Mary sat with her husband, Carlos, waiting for her mother to come out and start to cook breakfast or at least to ask her to come and do so. Her patience was always self evident in a time like this. Carlos was not in his top mood either; his job lost was like the loss of his manlihood.
Mary decided that since so much time had passed and her mother had not come down to cook breakfast she would surprise her mother and make breakfast for her after all her parents were very generous to let her live there until they could get back on their footing.
"Mom don't worry about breakfast, I am cooking it," Mary called out as she caught a glance at a note on the table.
Mary walked up and read it. It was a note from her mother, and she thought as she opened the letter, "Oh, mom has probably gone out to buy groceries she will be happy to see breakfast done when she gets home.
But when she opened the letter it was not what she was expecting, "… I need some time to myself….I can't handle all this … Eric if you don't leave your job I will divorce you…. I am sorry my children this isn't your fault, I love you all life is just too much for me right now!"
"What?" Mary questioned reading the letter thrice to make sure that she hadn't miss-understood it, "This isn't my mom. She would never do this."
"Hey, honey," said Carlos as he walked in the kitchen and Mary quickly hid the letter in her pocket deciding to wait until a good moment to reveal its contents to the rest of her family. Would they be able to handle this she wondered and thought she had better show it to her dad first and have him take care of the matter.
Peter lay on the sofa watching the early morning new as he always did when he was waiting for a ride to school. He noticed that Ruthie was not in the least bit happy.
"Hay Ruthie," he asked, "What's wrong with you? You don't look like your usual self today."
Ruthie searched through her soul to tell Peter what was troubling her but it hurt too much. She hadn't even been able to tell her mother. She would tell her mom when she arrived home from school her mother would know what to do.
Ruthie said, "Oh Pete, nothing."
"Come on, Ruthie, I know you are not alright," he replied, "I can see it in your face you are being troubled by something deeply."
"I'm fine." She insisted.
Peter got up and walked out of the room he couldn't understand why Ruthie as he saw it didn't trust him. He had told her all of his troubling problems and somehow it always made them better but Ruthie wouldn't tell him anything and he was so afraid that she didn't trust him, and it made him very sad. Ruthie on the other hand was in terrible pain that she wanted to tell someone about but could not. She prayed every night that one day she could.
Kevin on his way to the police station stopped in the Camden house because he had seen that there was a job opening, he hoped that if he were to tell his brother-in-law about it, then he would have something to lift himself up.
"Hey Carlos, you know there is an opening at the police station and the chief told me that you would be a first pick if you want to apply." Kevin said.
Carlos looked up and showed a little glimpse of hope in his eye and asked, "Oh really?"
"Yeah, you should come and apply today. Well I have to go now hope all is well in the house. See you all tonight." Kevin said as he turned around to leave the house the exact way he had come in.
"Thanks," said Carlos, "I will check out that job."
Matt went to see his mother, Annie, he knocked on the door and it flew open because it wasn't shut tight. He looked in and his mother wasn't there. As he turned around to walk out he also noticed the twins were awake. He went in and woke them up so that they could go to school.
As they ran down to watch T.V., they both kicked Matt in the shin really hard each. Matt could not for the life of him figure out why it was that the twins disliked his so much.
As the twins ran down the stairway the doorbell rang and Ruthie noticed she was late for school. She ran to the twins and hurried them up the stairway and as she passed Matt, who was on his way to answer the door, she asked, "Will you take us to school it is so late and we will get into trouble school started fifteen minuets ago."
While Ruthie was dressing the children Matt opened the door and saw Simon he invited him in and he sat on the sofa and immediately fell asleep. Matt was not expecting him to come home for the Christmas Break but it was nice to see him anyways.
Matt got Cecilia, Martin and Pete in the car. Ruthie followed out shortly and squeezed herself and the twins into Matt's car. There wasn't much room but all was well.
Eric sat in his office as the police chief walked in. Eric looked up and asked, "Hello? Do you need something?"
"Yes, Eric." He answered, "I need to ask a favor of you."
"As away," Eric concluded laying his pen that he was writing his sermon with down on the desk.
"There was a boy, he was taken from his parents for abuse by child protection services, and there is nobody home for the Christmas Break to foster the child and we were wondering if you and Annie could take him in for the break."
"Well let me call Annie." Eric replied, and he then called his house and got no reply, "Well I guess we can for tonight and I will discuss it with Annie tonight and tell you for sure tomorrow."
"Thank you so much," said the officer as he let in a skinny 14 year old boy in, "His name is Jose."
As the officer turned around and walked out, Eric said, "How are you Jose?"
Jose just stared at him and said, "Shut up."
"Okay" said Eric as he returned to his sermon.
Annie had never felt so alone in her life, but she couldn't return to her old life it was too hard. As she walked into her new apartment she prayed to god, "Lord, please help me know what I should do."