CPOV

Alice's mom was a very unique woman. Charming, smart, beautiful, and extremely mentally ill. She was bi-polar; like Alice, except she was type I. Of course, I didn't care. I loved her, illness and all. Valerie, her name was. Meaning "Fierce one" described her perfectly during her depressive swings. She drank a lot during them, well not at first. She used to be really good at coping with it, but as she got older things started to change.

One particular night, we had been married for a year and a half, Alice was ten months old and we all home in our apartment in New York. Valerie was in one of her depressive swings, sat down at the dining room table, bottle in her hand. Me and Alice we on the sofa, doing what I can't quite remember. But Valerie got up and stumbled over to us.

"Come to bed honey" She slurred in my ear. "I have a suprise for you."

I had just stared at her, holding you protectively in my lap. The smell of alcohol on her breath was nauseating. "Maybe once your sober," I got up, carrying Alice to the kitchen and got Valerie a glass of water. "Drink this" I told her.

She looked up at me with those big grey eyes, Alice was looking at me too with her identical pair, both of them looked a little out of focus. Alice started crying and Valerie took a look drink from her bottle. I went and put Alice in her crib and then sat down next to Valerie on the sofa.

The bottle was almost empty and she was almost incoherent, but that didn't stop me from at least trying to talk to her.

"Valerie" I whispered, she looked in my general direction, but her eyes were still out of focus, hazy. "Put down the bottle for a second and talk to me."

"No" She had said. As simple as that. "If I want to drink, then I will."

After that night things kept getting worse and worse. Eventually, one day I just packed up and left with Alice. I haven't heard from Valerie since. But now I wish I had gotten help for her, I wouldn't have stayed with her anyway, I love Esme too much. But maybe if we had stayed in touch I'd have a little bit of an idea of what do to with Alice now.