Jasmine and I have lunch once a month now.
We go to a little Mexican place on 3rd Street with the best enchiladas in Bell County. She tells me about her work at the hospital. She’s going back to school at Temple College to become a registered nurse. She got a grant through the hospital’s tuition program, and the victims’ compensation fund through the Attorney General’s office helped her pay off the medical bills from when Wayne put her in the hospital. Almost $14,000. She’d been paying it off at fifty dollars a month for two years.
“It’s gone,” she told me, holding up the letter that said PAID IN FULL like a report card. “All of it. For the first time since Quinn was born, I don’t owe anybody anything.”
She also told me something else.
When the police went through Wayne Haller’s things after his arrest, they found papers. A credit card application filled out in Jasmine’s name. Her old Social Security number, from when they lived together. He’d opened two credit cards and a phone account in her name and run up almost $6,000 of debt that went to collections. Her credit score had dropped so low she couldn’t even rent an apartment on her own. She’d been living with her aunt in Belton because of it, and she never knew why.
“I thought I was just bad with money,” she said. “I thought it was my fault.”
Teresa Ochoa helped her with that too. Filed the identity theft report with the police. Put a fraud alert on her credit report with all three bureaus. Disputed every one of those accounts.
In January, Jasmine signed a lease on her own two-bedroom apartment off Adams Avenue. Quinn has her own room now. It’s painted purple. There are yellow smiley-face stickers all over the headboard of her little bed.
“She won’t let me take them off,” Jasmine told me, laughing. “Not one. She says they’re for protection.”
Quinn goes to a new daycare now. A real center, with cameras and a keypad lock on the door. There’s a list at the front desk with a photo of every single person allowed to pick her up. Two names. Jasmine’s and her aunt’s.
And on the bottom of the list, in Jasmine’s handwriting, there’s a third line.
It says: Loretta Bixby, sticker lady. Emergency contact.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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