All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor

they’d left each other almost laughing.
    Friends circled up beside her and behind her as the doors closed. She worried for her boy. Here she was with all their people. But where did that leave Perry, now that VanLeer had him? He couldn’t get to his own mother at will. Neither could he see his Blue River “other-mothers” as they sometimes called Gina and Callie DiCoco. Maya Rubin was no longer escorting him to and from school, though at least he saw her in class. But Perry had had no time with Jaime Rojas or Halsey Barrows; there had been precious little with Big Ed. None with Warden Daugherty.
    Eventually, she’d have to tell him about the warden’s suspension, and the investigation. Word had come to BlueRiver that VanLeer was painting Warden Daugherty as a correctional system loose cannon, mostly because she’d let Perry stay all these years. There was no doubt she’d been creative when it came to fostering him. VanLeer wanted her dealt with. He wanted her out of Blue River.
    But even worse for Jessica and her boy, as Butler County’s district attorney, VanLeer had officially challenged her application for parole. He claimed she had been granted “unusual and questionable freedoms” for an inmate with a conviction as serious as hers. Jaime Rojas had sorted through the legal longhand with her.
    â€œHe’s trying to suggest that you haven’t truly served your sentence because you had the privilege of raising Perry on the inside.” That’s what Jaime had said. “Murky point,” he’d added. “Bad news is, this guy VanLeer seems determined; he believes raising a kid at Blue River was a crime. He wants somebody to pay. Meanwhile, he’s tying up your application, the skunk.”
    Jessica had a headache by late afternoon, her mind full of sharp-edged shards and returning worries. She begged Gina to keep Sashonna and her mosquito-like annoyances the heck away from her—just until dinnertime.
    She focused her aching mind on Perry. She was proud of him for using Big Ed’s mottos. “Way to cope, kiddo.” She said it out loud. But she worried about that timeline. He wanted to put his sincere blue eyes on a prize: her release. She didn’t know what to say to him about that. Not anymore.
    Then there was the assignment. That whopper on his list. Maya Rubin probably had no idea how that one was coming down on Jessica. “I am so not ready to tell him . . . ,” she muttered to herself. She gave her own temples a massage. She didn’t blame him for asking—again. It was a thing that came up a few times a year, usually signaled with Perry confirming, “It was manslaughter, right? For both you and Big Ed, huh, Mom?” She knew he would not accept her offhanded “yup” forever.
    Well, maybe the school project would be Perry’s way of keeping close with his Blue River family. Big Ed had already offered to tell his story. He had guts. His story wasn’t an easy one. Of course, neither was hers. She could never tell Perry all of it. But maybe it was time he knew something more. But how much?
    â€œHey! Hey! You’re on mess tonight. Don’t forget,” Sashonna taunted as she stopped to show off her made-up face inside Jessica’s door on Block C. “Eggy-Mon is gonna be looking for you.”
    â€œYeah, yeah . . .” Gina followed closely, moving Sashonna along. With large soulful eyes, she blinked in empathy for all that Jessica was shouldering late on that Saturday afternoon.

chapter twenty-eight
RIGHT AFTER BLUE RIVER
    I sit in the VanLeer closet on top of the camp mat that I made up tight before the sun came up this morning. I cup Mom’s travel clock in my hands, feel it tick. I open it up and stand it on top of the warden’s suitcase. I hope Mom won’t miss it. The clock fits next to the reading lamp Mrs. Samuels brought in here. The lamp has a flexible neck. It’s a