The Chaplain's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

this kind of thing on the phone from inmate families before.  Usually they were scared as well as angry.  John’s task with families was to get them to understand that, though a crime had been committed, it wasn’t a crime against the family personally.  The fear came from family members, like Wanda Phillips, who didn’t have any answers left.  Usually they had done their best.  When their loved one ran afoul of the law the family members often reacted with anger borne of frustration.  John played a card that had often worked before.
     
    “Ms. Phillips, how about if you and Toby and I get together, just to talk?  I can schedule an hour of time and we’ll sit down and chat.  No pressure, no expectations, just a visit.
     
    Wanda answered in a way that surprised John.  “Not interested, John.  I’m too busy trying to put food on the table and a roof over my head.  I don’t have time to come down to the jail so Toby can tell me lies to my face.  I’m through with that fool!  And you can tell him that!”
     
    “Okay, Ms. Phillips.  By the way, do you mind if I call you Wanda?”
     
    “I don’t care, I guess.”
     
    “Wanda, I appreciate you talking to me.  I won’t tell Toby everything that you said today, but if he asks, I’ll tell him that you won’t be able to get together with us.  Should I assume that he won’t be welcome in your home upon release?”
     
    Wanda paused for about half a breath.  Then, even after she said, “No” to John’s question about Toby’s release John felt that the door might not be completely closed by Wanda.  It was one thing to reject your child out of hand when he was safely behind bars.  It was quite another to say that the child that you raised couldn’t come to your house in a time of need.  While John had been hoping for more, he wasn’t completely discouraged after he ended the call to Toby’s mother.
     
    When John and Toby next visited the subject of how Toby might make some legal money came up.  Toby had worked in the kitchen of a restaurant for about six months, but had gotten fired for missing work too often.  That had been during the period of time that Toby had experimented with methamphetamine.  He had truly intended to go to work, but after a few puffs on a meth pipe he discovered that it was Wednesday evening and he had missed his Wednesday shift…as well as his Tuesday shift…and sometimes his Monday shift.  His boss had been as understanding as she could be but eventually let Toby go.
     
    John asked Toby if he had any ideas of what he would like to do long term.  Toby shrugged and shifted in his seat.  He was 20 years old and had never had a single thought about a career.  If he needed 20, 50, or 100 dollars to get something he had always just hustled it off of somebody or stolen whatever he wanted off the store shelf.  He had a closet full of Nike shoes and Under Armour shirts that had never been paid for.
     
    “Stores are owned by rich people, and the stuff is insured anyway.  Why shouldn’t I have it?” had always been his thought process.
     
    John was by no means an employment agency but once in a while he came upon a job that could be filled by one of his clients from Pierce County Jail or the Washington State prison system.  The prison system had a job referral program, though, while the county lockup did not.  John had one idea, though.
     
    “I have a connection with somebody at the Ram Restaurant,” he said, referencing a local steak and burger house on Tacoma’s waterfront.  “If you think you can stay clean that might be a place for you to start.”
     
    Toby looked at John to see if he was joking.  John’s usually smiling face was sober and stern.  He had more to say.
     
    “Toby I admire how far you have come and I do believe in you.  But you need to know that the only way to change your life is to change the people that you are around.  God can do great things in your life, but the friends