The following is a continuation of the story of Strays created and found during the holidays. I hope you enjoy it, and it brings you a bit of festive warmth. It is an original work, and all characters are above the age of eighteen. My hope for all is that you enjoy your holidays, love your fellow humans, and enjoy the coming year.
My apologies for my tardiness in this chapter. My muse has been very absent, and I got myself in a motorcycle accident (self-caused, old age should have taught me I am NOT Steve McQueen, oh go look him up) therefore I had to buck up and pull my head out of my ass. Again, my apologies.
Being a non-writer and now blind in my right eye (see above) has made interesting challenges with the stories. I DO NOT plan the story, it is like one of my sculptures, it tells me where it wants to go. I spend my life building big buildings and everything is planned. Here in my little world, I let life flow.
I use my head and MS Word editor. I am grateful for the technology and that is as far as I am going to go. My muse used to be my editor, but...
***
Chapter 2
While at work, Drew received an odd email. At first, he was tempted to reject the contact and dump it into the IT phish alert.
But he had then recognized the email address.
The sister of the biological father of his little Elisa.
"Mr. Scott, I am reaching out to you to try and introduce myself. My name is Sophia, and I am the sister of Maximo, the father of Abby's baby. I have tried to contact Abby, but she has refused my phone calls and blocked my emails. I want to be part of the baby's life and I am hoping that Abby can forgive me. Please help."
Drew pondered the email during the rest of the day and asked during dinner. Eliza was feeding at the same time, so Drew had a confusing set of inputs to differentiate between. His baby nursing on Abby's bare breast.
"Fuck her," was Abby's response...
Drew watched her tear up as she turned her head away from him at dinner.
"Beautiful, why are you hurting so badly? Why not share a little time with her and let her see the baby?"
Abby took a deep breath and shuddered as she turned back to Drew. Her eyes flashed up to him briefly and then back down to watch Eliza end her feeding by drifting off to sleep. Abby put her in her bassinet by the table. The dog immediately curled beside it.
Abby looked back at Drew with tears streaking her cheeks. She was not eating.
"She abandoned me. Threw me aside at the same time her brother did," she paused and started to drip tears.
" Sophia and I were lovers while we were going to school. She introduced me to her brother, and I was a lover to both, for the year before I became pregnant." She sniffled.
"Don't hate me, please don't hate me," she begged as she started to openly cry. She staggered up from the table. While gripping the table with white knuckles, shaking hands, and headed towards Drew.
Drew held out his arms as she forced herself into his lap. She wrapped herself around him and then buried her face in his neck.
"Why would I hate you little one?" asked Drew. "My twin is lesbian, and you have seen who my friends are... for how many months have we known each other?"
They settled back down after fifteen minutes of so. Drew got her back into her seat, heated her coffee, and convinced her to start eating.
They openly talked about the relationship she has had with both siblings.
Drew began to seethe and dislike the birth father, the more stories he heard.
Abby and Sophia had to keep their previous and continuing love affair away from the brother. He sounded more like the patriarchal head of the family every moment. Drew, in his research, had gleaned that the father of the clan was a standard bearer for rich patriarchal families of the past.
His words were law, period, dead stop. Women, even his lineage, were there to marry off for political gain and family connection. Getting a degree and relationships were to keep them busy until their time arose to profit the family.
Drew could guess sapphic relationships would get Sophia shipped home and locked in her room until her time arose to provide her soul for the family.
Even the son was here in the US to sow his wild oats and get his degree from a well-known American University. All of that, so when his time came, he would be given or forced into opportunities to benefit the family.
As it seemed to have happened, causing the casting of Abby and now Eliza to the side, for the greater purpose of his family.
The more Drew heard about the birth father, he sounded to be more of a damned good-looking playboy, than someone in search of a soulmate.
Not that Drew wanted that asshole anywhere near his friend or Elisa, their shared child.
But the women connected to Eliza should be allowed to share in her life, if they wanted to. Historically, women that survived in the past patriarchal societies had rigid backbones and ruled their part of the roost with an iron temperament.
Drew had other long-term concerns too.
Drew had been reading about issues of biracial children. Assuming Abby and he continued to co-parent, Eliza having two white parents created new dynamics. Eliza was going to need that extended female family culture later.
After crying, and wine, Abby agreed to allow a visit. Drew was determined to only allow it on home ground.
Admittedly, he was concerned. He lived in a mobile home for goodness' sake. Their family mansion was in Architectural Digest's January issue. It was also in Bride's Magazine for Maximo's wedding to a stunning creature.
"And royalty is coming to my home," thought Drew as he puttered in his garden with his butterfly bushes and succulents.
***
So, the day arrived in the first part of the year. 'Royalty' was about to descend upon his sleepy central California coastal town.
'Well thank God they are not real 'royalty' thought Drew. Days of interviews, security personnel, Drew had been part of that drama when politicians (think President) visited his large project sites.
This was supposed to be Sophia and her friend coming to visit after so many crying facetime talks.
Drew had forwarded an internal map of the park because the narrow avenues within the mobile home park were not real streets and were laid out in haphazard conditions. He was waiting outside for the inevitable "Where am I?" call.
Belle and Abby were doing one last cleaning as he stood post on the edge of his home.
"Oh shit," came out of his mouth when the first oversized, blacked out, security SUV turned the corner.
