if I give up my body to him, or I leave and go away empty-handed.

For a split second, I stand exactly where I am and consider it, my fear of starvation and living on the streets almost sinking me further.

“I won’t be coming back, and you can bet I’m calling someone about this. You just fired me for not sleeping with you.”

“No, Teeny, you’re a temp, and we simply don’t need you anymore.”

Don’t cry. I say it over and over again even as the tears fall when I make my walk through the office and finally get onto the street.

Oh shit.

********************************************************************

Three days have passed, and I am in real, real trouble here. I have no food, nothing, not even the vegetables I usually grow, because something got into the garden last night and ripped up what little I had.

I haven’t eaten in two damn days, and as strange as it sounds, the biggest problem in that is I miss bread! Carbs. Okay, anything. I miss food, and at this rate, I don’t know if I will make it to the end of the week when Leslie said she’d be by to get me my last check.

Curling up on the swing on the back porch, I ignore my growling stomach and the light-headed feeling I can’t shake and tell myself not to cry. Crying won’t solve a thing, not now, and I’m afraid that if I start I won’t stop.

Walking out of Franklin’s was not easy, but I immediately turned at the corner and made my way to the newspaper stand where I used what I had left in my purse to get the paper.

I should have saved what I had because a scouring of the job section was a waste of time unless I want to meet a freak named Joshua who wants a live-in maid with some very, very strange duties.

I know this because, despite how odd the ad was, I called for an interview and immediately slammed the phone down. Yikes, the man was a pervert!

Stomach growling, I huff and sit up, blinking to clear my head just as the phone rings. I should probably answer that before the telephone company smells I’m not paying them and turns it off.

“Hello.”

“Teeny?”

“Mrs. Cane? What’s wrong?”

“Teeny, honey, I…have you heard from Ally in the last three days?”

I have not, and the fact that her neighbor is calling me to ask has me going stiff and tense because…

“Where’s Tammy?”

“With me, honey. She’s been with me for three days since Ally dropped her here with me and took off in a rush. I’m starting to worry, and Tammy is usually really easy to care for, but I think she’s sick, honey, and I can’t keep her indefinitely if she keeps running fevers. I, uh, I am so sorry, but I brought her into the hospital because I didn’t have another choice, and then they called Social, and now they’re…you need to get down here.”

“I’m on the way.”

I run for my car, hoping there’s enough gas in the thing to get me there without breaking down and cry my relief when the things starts up with a chugging splutter.

“Just get me there.”

I keep praying all the way there, the drive seeming interminable before I pull into the parking lot with a shudder from the thing before it dies completely.

In the middle of the lot. Oh God.

I don’t have time to push it to the side, and honestly, I think I’d pass out if I tried, so I leave it where it is and run, almost killing myself when the automatic door doesn’t open fast enough.

The hospital emergency room is packed, so it takes me a while to get to the desk where a very unhappy bubble-gum-popping lady shows me down the corridor and into a room where a social worker is standing beside a screaming Tammy and a crying Mrs. Cane.

“Teeny! Oh thank God. Oh thank God. See? She’s the aunt, and she’ll take Tam with her. You can’t put her in the system. Teeny’s a good aunt. She’ll look after Tammy.”

The woman looks me over, and I wish like heck I’d dressed in something other than my old shorts and a shirt that hangs over one shoulder and does not look at all like I am a capable grown-up who can care for a sick, screaming two-year-old.

“Miss Hughs?”

I stick my hand out belatedly and take her hand, praying that I can hold it all together for as long as this takes to get Tammy so I can get out of here.

It’s uppermost in my mind that I shouldn’t do this. I have no money, no food in the cupboards. My house is like a sauna right now and no fit place to raise a little girl. And I am not even thinking about the fact that Tam is obviously sick and screaming at the top of her lungs.

“I’m Teeny. Teeny Hughs, and yes, Tammy is my niece. Uh, what’s happening?”

“My name is Mrs. Halston, and I was called in by the hospital administrator when Tammy came in again with the same ear infection. She’s undernourished, her hair is filthy and crawling with lice, and she’s wearing unwashed clothes.”

Oh my God!

“I…but I…I gave Ally money to get Tammy to a doctor and buy her medicine. I…I didn’t know she was still sick. Oh my God.”

I have to sit down because my knees are buckling and the light-headed feeling from lack of food is trying to take over. I’m so shocked and just…scared as I go over to Tammy, rolling the chair to get to her bed, and scoop her little body up into mine, cradling her with crooning please for her to hush.

She does, snuggling into my neck and shuddering out a stuttered breath of relief.

“Owie, Teeny. Ear owie.”

“I know, sweet baby. I know, but Aunt Teeny will make it all better, okay? You just have a hushabye, and when you wake up, I’ll give you some medicine to take away all the owie. Shhh, close your eyes, baby girl.”

“Mama go ‘way.”

“I know, honey, but Aunt Teeny is right here, ‘kay? I am right here.”

It takes about five minutes of cooing and rocking before I feel Tammy’s little body slump, and then I’m swallowing when I turn back to Mrs. Halston, my heart in my throat.

“I…I can take her—”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Miss Hughs. Tammy is very sick, and I have to file a report about her lack of care and the disappearance of her mother. Mrs. Cane has been gracious enough to speak honestly with myself and the nursing staff, and it seems that this is not the first time that Tammy has been abandoned for days without care but for this old woman.”

“But I’m here, and I can take care of her. If I had known, if I had even suspected Ally was doing this, I would have taken Tammy already. I can look after her! I’ll take her home with me, and I swear I won’t ever neglect her. I love her.”

Her eyes soften at my words, and I even get a shoulder squeeze before she sighs and looks down at her paperwork.

“As of this morning, Tammy is in the care of the state. I’m sorry, but it is my duty to make an honest report.”

“I understand. But—”

“We do not overlook relatives when a situation like this arises, but before I can hand Tammy over to you and hopefully convince you to start adoption proceedings, I would have to ensure that she would be going into a safe and loving environment. Could speed things up on that front, pull a few strings with some colleagues of mine and the judge if you do this, maybe get someone over to your place in two days, but, Teeny, you will have to comply with everything. Every single check,” she says softly, eyeing my beat-up sneakers and giving me a look when my stomach lets off an insistent growl.

Oh God! How am I ever gonna make this happen, I think, trying to keep myself together when it all hits me. My house. God, they wouldn’t make it on a walk-through for ten minutes before the heat hit them. I have no job, and I can just surmise I’d have to prove employment too. And money! I have no money and a sour carton of milk in the fridge I was eyeing just this morning when hunger gripped me so hard I almost fainted.

I have to do this though, find a way…

“I’ll make sure you give me a gold star, Mrs. Halston. Just please help us.”

“Okay, Teeny. Tammy will remain here in the hospital for a few days at least while they give her antibiotics and some fluids. What I want you to do is go home and use this list to do a check. Make sure your home is child-friendly and safe. Clean out your fridge and restock it, because I know, if yours looks anything like mine, something is growing in the back,” she chuckles, making me smile.

Sickly. Nothing is growing in my fridge but desperation and the fumes from spoilt milk.

“I, yeah. I can do that,” I say, taking the paper she hands me with trembling hands while Mrs. Cane pats my shoulder reassuringly.

“Mrs. Cane gave me your home number, so I will call you to let you know what’s happening.”

She says some more stuff that I hardly hear and then leaves, taking Mrs. Crane with her because the poor dear has already suffered one bus ride in this heat today and she’d keel over if she did it again.

I spend time with Tammy, stroking her soft ringlets and trying not to cry when it hits me that I am so screwed!

What the hell am I thinking? I have nothing, less than nothing if you consider the electric bill that’s coming due, and I will be responsible for a little girl who needs food and love and…food.

The nursing staff kick me out around six after assuring me that Tammy will sleep through the night because the medications she’s on acts as a sedative and pain reliever, and I practically crawl into the parking lot, not at all surprised that my car is nowhere in sight.

Just great.