Inside, the school looked like any other, with windowed classrooms on either side of the hallway giving way to a view of what might, under different circumstances, look entirely typical. Emma watched a group of young adults herded up the hall toward them, chaperones on every side like sentries.
“Our musical persons served,” Mary bubbled. “Does Lucky like to play an instrument or sing?”
Vinnie and Em stared as if the answer was too heavy to fish out.
“He seems like a singer to me.” She pulled up to the last classroom down the hallway, the one most tucked away. “This is your stop, Lucky.”
She opened the door and let them into a sparsely populated space. Emma noted that there were only three other persons served in the room, each surrounded by one or two adults. A teacher in the middle of the room jumped up and pointed Lucky toward a corner desk, where they might prepare him before serving him.
“Hi. I’m teacher Kate.” She stuck out a hand. Vinny shook it before she turned to usher Lucky towards the desk.
“So we got this. Now, you all go do your day,” she said. Lucky was taken to the set-up table, waiting for his arrival. A man the size of a pro football player stepped between the parents and their son.
“He’s going to be working with money today,” the giant man said. Looking over his shoulder at Lucky, he asked, “You like money, don’t you, bud?”
Lucky doesn’t give a shit about money. Emma thought. But it didn’t matter. Mary was ushering them out as Lucky was led into a future no one else here seemed to give a shit about. Lucky’s was a life of perfect balance. Nothing left behind, nothing to look forward to.
“When do we come back to get him?” Emma asked.
“We don’t. He’ll do his day, and you’ll do yours, and at the end, we’ll have a quick goodbye with Mom and Dad at the house. We find it’s best that way.