Three Little Words

Ashley’s biological mother, Lorraine, has Ashley when she is only 17 and is not well placed to care for her child. Ashley describes her as having “a carefree attitude” and being “too self-absorbed to fuss about my safety” (2). Although she appears to truly care for her children, she is unreliable, selfish, and jealous, insisting that “‘I’m your only mother” (vii) and demanding of Ashley, “‘You’re not calling anyone else “Mama,” are you?’” (55), something that stops Ashley from being able to love and trust other people. She regularly blames the authorities for her own “broken promises” (57), insisting that “‘[t]hey kept me away from you’” (55), which reinforces Ashley’s lack of trust in others. Even when Ashley is starting to settle in and find some happiness and security with the Courters, Lorraine is still a destructive force, chiding Ashley by saying, “‘My, you’ve changed […] You sound like a stuck-up Valley girl’” (234) and even demanding to know “‘When is Ashley going to get over it?’” (238). Despite this, once she is secure with the Courters, Ashley is able to find “pity for my biological mother” (288), as well as understanding, recognizing that, if she had “received a fraction of the money the Mosses—or any of my foster parents—were paid, she could have established herself in Tampa and made a home for us” (288-89).

Mrs. Moss lives in a caravan with her husband and “as many as fourteen children […] even though their legal capacity was for only seven” (64). Her outward appearance is of a caring, loving foster parent, an image she maintains by insisting that all the children “‘need is love and attention […] and I’ve got plenty of both to go around’” (71). However, behind closed doors, she is abusive and sadistic. She regularly punishes the children for imagined transgressions by making them drink hot sauce, “push[ing] [Ashley’s] face into [her] puke” (68), or forcing the children to run laps “around the long, horse-shoe shaped driveway” (73). Whenever the children report her abuse, she manages to dupe the investigators into believing her version of events, even convincing Ashley’s caseworker that the girl came to her and said, “‘I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble by telling those lies about you’” (135). Eventually, Mrs. Moss is investigated more thoroughly and is “arrested on twenty-five counts of felony child abuse and nine counts of felony child neglect” (248). She pleads guilty to one count of child neglect and is given “[p]robation for only five years” (267). Ashley’s own case against Mrs. Moss also has only a limited impact, and Ashley is outraged that she can “tell so many lies” (283) and that the judge asks “both sides to try to reach an agreement through mediation” (285). It is perhaps this more than anything else that convinces Ashley to speak out for children who “have no voice” (289).

Mary is Ashley and Luke’s Guardian ad Litem and promises to “‘represent your best interests in court’” (115). Her role in the book is relatively small, but her impact on Ashley’s and Luke’s lives is huge. In fact, it is years before Ashley realizes “everything she had accomplished on Luke’s and my behalf” (118). She is the first person to ask, “‘What can I do for you?’” (115), something that Ashley previously never truly considered. However, the most significant thing Mary does for Ashley is to ask lawyers “to begin termination proceedings for Dusty Grover’s rights to Luke and my mother’s rights to me” (118-19). When Lorraine signs away her legal claim to Ashley rather than take another drug test, it is Mary who tells Ashley, in a voice that is “both tender and firm,” that she will never live with her mother because “‘she can’t take care of you’” (126). Although this is difficult and upsetting for Ashley, Mary’s tough decision to pursue this course finally allows her to stop clinging to her unreliable mother and to open up to the possibility of finding security and maternal love from another source.