Yes, I Know the Monkey Man Read online

  “Where are we going?” I asked nervously.

  “Home to get your stuff. Then to the bus station,” Suzanne replied.

  Whoa. Not what I expected.

  “Are you sure there’s a bus to the Twin Cities tonight?” Suzanne asked, her eyes straight ahead.

  “I’m … not sure.”

  “I guess we’ll find out when we get there.” Sam swung Bob’s car into her driveway and reached for her purse, which she’d stashed on the floor. She pulled out a house key and handed it to me.

  “You’re really going to take me to the bus station? Now?”

  “That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

  “Well, I don’t expect you to take me there now,” I said. “Not on your wedding night.”

  “You don’t expect, or even want, much of anything from anybody, do you?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  “Your dad told me you were dead, T.J…. He attended a memorial service with me. Did you know that? Your dad and your grandparents and our friends and people we didn’t even know all sat in a church and had a memorial service for you. But you weren’t dead. And your dad knew that. He took you away from me. And he kept you away all this time, until Sam found you. Given all this, I think I’ve been extremely accommodating. I didn’t press charges against Joe. I didn’t push for custody, even though I want you to live with Bob, Sam, and me more than anything in the world. All I’ve asked from you is that you try and get to know us. But you’re just not willing to give us a chance.”

  “No,” I said, shifting in my seat. “That’s not true.” I wanted to get to know them. I really did. I wasn’t sure I even realized I wanted to get to know them until right that second, but … I had to get home. I had to find Joe.

  “I love you, T.J.,” Suzanne said. “More than you will ever know. But I can’t force you to love us back. If you want to go home so badly that you would sneak out of my wedding reception and steal a car—”

  “No! It’s not like that. I don’t want to go home. I need to go home.” And then, without even thinking about what I was doing, I told Suzanne everything. Not just about Gram, but about Joe, too. Right there in the front seat of Bob’s car.

  This time when my eyes filled with tears, I let them come. And for the first time in ten years, I let my mom put her arms around me and hold me. I didn’t know what else to do.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Still in her wedding gown, Suzanne made a bunch of phone calls that night while I sat with Sherlock on the floor of the family room and listened. We found out Gram was in serious, but stable condition. She’d suffered a pretty major stroke and she was sleeping a lot. But she was okay. For now. We also found out Joe had been checked out of the hospital—he wasn’t dead!—and into a rehab center of some sort. It didn’t sound like the same kind of rehab he was in when I went to live with Gram, but he would be there just as long. Eight weeks. Suzanne had the name, address, and phone number of the place.

  “Why didn’t anybody tell me all this?” I asked, hugging Sherlock to my chest.

  “It sounds like your social worker was going to call us on Monday,” Suzanne said as she set the phone in her lap.

  Why didn’t Joe call and tell me himself?

  Suzanne came over and sat down on the couch. “I’d like to know why you didn’t tell me right away that your dad was in the hospital,” she said.

  I looked down at the floor. Did she really want me to say it? I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you’d make me stay with you.

  “You don’t have to handle this, or anything else, on your own.” She reached for my hand. Her brand new wedding ring sparkled on her finger. “I’m here for you, T.J. Please, let me be here for you.”

  I didn’t even know what she meant by that. What did she think she was going to do? Move into Gram’s house with me and help take care of Joe?

  “So, what’s going to happen to me while Joe’s in the rehab center?” I asked. I was almost afraid to hear the answer.

  “That’s up to you, T.J.,” Suzanne said. “You’ll always have a home with us. Whenever you want one. But if you want to be closer to your dad and your grandma right now, I … understand.”

  What? She was going to let me go home? I could tell it wasn’t what she wanted, but she would let me do it.

  “If you want to go back to the Twin Cities, Mrs. Morris will find a temporary home for you in the Twin Cities,” Suzanne added.

  “You mean a foster home?” I asked.

  “Yes. If you want to go home, we’ll have to call your social worker and let her know so she can set something up.”

  Did I really want to spend the next eight weeks in a foster home?

  Well, what was the alternative? Stay here? Away from Joe and Gram? “Can I think about it?” I asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Can I call my dad?”

  Suzanne checked her watch. “It’s getting a little late, don’t you think?”

  It was ten after ten. “He might still be awake,” I said. I really needed to talk to him.

  Suzanne stood up. “All right. I’ll go see what everyone else is up to and give you a little privacy.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I knew there were other people in the house. I could hear them talking, but they’d left Suzanne and me alone in the family room.

  Once Suzanne left, I picked up the phone and called the Helen O’Neill Rehabilitation Center. I asked to talk to Joseph Wright and the lady who answered the phone didn’t say anything about how late it was. She transferred my call and Joe picked up.

  “Hello?” He sounded tired, but I didn’t care.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you moved to a different place?”

  “T.J.?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked again. It was exactly what Suzanne had asked me less than five minutes ago, but she was much nicer about it with me than I was with Joe.

  “You’re at Suzanne’s,” he said, as though not telling me was the most logical thing in the world. “I didn’t want Suzanne to know that I was in the hospital.”

  “No one had to tell Suzanne. You just had to tell me. I didn’t know where you were. I was afraid you were dead!”

  No response.

  I got up and wandered over to the large window, but it was dark outside. I couldn’t see anything but my own reflection in the glass. “If you weren’t going to tell me you moved to a new place while I was at Suzanne’s, when were you going to tell me?” I asked. “When I got back home? Did you think I’d just stay by myself in Gram’s house with no money for eight weeks while you got better?”

  Eight weeks was a long time to stay alone. Even for me.

  “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think about it.”

  “You didn’t think about it?” I cried. I couldn’t believe him!

  “You know,” I said, anger boiling up inside me, “you’re supposed to be the parent here. That means you’re supposed to think about these things. You’re supposed to think about how the things you do affect other people. Like me.”

  More silence from Joe.

  “I told Suzanne you were in the hospital,” I said. “I told Gram, too. In fact, I even told Gram that Sam came to our house three weeks ago and I told her that I was at Suzanne and Sam’s house now. Maybe that’s why she had another stroke.”

  No, T.J. It wasn’t your fault Gram had a stroke. Gram’s old and she’s not in very good health. That’s what Suzanne had said.

  “Did you even know Gram had another stroke?” I asked.

  Still nothing.

  “Why aren’t you saying anything?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say, Teej.”

  I walked back over to the couch and plopped down. I didn’t know what I wanted him to say, either.

  “Why did you take me all those years ago, Joe?”

  I’d thought he took me because he loved me so much he couldn’t stand the idea of Suzanne taking me all the way to Florida.


  But was that really love?

  Suzanne and Sam thought I was dead all this time. I was beginning to get an idea of what that must have felt like. They lost way more than Joe lost. They lost even more than Joe would have lost if he had just let Suzanne take me to Florida.

  And so did I. I lost out on having a regular family.

  Joe let out a big breath. “I don’t know, T.J. I don’t know what to tell you … other than I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder what he was sorry about. Was he sorry he’d done all those things or was he sorry he’d gotten caught? Would he ever have told me the truth if Sam hadn’t forced him to? Would I ever have known I had a mom and a sister out there?

  “I’m not coming home next week,” I blurted out. I never even thought about it, I just said it. But now that the words were out.

  “You’re going to stay with your mom until I’m back home?” Joe asked.

  “Yes,” I said as my eyes filled with tears again.

  You’ll always have a home with us, Suzanne had said. Whenever you want one.

  “And I … I think I may stay longer than that, too.”

  Joe paused. “How much longer?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “A while.”

  It was late. Well past midnight. But I couldn’t sleep.

  It wasn’t because I was afraid I’d made the wrong decision. It was because I knew I’d made the right one. For everyone. Suzanne had seemed really happy when I told her I was staying. But even so, I still felt like a part of my heart was breaking. Joe and I would see each other again someday and we’d find a way to fix everything that was wrong between us.

  But what about Gram? Could I really leave Gram? Especially when she’d just had another stroke? What if I never saw her again? I couldn’t think about that. Somehow, I knew Gram would understand. Now that the truth was out, she would want me to know my mom and my sister.

  I heard a door open softly down the hall, then a soft tapping on my door.

  Suzanne? She and Bob had originally planned to go to a hotel for their wedding night, but after everything that had happened they’d decided to stay here. With me and Sam.

  “Come in,” I said, sitting up.

  The door opened, but it wasn’t Suzanne who stuck her head in. It was Sam. Moonlight from my open window shone on her face. “Are you mad at me?” she asked. “For telling my mom you took Bob’s car?”

  “No,” I told Sam. “Not anymore.” It was true. I wasn’t mad at her about anything anymore.

  “Good.” Sam came in and sat down beside me on the couch. “I heard about … Joe,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged. “He’ll be okay. Eventually.” My dog snuggled against both of us.

  “Mom also told me you’re going to stay with us. That you’re even going to go to school here.”

  School? I hadn’t thought about school. But if I was going to stay … I guess I had no choice. “When does it start?”

  “Two weeks from Monday,” Sam said. “My friends will be so excited. They all want to meet you.”

  Whoa. It was only the first weekend in August. We didn’t start school until after Labor Day in the Twin Cities.

  “I’m glad you’re going to stay,” Sam said, pulling her knees to her chest. “But I want to know something … What would’ve happened if your dad hadn’t gotten hurt? If your dad wasn’t in that rehab place, would you still have wanted to stay?”

  There were so many ifs. What if Gram had never had that first stroke and gone to live at Valley View? What if Sam had never gone searching for Joe? What if Joe had never taken me away? What if Grandpa Sperling had never hit Katie with his car? My life could have been so very different if any one of those things hadn’t happened. But things would be different now. That I knew for sure.

  “I don’t know,” I said finally. “Does it really matter? I’m staying. Isn’t that what’s important?”

  Sam thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, I guess so.” Then she scratched Sherlock’s ears and stood up. “We should get some sleep. Hope you like heavy boxes and lots of stairs. Tomorrow is moving day.”

  “Right,” I said.

  Moving day.

  And the start of a whole new life.

  The End

  Also by Dori Hillestad Butler

  DO YOU KNOW THE MONKEY MAN?

  • 2005 Bank Street College of Education Teen Book List

  • A Scholastic Book Club selection

  For thirteen-year-old Samantha, life consists of too many unanswered questions. Why has her father not tried to contact her all these years? How could he have allowed her twin sister to drown in the old Clearwater quarry when they were only three? And how can Samantha’s mother expect her to accept some man she hardly knows as her new father? Samantha already has a father out there. Somewhere.

  A fateful decision sets into motion a chain of events and confrontations that will change Samantha’s and her family’s lives forever. As she sets out to find her father and discover what really happened the day her sister was presumed drowned, she uncovers painful secrets that threaten to destroy her family all over again.

  Readers will be drawn into Dori Butler’s sensitive and suspenseful story of one family’s crisis unwittingly brought on by an adolescent girl’s search for the truth.

  DORI HILLESTAD BUTLER is the author of many works of fiction and nonfiction for young readers. Her middle-grade novel SLIDING INTO HOME has received numerous awards, including an Honor Book Award from the Society of School Librarians International. Butler lives in Coralville, Iowa, with her husband, two sons, a dog, a cat, and a fish named Willie, who keeps her company while she writes. Visit Dori Hillestad Butler’s website at www.kidswriter.com.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by Dori Hillestad Butler

  Cover design by Maureen Withee

  Book design by Melanie McMahon Ives

  ISBN 978-1-4804-6713-2 (ebook)

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