Craig thought about band practice. He watched Maude as she made her way from one end of the living room to the other. She would cling to furniture, take a few wobbly steps, fall on her butt. He eyed the diaper warily. She needed to be changed. He hoped Manny remembered to pick up diapers.

The diaper needed to be changed. The dishes needed to be done. She needed a bath, not to mention his homework. Homework. It seemed so silly to have homework and to be a father. He was screwing up royally in school, he might even fail science if he didn't pull it together. At this rate Maude could be doing homework with him. He sighed, feeling irritable and tired and unwilling to do the mountain of things that needed to be done. Manny got to be at cheerleading practice and he was stuck here. He closed his eyes and thought of everyone at band practice without him. Then he got up and hunted for a diaper.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Maude, bath time," he said, watching the tub fill, watching the rubber duckie rise and bob with the rising water. He heard the shrill ring of his cell phone in his pocket and answered it as Maude toddled off toward the kitchen. Out of his view.

"Hello?"

"Hey, what's up?" It was Ashley, and he felt ashamed at the flush of pleasure he felt at hearing her voice. He sometimes wondered what things would be like if he'd got her pregnant instead of Manny.

"Uh, nothing," He felt torn between turning the water off so it wouldn't overflow or running after Maude right now. God knew what she was into now.

"Are you busy?" she said. He twisted the knob of the faucet and ran from the bathroom, through the short carpeted hall, and into the kitchen. Maude had pulled herself up onto a chair and was eating something. Whatever it was it was white and powdery. The powder was on her fingers and around her mouth. He closed his eyes, hoping whatever it was wasn't toxic.

"Uh, yeah, kinda," He let out his pent up breath when he saw a box of powdered doughnuts Manny had picked up at a convenience store.

"Should I let you go?"

"Yeah. Uh, I'll call you back, okay?" He grabbed Maude from the chair, getting the powder of the donut she devoured all over his clothes. He carried her under one arm to the bathroom, clicked his cell phone closed with the other hand and shoved it into his pocket.

"C'mon, kid," he said, and she smiled up at him with this half crazy smile, her mouth all covered with the white powder from the donuts. He smiled despite hating the powdered sugar on his clothes, and that kind of thing made him feel like his father. Maude kind of looked like Angie when she smiled like that. He put her gently into the bathtub and thought about Ashley.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Maude was bathed and in bed and asleep. Craig sighed, tiptoeing from her room. She looked so cute, her curls still damp from the bath, and she smelled like baby soap. That reminded him of when Ang was a baby, and his mom was alive.

One thing done, but he saw the pile of dishes in the sink with the food drying and congealing on them. They didn't even have a dishwater. They couldn't afford an apartment that had one, which totally sucked. It was getting later and later and where the hell was Manny?

He called Ash while the sink was filling with water, glancing into the parking lot for a car dropping off Manny. The parking lot was still.

"Hi," she said, and he liked her voice, musical and adult and sexy.

"Hi,"

"Less busy now?" she said, laughing. He squirted soap on the sponge and started scrubbing a plate.

"Sort of. Just a different kind of busy,"

He was amazed that Ash had decided to be friends with him. She watched the whole pregnancy and babysat Maude off and on and seemed very relieved that it wasn't her. He could feel her feeling it. He could see it every time she handed Maude back to Manny or to him.

"Do your homework yet?" she said, and he felt kind of annoyed at that question. Irritated. It was the undertone of smugness in her voice.

"Not yet. I'll get to it,"

"I know you will. You drink enough coffee to keep those South American cities going,"

The dishes were finished and dripping in the dish drain. The living room was still a mess and the kitchen table was buried under papers and junk and the torn box of doughnuts, but at least the dishes were clean. And he'd get to his homework sometime. Hopefully before tomorrow morning, hopefully before it was due.