Three little kids in floppy straw hats pattered across the green lawn towards a young teenager sprawled in a hammock.
The girl in the hammock smiled to herself and then let out a sigh at being shaken out of her reverie. She had been thinking thoughts such as only 18 year olds could think. Seemingly naughty thoughts about a favorite boy and blushing at the thought of the time He spoke to her. How the world seemed to narrow down to that time and place. How if she wanted to, she could actually remember the moment down to its final detail.
Oh, bother! There were the kids two girls aged all of ten years and a kid brother 8 years old arguing in the usual girls vs. boys way whether snakes could fly. She put down her book and sat up to mediate the issue with all the wisdom of an 18-yr old as they brought the matter to her to sort out.
An old blue van was making its way down the driveway. It screeched to a halt in front of the oddly placed vegetable garden, throwing up clouds of dust that set all four of them off coughing and the argument over the snakes was forgotten.
It was 1986. It was bad enough being a single young woman and that too one saddled with 3 siblings to care for. She was the only one who still had a vivid memory of her parents walking out on them. Her mother Jan was a deranged woman addicted to everything she could possibly be addicted to by the time she became an adult. The only reason she didn’t get into trouble with the law was her sweet angelic face that fooled even the toughest jurors. Ha! She sadly thought. Yeah right, sweet and angelic. Only she knew what lay behind the mask. A cold, demonic character who’d always whizzed into her life just long enough to leave her latest offspring in Dorothy’s care. Dorothy was her first-born but not her first child conceived. Jan’s mother had always prevailed on her to abort the earlier fetuses. She’d have been only too happy to do the same to Dorothy; only she figured it out a little too late. Her mother threw her out as soon as she knew about it. Dorothy often wondered if it would have been different if her grandmother had reacted differently but then decided against it. Jan was already too far-gone to get back to normalcy but then there was always Providence.
Now her arms went cold as she saw Sheriff get out of the blue van. Her grim face closed to scrutiny or even mere exploration. It was always a bad sign when she looked like that. She wondered what it was this time. As far as she remembered, the bills were all paid up and the mortgage was only one installment behind. It couldn’t possibly be about money.
Sheriff Mae Rakeson walked towards the four with a very determined gait. Even then all she could think was, “Look at their faces. How am I ever going to break it to them?” and thought for the tenth time, “God, I hate this job. But then better me than anyone else.”
“Good afternoon, Dorothy. How are you all doing?”
“Well Sheriff, you’re obviously not here to ask me when the potatoes are coming out; so, what’s up?”
“You’re damn right I’m not. Dotty, it’s Jan. They found her on the pier last night. She’d overdosed on some pure stuff going around in the market these days.”
Dorothy hated the woman, didn’t she? Then why was it feeling like her world was about to come crashing down. She saw 8-year old Steven’s eyes as round as saucers and Steffie and Mary’s sullen expressions that seemed to have ‘bugger off’ stamped across.
“So”, continued Sheriff Mae, “Jan was your legal parent and guardian and the only reason why you didn’t go into foster care. Now since you have no fixed close guardian, you will be split up and sent to various temporary institutions.”
“No”, exclaimed Dorothy. “You can’t split us up. We’re each other’s strength. Can’t I adopt them? I mean get to keep all of them?”
Mae looked at her for a minute as if she was queer in the head but just before she opened her mouth to reply, the gravity of what Dorothy had said struck her and she considered it for real. She bit her lip and wondered whether it could be arranged. It had never been done before. Never had it happened that a person had been entrusted with the responsibility of his or her siblings. It was a first and it could be done but could she find a judge and a jury who would agree to it?
Finally, she opened her mouth to answer Dorothy. “ It could be done, Dotty. I’m with you all the way.”
Dorothy did not answer. She just stared on with an unremitting fire blazing in her eyes and her cheeks.
Mae walked away quickly.
Living in the ghetto had not put the edge into Dorothy West. The kind-faced old judge thought to herself. “She’s barely a child herself. I hope she knows what she’s getting into.”
“Dorothy West, do you think you will be able to care for and provide for these three young children?”
“Yes, I do without a doubt. I would know of all the people, Your Honour. I’ve brought them up and made them even this big. Our parents haven’t really been around too often. In fact our fathers not at all, our mother dropped in once in a while.”
Judge Gordon saw the steely glint in her eyes and the resolve in her voice to protect her blood was primal. She saw that if there was anywhere the kids would assuredly be happy, it was with her. God knows she deserved it.
“ By the power vested in me, I hereby declare that Dorothy West is given guardianship of Steven Ray West, Stephanie Nicole West and Mary Giselle West for a probationary period of three months after which an evaluation will take place and the permanence will be determined.”
That seemed like a long time ago. Dorothy West lay on her feathered bed now, covered by layers of down. Her skin drooped from her bones like a turkey’s. Steven, Steffie and Mary sat by her side and looked at her. She thought how beautiful they looked. It was an old woman’s perspective now though. And then she forever closed her eyes. She had a bone to pick with Someone Up There an she was going to Him, safe in the knowledge that she had made three lives possible.
The girl in the hammock smiled to herself and then let out a sigh at being shaken out of her reverie. She had been thinking thoughts such as only 18 year olds could think. Seemingly naughty thoughts about a favorite boy and blushing at the thought of the time He spoke to her. How the world seemed to narrow down to that time and place. How if she wanted to, she could actually remember the moment down to its final detail.
Oh, bother! There were the kids two girls aged all of ten years and a kid brother 8 years old arguing in the usual girls vs. boys way whether snakes could fly. She put down her book and sat up to mediate the issue with all the wisdom of an 18-yr old as they brought the matter to her to sort out.
An old blue van was making its way down the driveway. It screeched to a halt in front of the oddly placed vegetable garden, throwing up clouds of dust that set all four of them off coughing and the argument over the snakes was forgotten.
It was 1986. It was bad enough being a single young woman and that too one saddled with 3 siblings to care for. She was the only one who still had a vivid memory of her parents walking out on them. Her mother Jan was a deranged woman addicted to everything she could possibly be addicted to by the time she became an adult. The only reason she didn’t get into trouble with the law was her sweet angelic face that fooled even the toughest jurors. Ha! She sadly thought. Yeah right, sweet and angelic. Only she knew what lay behind the mask. A cold, demonic character who’d always whizzed into her life just long enough to leave her latest offspring in Dorothy’s care. Dorothy was her first-born but not her first child conceived. Jan’s mother had always prevailed on her to abort the earlier fetuses. She’d have been only too happy to do the same to Dorothy; only she figured it out a little too late. Her mother threw her out as soon as she knew about it. Dorothy often wondered if it would have been different if her grandmother had reacted differently but then decided against it. Jan was already too far-gone to get back to normalcy but then there was always Providence.
Now her arms went cold as she saw Sheriff get out of the blue van. Her grim face closed to scrutiny or even mere exploration. It was always a bad sign when she looked like that. She wondered what it was this time. As far as she remembered, the bills were all paid up and the mortgage was only one installment behind. It couldn’t possibly be about money.
Sheriff Mae Rakeson walked towards the four with a very determined gait. Even then all she could think was, “Look at their faces. How am I ever going to break it to them?” and thought for the tenth time, “God, I hate this job. But then better me than anyone else.”
“Good afternoon, Dorothy. How are you all doing?”
“Well Sheriff, you’re obviously not here to ask me when the potatoes are coming out; so, what’s up?”
“You’re damn right I’m not. Dotty, it’s Jan. They found her on the pier last night. She’d overdosed on some pure stuff going around in the market these days.”
Dorothy hated the woman, didn’t she? Then why was it feeling like her world was about to come crashing down. She saw 8-year old Steven’s eyes as round as saucers and Steffie and Mary’s sullen expressions that seemed to have ‘bugger off’ stamped across.
“So”, continued Sheriff Mae, “Jan was your legal parent and guardian and the only reason why you didn’t go into foster care. Now since you have no fixed close guardian, you will be split up and sent to various temporary institutions.”
“No”, exclaimed Dorothy. “You can’t split us up. We’re each other’s strength. Can’t I adopt them? I mean get to keep all of them?”
Mae looked at her for a minute as if she was queer in the head but just before she opened her mouth to reply, the gravity of what Dorothy had said struck her and she considered it for real. She bit her lip and wondered whether it could be arranged. It had never been done before. Never had it happened that a person had been entrusted with the responsibility of his or her siblings. It was a first and it could be done but could she find a judge and a jury who would agree to it?
Finally, she opened her mouth to answer Dorothy. “ It could be done, Dotty. I’m with you all the way.”
Dorothy did not answer. She just stared on with an unremitting fire blazing in her eyes and her cheeks.
Mae walked away quickly.
Living in the ghetto had not put the edge into Dorothy West. The kind-faced old judge thought to herself. “She’s barely a child herself. I hope she knows what she’s getting into.”
“Dorothy West, do you think you will be able to care for and provide for these three young children?”
“Yes, I do without a doubt. I would know of all the people, Your Honour. I’ve brought them up and made them even this big. Our parents haven’t really been around too often. In fact our fathers not at all, our mother dropped in once in a while.”
Judge Gordon saw the steely glint in her eyes and the resolve in her voice to protect her blood was primal. She saw that if there was anywhere the kids would assuredly be happy, it was with her. God knows she deserved it.
“ By the power vested in me, I hereby declare that Dorothy West is given guardianship of Steven Ray West, Stephanie Nicole West and Mary Giselle West for a probationary period of three months after which an evaluation will take place and the permanence will be determined.”
That seemed like a long time ago. Dorothy West lay on her feathered bed now, covered by layers of down. Her skin drooped from her bones like a turkey’s. Steven, Steffie and Mary sat by her side and looked at her. She thought how beautiful they looked. It was an old woman’s perspective now though. And then she forever closed her eyes. She had a bone to pick with Someone Up There an she was going to Him, safe in the knowledge that she had made three lives possible.
