Charlie

I went to see my six year old sister after work. Don had told me about the arrest, and how poor Rach was in the middle of it! Could that woman be more selfish! Rach put napkins on the table as I came in.

I called out to her She greeted me seriously. Her hair was in a pony tail, or Dad's version of one. We hugged.

"My mommy's in jail" she said sadly. Dad and his ex wife had explained to her that Dad had been married before and that Don and I had a 'different mommy who died from an awful sickness'

"I'm sorry to hear that" I used my best sympathetic voice.

"Daddy says I don't haveta go to school tomorrow"

"But you're still doing the homework" Dad warned her gently. "I'm getting it from your teacher tomorrow morning"

"Dad!"I protested. "Give her a break"

"She needs her routine"

Don was able to join us for dinner, though he couldn't bring my niece. He had bought Rach a chocolate cake, and assured her that everything was 'gonna be okay'.

"Where's Maggie?" Rach asked at Dinner.

"With her mother" Don replied.

"Isn't she sick?" Rach, wondered.

"Maggie's mom is..better. We'll save them some cake" Don took a long sip from his beer.

"Would you like some more juice?" Dad tried to change the difficult subject. How do you explain, to a kid, about a woman who abused morphine, went to rehab, and now only had supervised visits with her daughter?

When she went to bed, Don told Dad, as we three sat in the living room, "You know, Dad, you could use the arrest to get full custody"

"Nat has her faults, but she's a good mother" Dad sipped his beer.

"She choose a monkey over her own kid!" Don snapped. The twit's arrest was because she and some friends stole a spider monkey that was about to be Euthanized for some disease, she and others thought was misdiagnosed.

"Nat just went a little to far. I'm gonna go talk to her tomorrow"

"that's worked so well in the past" I snorted cynically.

"Charlie..." Dad used his warning tone on me.

"Why don't I take Rach and Maggie to Disneyland tomorrow?" Don suggested."The paperwork can wait." Circumstances had forced Don to pull strings and get a desk job.

"Nat was gonna take Rach for her birthday" Dad said, stopped, and nodded "Sure why not?"

TBC