Ch 14: Picture This

Gracie and her kindergarten class are sitting around their tables working on their drawings, each student has been asked to draw a picture of their family. This is one of Gracie's favorite things to do. She's always loved drawing and art, and was excited anytime the class was coloring. Gracie worked hard on her picture, including everyone on the family. She drew everyone in the backyard, her mothers sitting on the swing by the garden, Kaylee was going down the slide while Nikki pushed her on the swing, she even included Bass and Jo Friday playing in the grass. Every picture Gracie drew was brightly colored, and aptly described all her happiness. Most of the other kids had similar pictures with the family barbecuing, camping, playing football in the front yard. There was of course one thing that was different in Gracie's picture from the rest of her classmates which one little boy, Jeremy next to her took notice of.

"Hey Gracie, how come you didn't draw your dad in the picture?" Jeremy asked.

"I don't have a dad."

"What? How do you not have a dad? Everyone has a dad."

"I don't know." Gracie shrugged."I don't have one."

"Wow, that's really weird." Jeremy said.

Gracie just sat there and furrowed her eyebrows. She couldn't understand what was so weird, and what the big deal having a dad was. Gracie's family was different from the other kids, but not to her. Still some people found her situation odd. The teacher came over to them after hearing a bit of their conversation.

"What's weird, Jeremy."

"Gracie's picture, Mrs. Hanley. She doesn't have a dad."

"Jeremy now, let's not make it an issue okay. Just concentrate on your own work."

"How do you like my picture, Mrs. Hanley?" Gracie asked holding up her picture.

"It's very nice, Honey."

The teacher answered quickly, and walked over to her collegue, Mrs. Schuman, who was a little older than Mrs. Hanley who was in her mid thirties. The school knew about Gracie having two mothers, but no one made an issue of it. Perhaps it was because they didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to her or maybe because many teachers didn't know how to deal with it. Gracie was able to hear a bit of a muffled conversation between the two women.

"I just hate having to deal with these awkward conversations with the kids." Mrs. Hanley said.

"I don't know. It's a different time from the one I grew up in."

Soon the parents were there to pick up their children, and Jane came to get Gracie. The little one excitedly hopped up to greet her mother.

"Hi Mommy."

"Hi Baby."

"Do you like my picture?"

"It's so beautiful, Honey."

Jane scooped her up, and carried her out while the teachers stopped and looked at her. It was a little peculiar, but nothing Jane wasn't used to. She was just happy Gracie was happy, and had a fun time drawing her family picture.