Paradise for a Sinner by Lynn Shurr

“It’s been a tough day for everyone. Go get your homework done.”
    Dean brushed by Adam and Winnie coming into the room without so much as an “excuse me.” Nell sighed.
    Winnie held up Teddy’s file. “We should go over this. You need to know what you are getting into with the boy.”
    Joe raked his black hair with his fingers. “Come in. Sit down. Let’s get this over with now.”
    To his surprise, Adam took a seat next to the nurse. He smiled broadly. “The Rev and Mintay had to go home, but they said they would pray for you.”

Chapter Eight
    “Adam, you don’t need to stay for this,” Joe suggested to the big Samoan whose thick arm had come to rest on the back of the sofa in the general vicinity of Winnie’s delicate shoulders. He’d perfected that move in middle school but, hell, they were both adults despite the Rev’s concern. Let them do as they wanted.
    “I’m good,” Adam said, stretching out his legs and making himself more at home.
    Winnie on the other hand sat erectly and proceeded to give a very professional report. “My sister and I went over Teddy’s records and gave him a quick checkup when she came to do the DNA test. The boy had two surgeries right after birth, one to close the opening in the spine where his cord protruded and another to put in a shunt.”
    “Why a shunt?” Joe asked.
    “To drain the fluids off his brain. It had to be replaced due to an infection at seven months. At four, he had major surgery on his brain stem to improve his breathing, at six a bowel and bladder redirection to get him out of diapers. He can use the catheter himself, and a shot of fluid through an opening in the navel brings on his bowel movements.”
    “Jesus, he’s had more surgeries than me.” Joe suspected beneath his Cajun tan he’d gone a little pale.
    Knowing her husband’s aversion to illness, Nell squeezed his arm. “You okay?”
    “Fine. I’ve come a long way since we started Camp Love Letter. Go on, Winnie.”
    “The real problem is he will need another surgery to crack the scar tissue on his back allowing him to grow more in the near future. We also found that the braces and boots supporting his lower legs need replacement soon as well as his body brace because he has gotten too big for them. Along with all that, he is getting too large for his current wheelchair. These devices will run into the thousands of dollars and might be why his mother chose to turn him over to you at this point.”
    At the mention of cracking open scar tissue on a child’s back, Joe felt a trifle woozy, but he manned up. “Money’s no problem for us. He’ll get what he needs.”
    “Unfortunately, there is more. We found plenty of bruises on his body. Teddy says he falls down a lot, but we suspect abuse, most likely the boyfriend.”
    Nell nodded. “The social worker already had a file on Teddy. Some elderly neighbors at the trailer court where his family lived called in to report they thought Maydell’s boyfriend hit the boy when she went off to work. Unfortunately, both the mother and child claimed everything was dandy, but they were keeping an eye on the situation. I could never convince Maydell her problems went deeper than coping with a handicapped child. The caseworker is glad we are going to foster Teddy.”
    Because Adam sat there like a huge stone moa statue from Easter Island, Joe felt compelled to bring him into the conversation. “What do you think, Adam?”
    “If the mother went away in Samoa, someone else would give the boy food and shelter, maybe many people. The matai , the chief of the village, would find a way to get the boy what he needed. As for Anastasia, she would be taught not to speak back to her elders.”
    “It takes a village to raise a child,” Nell said.
    “Yes. That could be said of Samoa.”
    “I think it might do the rest of our children good to have Teddy here. Maybe Trinity will stop complaining about being smaller than the rest of them and having to wear