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I got my second shock after I changed my clothes and went downstairs to call Del at the pizza parlor to see how things were going for him. The phone on the kitchen wall was gone, and the phone in the sitting room was gone. Daddy’s office-den door was locked. There wasn’t a phone for me to use downstairs. I spun around in the hallway as if I had just gotten off a merry-go-round. I am truly in prison, I thought. It’s even worse. It’s solitary confinement.

Angry and even in something of a panic, I hurried down the corridor to the stairway and ran up. There were two phones in my parents’ bedroom, but to my disappointment, I found that door locked as well. I rattled it angrily.

“You can’t do this to me!” I screamed.

One of the maids downstairs called back to see if there was something wrong. I didn’t answer her. I went into my bedroom and slammed the door. Daddy’s strategy was to put the phones back when he returned at the

end of the day. Mother was strictly forbidden to permit me to use their phones. I felt like I was being choked.

I will run away, I thought. I will.

The next day, I managed to talk Lisa Hardwick into letting me use her cell phone during lunch. Del had just arrived at work in the pizza parlor. I hurriedly told him all that had happened to me so that he wouldn’t think I was avoiding him or had decided not to see or speak with him ever again.

“I had a feeling something like that might happen, Teal. You went too far when you took that bracelet, and it was stupid to give it to someone like Shirley.”

“I know. I was just trying to impress you,” I confessed.

That softened him.

“Yeah, well, just be yourself, Teal, the way you are with my little brother and sister. That’s enough to impress me.”

“I’m glad, Del. I miss them. I miss you. How are things?”

“My mother is still holding on to her job and doing well. I’m holding my breath, of course, but it looks good.”

“I’m happy for you, Del.”

“Don’t do anything to get yourself in any more trouble,” he said. “Maybe your father will ease up.”

“I doubt it, Del, and I hate my driver. He’s like a prison guard! You still want to see me, don’t you?”

“Sure,” he said.

I wanted to say so much more, but Lisa was standing over me, eager to get back her phone.

“I’ll call you again. I’ll figure something out.”

“Whatever,” he said. “Be careful,” he added, and told me he had to get back to work.

I closed the phone and handed it to Lisa.

“Thanks,” I said. “Could I use it again tomorrow?”

“It’s expensive,” she replied, grimacing through her braces.

“I’ll give you ten dollars for five minutes, okay?”

She shrugged.

“Maybe,” she said, enjoying her power over me and my desperation. “I’ll see.”

How I hated these snob birds and wished I could somehow pull out their feathers and keep them from flitting about, so contemptuous of everyone below them.

My day will come, I told myself. It will come.

9

Ten Thousand Dollars