Reba opened the door one sunny afternoon to see a young girl standing on her front step.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"Is Van here?" the girl asked, her green eyes filling with tears.
"Sure," Reba replied. "Come on in, have a seat. I'll go get Van." She headed for the kitchen. As she reached the door, Reba turned back and asked, "who should I say it is?"
"Alexis," she replied, her voice shaking.
"Be right back," Reba smiled.
Van and Cheyanne were sitting at the table when Reba came into the kitchen.
"Van," Reba said, "there's an Alexis here to see you. She's in the living room."
"Alexis?" Van asked, "I don't know any Alexis."
"Van!" Cheyanne exclaimed, "your sister!"
"What's she doing here?" Van wondered.
"Don't ask me," Reba replied, "I didn't even know you had a sister."
"Well, I'd better get out there I guess," Van said, walking to the living room.
Reba turned to Cheyanne.
"Van has a sister? How did I never hear about her?" she asked, wondering how she had missed this detail.
"She's been in boarding school in Switzerland since she was 4 years old so Van doesn't really know her," Cheyanne explained. "Which makes it weird that she's here."
Just then Van burst back into the kitchen.
"You gotta help me Mrs. H," Van sputtered, "my sister failed calculus and got kicked outta boarding school. When she got home my parents said that she wasn't welcome there being that she got kicked out of school."
"Don't worry Van," Reba sighed, "I'll go talk to her."
Reba turned and left the kitchen.
Reba entered the living room and sat on the couch beside Alexis.
"Hi Alexis, I'm Reba Hart," she introduced herself. "Van's mother in law. Why don't you tell me what's going on."
"I failed math," Alexis burst into tears. "So I got kicked outta school but my parents kicked me out too because of all this! I've got nowhere to go here, I don't know anybody except Van."
"I'm not going to let you sleep on the street," Reba reassured her, putting her hand onto Alexis' back. "You can stay here for tonight and I'll talk to your parents tomorrow."
Alexis, surprised and not used to the loving affection that Reba gave her, looked up at Reba with big green eyes, "really?" she said, "you'd let me stay here for the night?"
Reba smiled, "there's no way I'm going to let you sleep on the street, its not right," she said. "You look tired, did you want to go upstairs and take a nap for a bit?" she added.
Alexis sniffed then wiped her eyes, "yes, thank you," she replied.
"Just follow me," Reba said, "my youngest daughter's bed is still in Elizabeth's room. You can sleep in there.
"Thank you," Alexis said, following Reba up the stairs.
After making sure that Alexis was alright, Reba returned downstairs to the kitchen.
"Where's Alexis?" Van asked.
"She's upstairs," Reba answered, "taking a nap in Kyra's old bed. I told her she could spend the night here. I'll talk to your parents tomorrow."
"You'll really do that for her? You're the greatest Mrs. H," Van said.
"I'm not just going to turn your sister out on the street," Reba told him. "How old is she anyway?"
"She's uh, 15," Van replied.
"That's terrible," Reba sighed, "I really don't understand your parents Van."
"You think that I'm messed up, well, I'm not half as screwed up as her," Van stated.
"What do you mean?" Cheyanne piped up.
"She's never been part of a family," he explained, "I can only remember a couple of Christmases that she was home."
"What do you mean Van," Cheyanne asked, still confused.
"I think I know what he's getting at," Reba said. "She doesn't know what its like to be loved, or to receive affection. When I offered to let her stay here tonight I put my arm on her shoulder, she just looked so surprised. She's not used to the warmth of a family."
"That's so sad," Cheyanne said, "I can't even imgaine that."
"I've got to run out to the grocery store," Reba said, "Make sure that you two stay here in case Alexis wakes up and needs something ok?"
"No problem mom," Cheyanne replied.
"Thanks again Mrs. H.," Van called after her.
A few hours later Alexis woke up and came downstairs to where the Hart family was watching tv.
"We're just going to order some pizza for supper," Reba said as Alexis sat down beside her on the couch.
"I hope that's alright," Van added.
Smiling, Alexis replied, "it's perfect."
"Did you like Switzerland?" Cheyanne asked, taking an interest in Alexis.
"It was beautiful," she replied.
"I've always wanted to travel," Cheyanne said.
"Yeah," Alexis sighed, "so, uh, what kind of pizza did you get?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"Pepperoni," Van answered.
"I'm about ready to go pick it up," Reba announced, "if you'd like to come with me," she directed to Alexis, sensing that she didn't want to talk about Switzerland.
"Sure," Alexis replied, eager to avoid the conversation.
Alexis sat in the passenger seat of Reba's car, heading to the pizza parlour.
"I could see that you didn't want to talk about it," Reba said, taking her eyes off the road for a second.
"It… its just… complicated," Alexis began. She really felt that she could open up to Reba. "As much as I wished that I had a family close, I dreaded the Christmases when I did go home. It was like spending Christmas with strangers, at least the people at school knew me."
"That must have been awful for you," Reba sighed. "I always had trouble connecting with my parents and it really hurt me that I wasn't closer with them."
"That must be why you are so loving to your children," Alexis commented.
"Thank you," Reba replied, her eyes sparkling. "I try to give my kids the unconditional love that I wanted so much."
Alexis turned and looked out the window.
"Don't worry, we'll figure something out," Reba reassured her, placing her hand on Alexis' knee.
The next morning Reba was up bright and early to get the kids off to school. After everybody had left, including Van for Denver,Reba decided it was time to pay a visit to the Montgomerys.
"Do you want to come with me?" Reba asked Alexis.
Alexis sighed, "I don't know."
"I know how you must be feeling," Reba agreed, "but maybe seeing you again will help to change their minds."
"Maybe you're right," Alexis conceded. "I'll come."
About a half hour later, Reba and Alexis pulled up to the Montgomery estate. Alexis took a deep breath, trying to stifle her nervousness. Reba turned to her and put her hand on Alexis' knee.
"It's going to be ok," Reba reassured her.
They got out of the car and approached the front door. Reba rang the doorbell.
Mr. Montgomery answered the door.
"Oh, look, it's Reba Hart… and look who she has with her," he said.
"We need to talk," Reba forced her way in to the living room.
"Fine," he replied, "sit down. Kitty, come here please," he called out.
Mrs. Montgomery entered the room. Seeing Reba with Alexis surprised her.
She sat on the couch beside her husband while Alexis sat beside Reba.
"I think you are being completely unreasonable kicking your 15 year old daughter out for failing math," Reba was right to the point.
"And I think that you are being completely unreasonable to be barging into our house to tell us what to do," Kitty replied.
"She's fifteen years old!" Reba exclaimed, "what is she supposed to do? Live on the street?"
Reba could see Alexis' lip quivering. She reached over and placed her hand on Alexis' knee.
"We don't care where she goes," Alexis' father said calmly, "as long as it's not here."
"I'm surprised that she isn't shacked up with you permanently," Kitty added.
"How can you even call yourself parents? Shipping your daughter out of the country, not even bringing her home for the holidays. She makes one little mistake, something that's not even her fault and you throw her out into the street!" Reba was getting angry.
"I guess you would know about daughters making mistakes," Kitty taunted, "wouldn't you?"
Reba just glared at the Montgomery's. Maybe Cheyanne and Van had made a mistake but their mistake produced the beautiful little girl that was her first granddaughter and she loved that little girl to bits.
"Come on," she said to Alexis getting up from the couch, "there's no getting through to these people."
Reba grabbed Alexis' hand and pulled her up off the couch. Alexis followed Reba out of the house without so much as a good bye to her parents…with Reba still holding tightly to her hand.