One for the Murphys

Mrs. Murphy introduces her three boys: Michael Eric, who Carley thinks might be around four; the middle brother, Adam; and the oldest brother, Daniel. She shows Carley to Michael Eric’s bedroom, where she will be staying. Carley thinks the sign over the bed that reads “BE SOMEONE’S HERO” is a “cruel irony” (6), as she doubts that she has any heroic tendencies. Mrs. Murphy explains that Michael Eric will sleep in Adam’s room and that she just assumed that any child in foster care sent to her would be a boy. She tells Carley to call her Julie. Carley asks about her husband, and Mrs. Murphy says that he’s at the firehouse for the night. Carley feels trepidation thinking of her stepfather, Dennis. Mrs. Murphy goes to bathe Michael Eric and Adam. Carley picks up a photo of Mrs. Murphy and her husband; he’s in a Navy uniform. The frame slips through her fingers, falls to the floor, and breaks, but Mrs. Murphy says not to worry about it. Carley doesn’t attend the family dinner but stays in Michael Eric’s room. She misses her mother and hopes that if she’s just patient enough, she “will have a mother of her own again” (10).

It’s 2:34am, and Carley can’t sleep. She thinks of the night before, when she sneaked from her hospital room to try to find her mother in the ICU; a nurse caught her and sent her back to her room. Carly feels that a good daughter could have found her mother. The next morning, she drinks the plain orange juice that Mrs. Murphy went out the night before to get for her. When Michael Eric cries over an injured hand, Mrs. Murphy “heals” him with a kiss; when she reprimands Adam for injuring his brother, she does so with patience and kindness. Carley, dumping the OJ, feels very out of place in this house so filled with tenderness and love: “I don’t belong here. I begin to think that a foster mother who smokes cigars and makes me sleep in the basement would be a relief” (14).

Carley thinks of Mrs. Murphy as “perky” when she asks what Carley would like to do. Carley mentions basketball because she played on a team in Las Vegas. She remembers her mother yelling inappropriate comments at the referees in support of Carley. She also recalls how her mother played slot machines just inside the front doors of the casinos, where she could see Carley waiting in the lobby. Outside, Carley calls on God to show her if her mother still loves her by allowing her to make the basket, but the ball becomes wedged between the backboard and rim. Daniel sees and asks if she will get the ball. Carley replies, “I did the work of getting it up there; you get it down” (16). He then tells Mr. Murphy, who pulls in from his night at the firehouse, that Carley was the one who wedged the ball. Mr. Murphy offers a hand to shake but doesn’t look thrilled that she has come to stay. Carley decides that she hates Daniel.

Carley and Michael Eric talk about her stuffed giraffe from Family Services. He names it Mr. Longneck and asks if they can play. Carley tells him they’ll play another time. Michael Eric wants to keep Mr. Longneck, but Carley doesn’t give the giraffe away; she arrived with next to no possessions as it is. She doesn’t want to go down for lunch, but she does. She’s amazed at Mrs. Murphy’s offer to make her a sandwich and has derogatory thoughts about it. Instead, Carley goes to the cabinet, laughing at “Perky Murphy’s” tidy organization and belittling it with a quiet comment: “And on the third day, God created the seas and mountains and this freakish cabinet in Connecticut” (21). She purposely turns cans around and upside down. She thinks that Mrs. Murphy wouldn’t last a second in Carley’s world that—and that her own mother would treat a woman like Mrs. Murphy the same way a cat would bat around a toy. Carley is jubilant when Mrs. Murphy assumes that Daniel left the cabinet a mess. Daniel denies it and Mrs. Murphy figures out it was Carley, but Daniel is angry that his mother doesn’t reprimand Carley. 

Mrs. Murphy suggests that Carley enroll in school, which Carley doesn’t enjoy hearing. Mrs. Murphy convinces Carley to sit with her as she preps dinner. Thinking of her stepfather, Carley asks about Mr. Murphy’s temper, and Mrs. Murphy reassures her that he’s a kind man and that she’s safe there. Next, Mrs. Murphy tries to ask about Carley’s move to Connecticut, but they don’t get far, as the traumatic incident happened in Connecticut and Carley doesn’t want to talk about that. At dinner Mrs. Murphy leads grace, telling God that they’re all happy that Carley is there; however, Daniel speaks up and says that he isn’t glad. His discontent escalates quickly, and he tells Carley, “Just because your mother doesn’t want you doesn’t mean you can take mine” (27). Carley flees the house.

Carley runs up the road, cold and out of breath. She forces herself to keep going but falls in the dirt and brush near an orchard. She can’t help but think about her mother. The night of the incident that sent her to the hospital plays like a movie in her head: Carley’s mother, smelling of vodka, falls to the floor trying to get the basketball Carley has been bouncing. Dennis comes in and threatens to hit Carley; he starts to chase her. Carley insults him, egging him on intentionally, thinking that if he tries to hit her even once her mother will leave him forever. Instead, her mother grabs her, telling Dennis, “Honey, I got her! I got her by the foot!” (31).

When Carley wakes up, Mrs. Murphy is there, encouraging her to walk back home. Carley sees house lights on, and Mrs. Murphy explains that she wanted to let Carley come back on her own. Carley wonders again to herself why Mrs. Murphy seems to care about her so much and then asks Mrs. Murphy why she would take her in. Mrs. Murphy explains that she had a friend in foster care while growing up and wanted to find out more about helping a child in need. She went to the foster care office for more information; Mrs. MacAvoy came in talking about Carley’s strong personality. Mrs. Murphy realized that she wanted to host a child with spirit and fight. Carley claims that in fact she’d really like to hit someone, but Mrs. Murphy tells her she meant “fight as in determination” (34). Carley feels like she must “give back all the nice things she’s done” (35), still unable to understand why Mrs. Murphy cares at all when her own mother must not.

Carley goes shopping with Mrs. Murphy in preparation to start school. She recalls that “shopping” with her own mother consisted of taking things from Salvation Army drop bins. They go to a large mall, but when Mrs. Murphy asks if she likes a certain shirt, Carley can’t say anything. She doesn’t know what clothing style she likes or what makes her unique.

They buy two bags of clothes, and Carley thanks Mrs. Murphy. Then, without explanation, her emotions change suddenly; she decides she hates all the new clothes. In a restaurant, she snaps at Mrs. Murphy, telling her to go home and iron something. Mrs. Murphy tells her that she has no call to speak rudely, but Carley keeps behaving badly: When the busser offers water, she tells him to bring her mother instead; she then stuffs all the rolls in the basket down between the wall and the booth. She refuses to order anything, so Mrs. Murphy orders for them both, but when Carley won’t eat, Mrs. Murphy pays and asks for the food in take-out boxes. She tries to tell Carley that it’s okay to be upset and that crying might do her good, but Carley tells her not to play psychologist or professor with her. She tries to make the point that crying won’t do her any good, same as a penguin’s wings won’t do it any good if shot from a cannon.