She sighed deeply, so deeply I sensed there was something else wrong.
"Are you sick. Mommy?"
"What? No. Well, maybe emotionally. I just saw Mr. Landers, the supervisor of the complex. He was giving the gardeners instructions. He told me about Mrs. Dorahush,"
"What?" I asked, holding my breath.
"She passed away late last night."
"Oh, no, Where's Augustus?" I asked
immediately.
"I don't know, honey."
"I'd better go see him. He has no one." I said.
Before she could say anything else. I charged through the condo to the patio door and ran across the lawn and the street to his unit. The windows were dark. I knocked on the patio door and waited. He didn't come. I peered in. but I didn't see him. I knocked again and called to him. When he didn't come I went around to the windows I knew to be the windows in his room and peered in.
"What are you doing?" I heard, and turned to see Mr. Landers. He was a short, stout man with thin gray hair. I had seen him from time to time. He barely acknowledged me with a nod, almost seeming distracted or perhaps not interested in knowing any of the young people who lived there.
"I'm looking for Augustus," I said. "I heard about his grandmother."
"He's not there." He scratched his head. "They brought him in a government car, and he went in to get some papers and then left."
"Left? To go where?"
He shook his head. "All I know is someone will be coming to organize what's in the house and move it out."
"But... where will Augustus live?"
He shrugged. 'I don't know, miss. That's all I know. He was a weird kid anyway," he said. "He made some of the other residents nervous."
"That's because they don't understand him. He's a genius!" I cried.
He grinned. "Right. A genius," he said, and walked off to shout at one of the gardeners.
I walked home and told Mommy what he had said.
"How sad," she said. "Just when you think your life is miserable, you meet someone worse off. Like my grandmother used to say. 'A man complained all the time because he had no shoes. Until he met a man who had no feet.'"
"Can't we find out what happened to him. Mommy?"
"Maybe. I'll try, honey," she promised.
I went to my room. All that had happened had exhausted me. I closed my eyes as soon as I lay down, and in seconds I was asleep. The ringing of the phone woke me. It was Randy.
"I... I he... heard what ha... happened to you." he said.
"We have a meeting with the principal tomorrow morning."
"I... tr... tried to stop you."
"I know. It was my own fault. I let them bait me. I'm sure Phoebe is a very happy person." His silence assured me she was. "My mother says. 'What goes around comes around. Don't worry. She'll get hers someday.'"
"Good," he said.
"Don't you get into any trouble on my account," I warned. "I'll see you tomorrow."