One small jump
A making of Lucy story
A short story about the origins of Lucy Kloot, a main character from the novel Three Lives of Jury. For the novel’s table of contents: Three Lives
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For more short stories see The Underworld Vents table of contents at The Underworld Vents.
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One Small Jump
By Terry Fries
Police frowned.
“What?” Lucy squawked, making her voice sound as incredulous as she could.
Two police offers sat across the table staring at her, giving her an angry scowl, trying to intimidate her.
“Excuse me. She’s only 11 years old. Go easy,” said a woman from social services wearing hospital scrubs covered in pictures of kittens. She sat next to Lucy, writing in a binder.
The four were gathered in Maisie and Artie Kane’s dining room.
“She’s holding back,” said the officer with Constable Jane Nicola printed on the name tag on her shirt.
“She’s a child.” The woman from social services had been called to sit in on the police questioning because Lucy’s legal guardians were unavailable.
Lucy could see the police were preparing to take another run at her. She’d answered their questions 100 times over, but they wanted more.
“I told you, I just found her that way,” she said.
“Describe the events that led up to you finding her,” Nicola said.
“Nothing to describe. I was out walking and suddenly, there she was, right in front of me.”
Nicola nodded. “OK, then what?’
“I pulled her out of the water, then ran to get help.”
“We found footprints along the bank and they sure as heck didn’t belong to you or Katie. They’re way too big. Who was with you?” Nicola leaned back in her chair.
“I don’t know. They were footprints from earlier or yesterday? I don’t know.”
Lucy felt horrible about lying, but the truth was too embarrassing. She could hardly say she was sneaking around spying on Katie.
And the boy. How could she explain that?
Nope, she couldn’t. She told herself she had to stick to her original story and the attention will pass. Katie will be all right and people will forget.
She recalled pictures of Katie lying bleeding and unconscious, face up in the creek and she broke down. She sobbed long and deep.
“Can we take a break for a few minutes.” The social services woman put a hand on Lucy’s shoulder.
Lucy’s temporary guardians, Maisie and Artie Kane, had rushed away, trailing the ambulance transporting their daughter Katie to Gold Rush hospital, about 20 minutes away from the town of Jury where they lived.
Lucy blubbered for another hour, then the social services woman escorted her to a temporary home. Lucy could stay with the Buckleys, neighbours of the Kanes. They agreed to take Lucy in for a night or two until the Kanes returned home.
Lucy just wanted to get away, out of everybody’s sight.
She didn’t mean to spy on Katie. Not really. And why did Katie chase her anyway?
Katie, only child to Maisie and Artie Kane, was away at university when Lucy came to live at her parents’ home.
Her mom talked about Lucy on the phone and nothing about it felt right to Katie. Katie had heard stories about Lucy — how she stood by and did nothing as her mom died in the street. There were lots of rumours about her dad, too.
Then Katie got home and discovered the weird little tick of a girl had embedded itself into her old bedroom.
When Katie complained, Artie put his foot down.
“Katie, you’re going back to school in three weeks anyway.” He shook his head in the disappointed way of a father. “She’s 11, and you’re 20 for Christ’s sake.”
Her father was right and Katie felt horrible for complaining. At least I can make an effort, she thought.
The next day, Katie caught up to Lucy in the backyard.
“Let’s take a walk,” she said.
They meandered through Maisie’s version of a rock-lined pathway to a bench that overlooked a small preserve of trees behind the property.
She fished in her pack and handed Lucy a cornetto she’d picked up from the bakery that morning. A peace offering.
“Sorry for being a bitch,” she said. “I was surprised to come home and see all my old stuff moved.”
“It’s fine.” Lucy bit into the cornetto. Pistachio. She wasn’t sure she’d ever tried pistachio before. The sweetness surprised her.
“No, it’s not fine. I acted like a child. I’m sorry.”
Lucy looked up at her and grinned, cream dripping off her lips and chin.
“Want to come along with me and meet some cool people?” Katie stood and nodded off toward the trees and the path that would take them to downtown.
Lucy followed.
They walked to the park at the top of the hill where they met Katie’s friends. They smoked, and swore and shared salacious stories about boys, cool shows and town gossip.
Lucy took it in. She couldn’t believe they let her stay and listen. One of them, a girl named Andrea, offered Lucy a cigarette.
“They’re old friends from high school,” Katie explained as they walked home.
“They’re cool. If you hang around Jury or Gold Rush, you’ll probably see them around.”
Lucy nodded.
The following day, Katie asked if Lucy wanted to go shopping in Gold Rush. She had Christmas gifts to buy.
“You’d help me out by saying ‘yes’ because Mom is more likely to give me the car keys if you come. She enjoys seeing us together.”
“Sure,” said Lucy.
Katie bought a sweater for Mom, gloves for Dad and a box of chocolates to open while trimming the tree.
Lucy crinkled the money Maisie had given her, but kept it in her pocket. It was supposed to go for gifts, but there wasn’t enough to buy for Artie, Maisie and Katie. So she left it. She’d figure it out later.
They ate lunch in the food court.
“I might not go back to university,” Katie offered over pizza. “It’s lonely there. And there’s a lot of other shit to deal with. It’s a sad, shitty planet, kid. You’d be smart to stay here. Forget college. They have nothing to teach you you can’t learn for yourself.”
Over the next few days, Lucy and Katie shopped in Jury’s shops, they strolled the downtown and met with Katie’s friends at their homes and in the coffee shop.
Christmas settled into the house, while outside, snowdrifts piled up. The home fit the four of them nicely; Artie, Maisie, Katie and Lucy.
They drank chocolate and opened presents in the morning. Lucy had found a broach at the thrift store for Maisie, and a smart-looking hat for Artie. The man at the store said it was genuine Harris-tweed flat hat from Scotland.
She and Katie had worked together on their presents for each other and bought opposite sides to a charm necklace, in which the yin and yang charms fit together when held close.
The four prepared dinner with the Christmas classic movie Die Hard playing on the TV in the background. They sat down to eat together, while Artie turned his chair to watch the football game. It was a slow day, perfect to Lucy’s thinking.
The day after Christmas, Lucy ran after Katie when she spied her rushing out the back door. She’d catch up and they could do something together.
Katie disappeared into the small woods. Where was she going in such a hurry? Lucy wondered.
She saw the tracks in the snow where Katie had jumped the small creek and followed.
Dark was close and the moon wasn’t yet up to light the snow. It was getting hard to walk. The temperature dropped and the path was slippery.
She spotted them as she popped out of the trees. Katie stood next to a tall, dark boy. They both stood on the corner next to a small rock outcropping.
From nowhere, Katie suddenly grabbed the boy and almost knocked him over with a gigantic swinging hug. They kissed for a long time. Agonizingly long, it seemed to Lucy.
Katie glanced up and saw Lucy frantically searching for a place to hide.
“Lucy what are you doing here?” Katie huffed and took a step in her direction.
Lucy ran, feeling stupid for watching them kiss. She bolted back into the trees, back down the path to the Kane house.
“Lucy stop.” Lucy heard Katie yelling behind her. “Why are you running?”
Lucy reached the small creek, iced on the edges but still flowing through the middle. She didn’t bother to jump. She sloshed hard through. Wet shoes, wet pants, she’d deal with them later.
She hit the slope on the other bank and heard Katie scream behind her and a loud splash and a wet thwump.
“Katie.” It was a boy’s voice, loud and panicked.
What happened? Lucy risked a peek.
Katie was down, flat on her back in the middle of the creek. The boy stepped into the water beside her, crying hysterically.
Lucy saw blood. It seeped outward from behind Katie’s head, her body motionless, but for the push and tug of the current.
Lucy ran down the slope. The boy tried to wake Katie, slapping her face lightly, calling her name. He gripped Katie’s head and sat her upright.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to move her.” Lucy knew nothing about first-aid, but she knew that.
“I have to get her out of the water.” The boy pulled Katie’s arms and called out over and over. “Katie, Katie.”
He glared at Lucy. “What did you do?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.” Lucy splashed into the creek to help. The boy waved for her to step back.
He grunted as he put his hands under Katie into the icy water and hefted her up. He carried her to the shore and set her down.
“Don’t tell them I was here.” His mouth and nose twisted up at her like a feral dog.
“Don’t tell who?”
“Maisie or Artie. Maisie will kill me if she finds out we were together.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?” Lucy shouted. “We’ve got to get her back to her house. They can call help from there.”
When the boy didn’t move, Lucy said, “Katie needs you. I can’t carry her.”
The boy sniffed for a second or two. “Run,” he said. “Run to the house and get Katie’s mom and dad. I’ll stay with Katie till you get back.”
Lucy ran. What else was she to do? She crashed into the back door and yelled for Artie to follow her.
It wasn’t far, about 100 metres, a little more, but when they got back to the creek, the boy was gone.
Katie lie face-up in the snow on the opposite side of the creek, the blood turning the snow red behind her head.
Artie ran to her, yelled at Lucy to go back to the house and call for an ambulance. He tore off his coat and laid it on top of Katie, who was awake now and shivering uncontrollably.
They kept Katie in hospital for several days. She had sustained a concussion and lost a lot of blood, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
She hadn’t fallen far but large rocks cracked onto her spine and broke several vertebrae. It was unlucky, said the doctors.
Katie would be bed ridden for weeks and faced a slow, painful recovery. She’d likely have to live with pain and reduced mobility for the rest of her life.
The day Katie came home from hospital, they set her up in her old room, where Lucy had been staying, so she could have the room next to Maisie and Artie in case she needed help during the night.
Lucy was moved to a room at the back of the house.
The house was mortuary quiet, but for Maisie’s groans as she turned Katie over to change her clothes and the bedding, and the sucking noises from Artie as he cried in the kitchen.
A week later, Maisie sat Lucy down on the exact seat she sat in when she was first accepted into the Kane home a little more than a year earlier and informed her they had found her a new home.
“Artie and I can’t look after both Katie and you. I’m sorry. It’s the stress. We’re too old, we can’t keep up. We can’t keep up this pace. I don’t see another way to fix this.”
“I won’t be a problem. I can help. I can help you wash clothes, I can read to Katie, take her meals up. You’ll see. I can help.”
Those are the things Lucy wanted to say, but she didn’t. She only nodded. Katie probably never wanted to see her again, anyway.
Lucy moved into a social services home in Gold Rush.
After a month, Artie started a campaign to bring her back to Jury. He organized a small committee, formulated a plan and started an online fund in her name.
Several people agreed to take her in and Lucy returned to Jury, where she lived in a series of foster homes, never staying longer than a couple of months.
After a while, Lucy found a way to get kicked out of every one of her new homes before the people who lived there had a chance to grow tired of her.