Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: CLUE (09/06/18)
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TITLE: Standing Up! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Catherine Craig
09/10/18 -
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“Why would the judge take your son?”
Paula stared at a mole just up and to the right of her sister, Kate’s, brown eyes.
“Why would the judge give Ron custody?” Kate’s brown eyes welled up with tears. Paula reached across the crowded end table and handed her a tissue. Unlike stalwart Paula, Kate cried about everything. Comforted, rather than annoyed by Kate’s show of emotion, she leaned back into the overstuffed leather recliner and closed her eyes.
“I honestly don’t know,” Paula sighed, and folded her hands to keep from wringing them.
“Let me get this straight.” Katie jumped up and walked over to Paula.
“You’re so Greek!” Paula mumbled, feeling the corners of her mouth twitch. She’d inherited her mother’s white porcelain complexion, but Katie was their dad through and through – passionate and loyal to a fault. In spite of the ache lodged in her chest, she smiled. It was good to be home and out from under the pervasive cloud of fear that had hung over her since marrying Ron five short years before.
“What?” asked Katie, bouncing on her heels.
“Nothing,” Paula said, pulling herself upright; self-pity wasn’t going to get Steven back. “Tell me what you understand that I told you.”
“You went to the school to pick up Steven. But on the way, you called ahead because you felt as if something wasn’t right with the baby.”
“Yeah,” Paula affirmed. Moving to the edge of the recliner, she frowned up at her sister, saying, “There was a pause and the principal got on.”
“He told you that you couldn’t have Steven.”
“Yes.” Raw pain ripped through her gut and stole her breath. “He told me that Ron had custody.” Paula remembered the call she had left on Ron’s answering machine, alerting him of her anticipated move home to Vegas. She had been clear; he could not have misunderstood. “Mr. Beaman said Ron told him I was kidnapping Steven.”
“How could he be so heartless? That’s his baby you are carrying too!” Katie strode around to the back of the couch; her hands clenched. “After all he’s already done?”
“I can’t figure it out.” The choice to leave her marriage had been grueling. How could he take her son? “He’s an absolute moron!” Paula screamed. The moan sounded less human and more like a wounded animal. Paula dropped from the chair to her knees on the floor, and shrieked, “No….! No!” She felt Katie’s arms around her. “Mom, Dad! I need you!” she sobbed, and her sister tightened her grip. “Mommy…..”
It was dark when Paula gently disengaged from Katie. She touched her sister’s face and stood up to reach for a lamp. The warm light pushed the darkness back. “We’ve been here a bit.” Paula commented. Katie nodded back, smiling, eyes still bright with tears.
“Feel better?”
“Maybe,” Paula said, feeling foolish, but a bit relieved.
“The baby’s kicking. I saw your shirt jump.”
Looking down, Paula could just see her toes.
“It’s a girl,” added her sister. “You’re a butter ball, just the way mom was when she carried each of us.”
Paula’s eyes travelled to the antique Cherrywood buffet, her mother’s favorite piece of furniture. Lined up along its surface, an assortment of frames captured for future generations their family’s history.
“I know what happened,” ventured Paula, switching subjects.
Katie stared blankly. “Huh?” she asked.”
“It was that stupid separation agreement. Remember? Ron hired the lawyer and I agreed, just to get away.”
“What to?” asked Katie, moving closer, her eyes widening.
“I wasn’t supposed to take him out of the state without thirty days’ notice.” Guilt flooded Paula. “How could I be so naïve?” she asked, then shifted gears to add, “Do you think the Lord minds if wives suffer? Why didn’t He stop Ron from cheating on me, and lying?”
“That’s a hard one, sis, maybe a question for another day?” Katie reached for Paula’s hand, and squeezed it. “It’s time you hire a lawyer. There’s money.”
“But it’s yours….I can’t.”
“Can – and will,” Katie insisted, smiling, and held out the phone. “Get our baby back.”
Paula accepted it, grinning. “Let’s see what God will do!”
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