Читать книгу Hurricane Acer - Sydney Blondell - Страница 3

For the next few weeks, my life consisted of catching up on work and taking Alison to her scheduled visits with Paul. After each visit, the car rides back to the house or wherever we were headed that particular day were always the same; Alison was quiet until close to arriving at our destination then told me about playing with solitary board games while Paul sat and watched.

After a few weeks of this, she stopped saying that Paul was sitting with her. At first, I chalked it up to her three-year-old mind leaving that piece of information out because it was not relevant to her, but then on her last visit she mentioned that while she played in the playroom Grandma was outside gardening, Grandpa was upstairs reading, and Daddy was in the T.V. room watching FOX News. I decided to call Paul and address what I learned with him because I had a few concerns. I pulled into my parking space at the townhouse and went inside to find the phone. Before I dialed his number I sent Alison upstairs just in case we began to raise our voices. I waited as the phone rang and rang until finally, I heard his voice on the other line. “Hello,” he said in a very monotone voice.

“Paul, I need to discuss your visits with Alison. I have some concerns.” I responded.

“Okay, what?”

“Well, it has come to my attention that over the past few visits you have not been spending time with Alison and have been leaving her unsupervised in the playroom. I also heard that your parents are no longer on the same floor as the two of you throughout the visit.”

“Are you serious right now? She is three. She can sit in the playroom on her own and fend for herself. And I am not going to make my parents give up their day because you and some jackass judge think I am unfit to be with my child.”

“First of all, fend for herself? She’s three, not thirteen. Secondly, your parents did not have to agree to have the visitation at their house if they did not want to comply with the order. If it continues this way I will be more than happy to contact that ‘jackass judge’ and ask for the visits to be moved to the family center.”

“Fine, I will tell my parents to give up their Saturdays to appease you, and I will attach myself to our daughter’s hip because that is what you want.”

“Stop acting more immature than your child; it is ridiculous. Your parents are ‘giving up’ two hours every other weekend, and they can spend time with their grandchild in doing so.”

“I am done with this conversation. I will see Alison at her next visit.”

“Fine.”

“Bye,” we said in unison.

The next visit seemed to arrive faster than any in the past. Renee rode with me, but needed to go over to the mall during the two-hour visit. Instead of dropping her off on the way over to Carole and Andrew's, I decided to drop Alison off first, then take Renee and shop with her. We shopped for about an hour and a half before driving back to wait for Alison. As we were pulling in, another car was pulling in behind us. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Paul in the driver’s seat with my precious little girl in the back of the car. He looked like a deer caught in headlights when we locked eyes because I knew he thought he would pull this one over on me.

I stormed out of the car and told Renee to call the police and also asked her to take Alison to the car and buckle her in once Paul parked the car. A wave of rage came over me as he parked the car, and I saw his mother start to walk outside. We stood in a monkey in the middle formation with me as the monkey. I hated that he pulled something like this and put Alison in a situation where she would have to see her parents and grandmother fight as well as see police officers in a space that is supposed to be safe. I immediately started screaming as soon as Alison was in the car and Renee turned her Spanish CD back on.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Paul? We just fucking talked about you following the court’s order and the very next visit you take my daughter out without any permission!” I began.

“Well, I told him that the order was ridiculous and any father has the right to take their child to a park if they would like,” Carole said.

“Carole, I don’t really give a fuck what you said. The only part that this has to do with you is that you let it happen. Thanks to your idiotic advice, your ass for brains son is going to jail.” I said, turning her way.

“I am not going to jail. I did nothing wrong. Alison is my daughter too.” Paul said.

“Paul, you did do something wrong. While biologically she is your daughter, you have zero rights to her anymore because of the stunt you pulled at the beginning of the year. What you just did is kidnapping.” I said.

“He did not kidnap his daughter! He took her to the park for one hour.” Carole said.

“And I bet on your little adventure you didn’t even stay with her the entire time. I would bet hard money that you sat your fat ass on a bench the entire time.” I said as the police pulled into the driveway. Two officers walked up to the three of us to assess the situation, one pulling me to the side and the other pulling Paul and his mother to her porch.

“Okay, what exactly is going on here?” The officer speaking with me asks.

“My now ex-husband has supervised visitations every other weekend, today being one of them. I have the court documents in my car if you need to see them once we go through everything that is going on.” I said.

“Yes, I would like to see the documents. Go on.”

“Paul is not to leave with Alison, my daughter, for any reason during his two-hour visits and today I pulled up about thirty minutes before the visitation was set to end and pulling up behind me was Paul and our child.”

“Okay, ma’am. Let me look at the documents and see what I can do.”

I went over to the car and grabbed the documents and told Alison that Mommy would be back soon and then we could go grab something to eat. The officer came over and kindly introduced himself to Alison and took the documents to look over. After a few minutes, the officer told me Paul indeed kidnapped Alison, and he and his partner are prepared to take him in if that is what I would like to have happen. I decided to have the officers arrest Paul for kidnapping and child endangerment because I knew if I let this go he would continue to treat the visitation order like a joke.

As the officers pulled away with Paul, I went straight to my car so that I was not harassed by Carole and Andrew, who was now standing outside. Once I was in the car and off of my ex in-law’s property, I asked Renee and Alison where they wanted to go for dinner after we picked Rose up from Tom’s mother. Alison wanted Rainforest Café, but she only likes it because of the sound effects and the dessert. She is not a big fan of their meals. We tried to stay close to the mall because we were picking Rose up from around there and Renee and I knew that if we had to drive far, it would not go over well on the drive home with two sleepy kids. We decided to go to Olive Garden because the kids haven’t had pasta in a few weeks. Dinner was relatively uneventful with highlights including crayon drawings over every inch of the paper tablecloth, endless breadsticks which ended up becoming walrus teeth for the girls, and cheesy comas for all four of us.

Since today is Saturday, all parties involved had to wait until the next business day to proceed with Paul’s case. He was arrested in my jurisdiction, so usually, this case would land on my desk. I, of course, needed to recuse myself from the case and appoint the next best prosecutor to the case. I drove Renee and Rose home for the evening and drove the five minutes east to my house. I sent Alison to her playroom so that I could call my “work husband” to ask him about taking the case. After two rings James picked up; “Hey girlfriend.”

“Hey! I have a lot to tell you.” I said.

“Girl, I just saw you yesterday. What the hell happened?”

“Well… today was Paul’s day to see Ally…”

“Oh, shit. What did that jackass do?” He said, interrupting my thoughts.

“So we have been so busy with catching up on cases, I haven’t been able to catch you up on anything. I’ve been a bad work wife.” I said, laughing a little.

“Oh, girl. I have my wine and popcorn. Let the movie play!”

“A few weeks ago after picking Ally up, we were driving home, and she happens to mention ‘Daddy watches television in the T.V. room when I am in the playroom and Grandma is always in the garden and Grandpa is upstairs reading.’”

“Umm aren’t his parents supposed to at least be on the same floor as them at all times?” James asks.

“Exactly. And there’s more.”

“Oh, no.”

“So today an entire shitshow transpired. Not only are Paul’s parents supposed to be supervising him, but Paul cannot leave with Ally under any circumstances.”

“He didn’t!”

“Oh, he did.”

“What happened? Was he not there when you came to pick her up?”

“Well you see, Paul honestly thought he was going to pull this stunt off because he pulled in thirty minutes before I was set to arrive. But what he doesn’t know is normally I sit at the top of the hill for the duration of the two hours waiting for it to be over.”

“Didn’t you today?”

“No. I had Renee with me, and we went shopping, but came back at the same time Paul was pulling in.”

“So? What happened?” He asked as if he was holding onto the edge of his seat.

“I called the police, and he was arrested for kidnapping and child endangerment.”

“Oh, my God! Are you serious? Tell me you are not serious!” James theatrically begged.

“I wish I could, but his ass is sitting in a jail cell as we speak. Which is why I called.”

“What? You didn’t just want to hear my bubbling personality?”

I laughed and said, “Of course, talking to you is a plus, but Paul was arrested in our jurisdiction, and I obviously cannot be the prosecutor on the case. Would you be willing to take it on?”

“Of course, I will take it on, but to what extent? I do not want you to be mad at me if I am the reason Paul is sent to prison.”

“James, you would not be the reason he is sent to prison. Paul’s actions would be the reason he is sent to jail. I want you to prosecute this case like you would any other kidnapping or child endangerment case.” I said.

“Okay, I will look at the case as soon as I walk into the office on Monday morning.”

“Thank you so much, James.”

“No problem, hun. I will see you on Monday."

“I’ll see ya. Bye.” I said

“Night,” James said, ending the call.

I hung up with James and walked upstairs to play with Alison for a few minutes before having to put her to bed for the night. We played with her Bitty Baby from American Girl for about twenty minutes before I told her it was bath time. She was not upset to start her bedtime routine because, during bath time, she has Crayola bath crayons and other bath toys to keep her occupied while I wash her thick, very dark brown hair.

She prolonged bath time for as long as possible because she knows that once she was dried off and had her pajamas on it was story time and story time leads to bedtime. When I finally fished her out of the tub, her hands and toes looked like dried prunes (like always). I let Alison pick her pajamas out for the night, and she went for her blue silk pajamas from China that I bought her on a business trip about a year ago. We collectively picked out two short books, and she fell asleep in my arms during the second book.

We took advantage of the term “lazy Sunday” and lounged around the house the next day. I let Alison stay in her pajamas most of the day and told Renee to stop by with Rose if she and Tom wanted a date night for once. Tom was doing something to improve the house when we talked on the phone (I think. To be honest I wasn’t listening to her) but she said that she and Rose would come over for dinner. I had a roast in the crockpot, and I tasked Renee with peeling golden potatoes for mashed potatoes when she arrived. Renee brought fresh zucchini from her garden because I told her she had to contribute to dinner in some fashion.