Charlie

Fuming, I left the house. Natalie's got a lot to answer for! She treats Dad badly, and then has the audacity to insult me. It's not my fault that she had to leave for so long. I love my sister and would have prevented her from getting the rashes if I could. Why couldn't she see that? Besides, she has no right to keep me from seeing Dad and Rach.

Poor Dad! I knew that marrying that woman would make him unhappy! This is one time I would have preferred to be wrong.

Later that night, Amita called me to check in.

"How did Rach like her present?"

"I didn't get to give it to her, she was asleep."

"oh..."

"And I got into a fight with Natalie" I admitted, and then explained the details.

"She was too hard on you" she agreed with me.

"I almost wish that Dad had married Mildred instead"

"You mean our new boss?" she asked with surprise. Mildred, or Millie, as she preferred to be called, was the new division chair, and she disapproved of my and Amita's spending so much time helping the FBI. She even wanted to drag me to some social to help her raise money! "Are things really that bad?"

"She isn't very nice to Dad" I pouted.

"She kinda sounds like my sister did when my niece was little" Amita remarked.

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The next day, Don came to see me at my office, and I told him about what happened at the break room.. He listened.

"I'll talk to Natalie" he promised with a serious tone, while pouring himself some coffee. "She had no right to yell at you like that. I'm glad that Dad defended you"

"I feel bad for him!"

"There's not much we can do, but be there for Dad, and Rach" he handed me the coffee pot. "I'm coming over tonight"

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As things turned out, Dad and Rach came to see me at my office. She had her hair in two little pig tails.

"We were thinkin' that you could join us for dinner?" Dad smiled. Rach was in his arms holding some stuffed animal; its head was in her mouth.

"Okay" I smiled.

"Donnie's coming too."

I aknowledged Dad, and asked Rach "Mind if I carry ya?"Carefully, I got her from him. "You're getting heavy!" I teased.

She cooed, recognizing me.

"I got you a new toy!" I told her when I remembered. "Wanna see it?"

She smiled, and I looked closely at the stuffed animal; it was a crocodile.

Quickly, with only one hand free, I looked for the present, found it, and opened the box.

"There ya go!" I gave her the stuffed, large apple, with a happy face, which smelled like well, apple. She put the croc aside in favor of it. I could tell that she liked the smell by how she put it close to her face.

"Charlie..." Dad said. "I'm very proud of how you've help me with Rach, and your generosity towards her, but she needs to learn not to expect a toy everytime she's with you. I don't want her feeling entitled to them."

"but most of the toys I get her are educational" I protested.

"She needs to learn how to entertain herself." Dad explained softly, and added. " Besides, don't you have students, who resent having to work for good grades?"

"yeah..." I didn't know what this had to do with the subject of toys. "they blame me when I give them bad grades."

"Those kids are that way because they were given everything they wanted"

"oh..." I understood and realized that I didn't want Rach ending up like them.

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We went to our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Arco Iris. On a high chair, Rach banged a fork on the little table in between snacking on tortilla chips. Dad told Don and me about his plans for her.

"I made an appointment with a speech therapist" he announced.

"Isn't it a little soon to worry?" Don asked.

"She doesn't know a single word" Dad countered, "And has a tantrum rather than make the effort"

I began "I read somewhere that there's no need to worry until.."

"most of those 'experts' have never had kids of their own!" Dad scoffed. Don tried to say something, but was stopped by Rach throwing the fork to the floor. She had again started to throw stuff, during the past week. This didn't make sense to me until Don pointed out that she probably liked the noise.

Dad told her gently "Rach, please stop throwing things. "

"Ah!" she responded. A few moments later, Rach finished her tortilla chips, and in babytalk demanded more.

"you're not gonna eat dinner if you have anymore" Dad 's tone was firm, but soft.

In protest, she banged the bowl in frustration and then the tantrum started. Shrugging, Dad drank some beer.

How can someone so little, be so loud? Soon, people were staring at us. I heard a loud thud, only to realize that my sister had thrown the little bowl, which Dad had brought, to the floor.

A woman about Don's age came up to us and suggested with annoyance to me and Don "Maybe taking her outside will calm her down?" Guess she assumed one of us was the father.

"You don't have kids, do ya?" Dad asked wryly.

"No, but I've got a dinner that I can't enjoy because of your granddaughter's wailing."

Before Dad could say something nasty, I quickly got the new toy I got Rach, dubbed Mr. Strawberry by Don, and gave it to my sister, as I started feeling sorry for her. The crying turned to whimpering, and then into sniffing once she had the toy close to her face. Dad gave me an aggravated look, and then asked the woman, "Happy now?" in his sharp tone.

She rolled her eyes, and left us.

"What have I told you about interfering, huh?" Dad asked me.

"I didn't give her more chips" I countered lamly.

"He's just trying to help, Dad" Don defended me.

"Charlie's doing more harm than good!" Dad told him emphatically. "by giving Rach the toy, he's teaching her that having a tantrum will put the world at her feet."

"Are you ready to order?" the waiter interrupted us.

We all gave our orders, though Dad asked for a kid's quesadilla on Rach's behalf.

Then, Dad started to lecture me on disciplining little kids,

Don protested a few times, but Dad glared at him. Finally, the food came. Gently, my brother cut the quesadilla in three pieces, put one in rach's hand, and encouraged her to eat it. She did that with one hand, but held the Mr. strawberry at the other.

"Why don't we put Mr. Strawberry aside?" Dad suggested to her patiently. "I 'm sure he's hungry too! He'll come back soon!"

After some protesting, she let him take Mr. Strawberry.

For desert, we all had flan. I shared mine with Rach. Dad told me not to give her so much.

Eventually, we all parted ways, after Dad paid the bill. Both me and Don promised to go see him and my sister the next day. Dad smiled, and hinted that he might make steaks.

TBC

a/n: I left out Nat, as Charlie wasn't really thinking about her, during the dinner.