"She's angry…..Isn't she, Papa." Fred Jr. whispered to his father. They had told Frances that night of his and Irene's situation…..She was asleep now….and Helen had taken her brother's room for the night.

"No….I don't think so." Fred started to say. "Just….upset. Upset that this happened."

"I'm sorry…I told her that. I hope she knows that. I didn't mean for this to happen…."

"I know you didn't, son. These things happen….and I wouldn't say this baby's an accident."

"I never said that, Papa!" Fred Jr. said, a little angered by his statement.

"Now calm down! I never said you said that….I was just saying…."

"What were you saying?" He turned his head away from the lamplight and put a closed hand to his temple.

"Look at me, Freddy….." Fred told his son. And slowly his son turned his head so his face met his. "I'm glad you apologized for this, and you can say sorry all you want to, but you will have to live with this for the rest of your life….That baby will always be your son or daughter."

Fred Jr. moved his head and looked forward at the wall and was silent in thought. Meanwhile, Fred continued. He crumpled up a piece of paper and un-crumpled, and showed it to him it to use as an illustration.

"No matter how much you try, you'll never be able to get this piece of paper back to the way it was before…It's like me with my scars. You've seen most of them before… I will have to live with them for the rest of my life. I'll never be able to fix them…they'll always be there." Fred said and looked at his son.

"Will you just drop it, Papa?... I don't need an illustration! If this is something to coax me into being responsible, I don't need it! Don't you think I'm responsible enough that I WANT to marry Irene? And not just because of the baby!... I love Irene."

"I just….wanted to make sure you understood."

"I do, Papa…..I've done a lot of thinking." He looked at his father quite seriously, yet a tad bit of anger shone on his face." I'm not an idiot, you know."

"I know you're not son….."

"Just, forget it Papa…..I'll be getting up to bed." Fred Jr. got up out of his chair and started for the bedroom door, so he could pass through the room and go to the bedroom upstairs.

"Freddy…."

He looked back at his father a second, with his hand resting on the door knob.

"I think your mother's also very proud of you….for being such a wonderful young man…Just upset that you're growing up...and you have to leave home one day."

"I know that day's coming….No one can stop it." Fred Jr. said.

"You're her little boy. When you leave….it'll be like her world will disappear. I guess that's what a mother's tears are for."

"How so, Papa?"

"If a child could stay that way forever, no one would see a mother's tears." Fred said.

"I don't understand…"

"Don't you think…a mother's tears show the love she has?...And to love him enough to let him go one day?"

"I guess so." Fred Jr. said quietly.

"Just think on that." He said, and saw his son open the door to the bedroom. Freddy passed through the room and paused at the door and looked back at his mother asleep in the bed, before he went upstairs.

"I am your little boy." He whispered softly and smiled a little. "Ich liebe Sie immer, Mama." Which meant, "I'll love you always, Mama." And with that, he trudged upstairs and went to the back room and retired for the night.

(

Helen was walking back to the college after she spent some time in town, trying to get more job applications she could fill out…after nearly three times of trying! She finally made it back to the college, papers in hand, and she ran up the stairs to her dorm room. At this college, each person had their own little dorm room, and there were larger rooms for their classes and a room to dine in. She met her friend who had the room across from her outside her dorm room.

"Hi Charlene…Just let me set these inside, and we'll go to supper! I'm starving!" She said, fumbling around in her skirt pocket for her room key. "Here, can you hold these a sec? Thanks…." Helen quickly gave her the papers and retrieved her room key and unlocked the door.

"Did you go job searching again?"

"Yeah…" Helen answered, taking them back from Charlene and setting the job applications on her little desk.

"Well, how did it go?"

"I don't know Charlene…and I STILL haven't heard back from those restaurants yet!"

"I'm sorry…."

"It's alright….I just don't get it! You'd think they'd need cooks! And heck, I'm not a master chef, but I'm decent at it!" Helen sighed, trying to fix a strand of brown hair that had fallen in front of her eyes.

"C'mon we can talk about this in a bit….all this talk of cooking is making me even hungrier!" Charlene laughed.

"Me too." Helen chuckled. "Let's go see what they have for supper."

Helen and Charlene went down to the dining hall and met up with some other girls and guys from the college…..Most of them were Charlene's friends, but Helen fit in pretty well with them in this first month at college. They all ate a good supper, and talked and laughed together there until their little groups left and went about their business…Helen went back up to her room, she knew she had some homework left to do. She and Charlene would do their homework together. So off to studying they went! Helen at her desk, and Charlene sat on Helen's bed. Helen was typing up a report on her typewriter.

"Stupid fingers!" She grumbled to herself.

"What?" Charlene chuckled.

"Oh, I pressed the wrong key! Now I have to figure out how to take this paper out so I can erase my mistake and try it again!"

"Do you need help? I can get one of the guys!"

"No, I've got it…but thanks." Helen replied, laying the paper down on the wooden desktop and proceeded to erase her typing error. "There!" She smiled, triumphantly.

"Very good!" Charlene grinned and laughed a little. "To think when you first came you didn't know the first thing about a typewriter!"

"Yeah…and no I don't type 30 words a minute. More like 19 or 20!" Helen laughed. "But I think it's pretty good for a first timer…"

The two girls went back to their studies until a conversation was brought up.

"We need to get you a boyfriend….." Charlene thought out loud.

"What?" Helen turned about so she could see her friend and rested her arm on the chair's back. "I'm trying to focus on my studies! I don't have time for a boyfriend right now."

"Oh sure…." Charlene smirked.

"I'm serious!...Plus, I've JUST started college. That's way too early to be thinking about guys, Charlene."

"You're smart….I bet you can pass your quizzes without even trying!"

"I don't think so…." Helen said and paused. "Don't you think you should get back to work?"

"Come on….You're so intelligent! I bet you could handle your grades and a guy at the same time….I know a guy. VERY good looking! Blond…His name's Greg….oh I forget his last name right now!"

"I'm not as intelligent as you think I am, Charlene."

"What? Oh please!...You got mostly A's on your very first quiz! Second one too, if I remember correctly!"

"You have no idea, Charlene….You don't know how much I struggle."

"You? No way!"

"I do struggle….I have to work at it. Math's a bit hard….I only understand about half of what I'm learning, but I push myself to learn all I can with it….That stupid typewriter's another thing….and I have absolutely no idea what I'm learning in my Shorthand course! It's too confusing!"

"You made a B- on your last test with the Shorthand though!"

"You don't get it!...I told you I struggle! The knowledge I do gain, I have to work at it!" Helen said and felt tears come to her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of her friend, but felt she was about to.

"All the other college students, it's like it's so easy for them….I have to work and work and work at it….and that's frustrating!"

"Helen….you're just starting out!" Charlene said softly, hoping to help her friend.

"Yeah…and so are you! Look how easy it is for you….It's always been like this. All through school…..I spent most of my time studying all I could, whenever I could….but memorizing things is another thing for me. Stays in my head for some time, but where it goes, I'd like to know." She chuckled a little, wiped away a tear and sniffed a little.

"I understand…Sorry, I made you cry." Charlene said, gently clutching one of Helen's pillows from her bed.

"It's alright…and you didn't make me cry. I guess I just hadn't had a good cry in a long while. Guess I needed it." She joked.

"So you're okay now?"

"Yeah….I'm fine."

"Good." Charlene smiled.

"Yes….now let's get back to work!" Helen chuckled.

"Alright…." She grinned and looked down at her studies again.

"And…maybe…you could tell me some more about that Greg guy…." Helen laughed and looked at her friend, who was grinning at her and they both burst into giggles.

A/N: The songs "A Mother's Tears" and "I'm Your Little Boy." Are both songs by the German singer, Heintje Simons….Frances and Helen, and also my Grandfather would love to listen to Heintje. They had a few of his records. :) I used the lyrics in the story sort of….I used the second verse of "A Mother's Tears" "Her little boy will grow and then one day he'll go away, and when he leaves her whole world disappears, but if a child could stay a child forever, no one would ever see a Mother's tears." And for "I'm Your Little Boy" I of course used the title of the song….but there also was a part which Heintje spoke, "Yes, whatever I do, and wherever I go, I'll be thinking of you, And you can be sure I'll always love you, because you're the best Mama in the whole world…" So I sort of used that for inspiration in Fred Jr. saying, "I'll love you always, Mama."

I don't know how college dorm rooms were back then, so I made up what I thought would be sensible to the story. :) And to tell the truth, I know nothing of my great grandma Helen's college days at Bayless Business College….so I made up her friend….and picked out a random name. lol.

In reality, Helen was very smart and had no problem with academics as far as I know. She was exceptionally bright in math! But I thought to put some of myself into her character, how I struggled in school….So really, her character is smart, but has to work her hardest at it to get there! :)

I also used my frustration in trying to find a job, and put it in the story as well.