Three Little Words Read Free

next visit, we waited for a long time; but my mother never arrived.
    “Where is she?” I asked every few minutes, getting whinier each time.
    “Doesn’t look like the M-O-M is going to show,” the worker said.
    “How can she do this to her children?” Mr. Hines fumed. Switching to a cheerful voice, he said, “Time to go.”
    “But Mama—”
    “We can’t wait any longer. Mrs. Hines will wonder what happened to us.”
    “Please!” I begged. “She’s coming! She’s coming!”
    He pushed Luke and me into the corridor. “I’m not putting these children through this again,” Mr. Hines said to the worker.
    I wanted to tell them that they were making a mistake, that they had the time wrong, because my mother would never miss a chance to see us. I pulled away from Mr. Hines and rushed back into the visitation room.
    “Let’s go,” Mr. Hines said in exasperation.
    I ducked under a worker’s desk to stall the departure. My mother could be running late—she sometimes had problems with her car or not finding her way. Mr. Hines let go of Luke and lunged toward me. “Ashley! Enough of this nonsense. We aren’t waiting any longer.” He reached under the desk, but I kicked his arm away. They had the time wrong; they weren’t patient enough; they weren’t giving her a chance. Eventually, they dragged me out flailing and crying and took me back to what they called “home.”
    They couldn’t keep me from thinking about my mother all the time—her smiles, her songs in the shower, the way she painted her eyes and lips with colors. I would say, “Mama, you look so beautiful,” and then she would kiss my cheek to blot her lipstick. I loved the mark it left. I was jealous that she had so many hugs and kisses for Dusty, and I often spied on them when I was supposed to be asleep in a motel room or the small space of one of our trailers.
    I was playing with two teddy bears from the Hineses’ toy chest. “Want to see all the ways my mommy and daddy have fun?” I asked the other girls. I pressed the bears’ fronts together. They squealed with laughter. “And they can do it this way, too.” I had one hump the other’s back. Their giggles encouraged me, so I put one’s head between the other’s legs. I added the grunting noises I had heard in the dark.
    “What’s going on here?” Mrs. Hines chided when she checked on us.
    The other children dispersed, but I gave Mrs. Hines the same demonstration. “Why don’t you put the bears back and go out to play?” she said in a voice that left no room to disagree.
    I stormed outside, slamming the screen door behind me. “It’s my turn!” I shouted to Ashlee, who ignored me and pedaled off on the tricycle. Enraged, I caught up, reached around her neck, and choked her. Luke came over to join the fray. He grasped my leg and tried to pull me down. To shake him off, I kicked him. When he screeched, Mrs. Hines came running. She gripped my arm, steered me in the house, and gave me a stern time-out on a stool.
    A while later I heard her complaining about me on the phone. “I do believe this child is hyper. She breaks all her toys, is really mean to the little ones—even her brother—and isn’t still for a minute.” Her voice changed to a whisper as she recounted how I had played with the bears. When she mentioned that I had started wetting the bed, I went to where the others were watching TV and started to mimic what was on the screen.
    One of the older children shooed me away, but I did not listen. “Hey, Ashley, we can’t see through you,” he said.
    If my mother had been there, she would have applauded my antics; but here, I was nobody’s special Sunshine.
    Then, after only four months, Mrs. Hines announced that Luke and I were going to live with my grandfather. “Won’t that be nice?” she said as she packed my clothes.
    I went around the house piling up Luke’s toys and bottles, but they kept ending up back in their original places. I was oblivious to the