I apologize to all the linguists out there. This was thrown together too late to get an editor. No incest is involved, the cousin is related by marriage only.
As I hit the alarm, I took a second to whisper a silent prayer that today would be better than yesterday. I knew I couldn't spare more than a minute or two, since I had a busy day ahead of me. I had so much to make up for after everything that happened yesterday.
Yesterday. Of course, it had been Friday the 13th. I never put any stock into superstitions like that, but after yesterday, I'm beginning to rethink that.
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Yesterday: Friday, February 13
It started with breakfast. I had made my daughter's favorite...oatmeal. At least I tried. I answered a phone call from the office. An overnight power outage cause a backup in production. As I was getting off the phone, the smoke alarm went off. I was away from the stove too long, and the oatmeal burned. I turned the stove off, and put the pot in the sink and ran water in the pot. I'd wash it after I fixed my daughter an alternate breakfast. At this point, it was pop tarts.
The smoke alarm wouldn't stop, so I opened the kitchen door to let out some smoke. As I was plugging in a fan to blow out the smoke, my daughter came into the kitchen. She was getting ready to ask me what was going on, when a bird flew in through the open door.
To hell with the fan. I grabbed a broom, and started shooing the bird back toward the door. Before I could get it out, it crapped on the breakfast table. You guessed it. Right on top of the pop tarts I had gotten out for my daughter. My daughter was screaming and I was close to doing so myself. I was able to get the bird out and I closed the door.
I gave up on breakfast, and dd my best to help my daughter calm down, then got her packed and into the car so I could drop her off at school. I went through the drive-thru to get her a biscuit for breakfast. It wasn't oatmeal, but it was even better, mainly because it came with hash browns.
We were running late for school already, but when Tessa yelled that there were no hash browns in the bag, I had no choice, but to turn around and go back to get them. Okay, I could have told her to just deal with it, but after her mother walked out 7 years ago, I have, more often than not, just bent over backwards to make my daughter happy.
So now we are even later, almost at school, when my daughter realizes that we don't have the Valentine's Day cards for her class. I didn't know that third graders still did that until 2 days ago, and I had to run out and get cards for her class yesterday. I told Tessa that I'd drop her off at school and go back home and get them.
I called the office to let them know I'd be late. Wouldn't you know it! The power was out again. I told the plant manager to make sure all production machines were turned off, so they wouldn't restart when the power was restored, then close all lines and send all production workers home. Tell them they'd still be paid, but it was safer for them to go home, than to try to walk around a dark production floor.
At home, I decided to quickly clean up the burned oatmeal and the pooped on tarts. The burned oatmeal was really stuck, so I left the pot to soak. I went upstairs to grab the Valentine's Day cards and headed back to the school. After everything that happened, I was frustrated and not paying attention. It didn't even phase me when the blue light came on. Yes, I was speeding. I had to sit through the whole process of getting a ticket.
By the time I got back to the school, I had to park on the street because all the parking spots were taken. I walked to the front of the school and had to go through the security check, even though I was just dropping off some cards. I waited for my daughter to be called to come to the office to pick them up. Again, after 'disappearing mom', I wanted my daughter to know I was there for her.
When my daughter came to the office, she grabbed my hand and started walking back to class. She kept saying she had volunteered me to be a helper. The teacher was out sick, and they had a substitute teacher today. She needed help with the Valentine's Day party. I had to make another call to my office to let them know I wouldn't be there, and let the plant manager run things for the day.
When I got to the classroom, I heard "David!! I mean, Mr. Thomas." I must have looked confused, because she said "It's Jessica Broward, Elizabeth's cousin!" I wanted to turn and run. The substitute teacher was my ex-wife's 22 year old cousin. I hadn't seen her since the infamous family barbecue. She had only been about 15 at the time. Her mother was Elizabeth's first cousin. She ran over, so happy and excited, and hugged me, drawing a bunch of "Oooooo!'s from the students.
"How's Elizabeth?" Yes, no nickname for my ex. She was named after the Queen, and the whole family wanted that known. It also led my wife to name our daughter Countessa. She would't allow anyone to giver her a nickname either. As soon as she started school, Tessa asked if she could change her name. I allowed the nickname and encouraged her to wait until she was eighteen to decide if she really wanted to change her name legally.
Anyway, Jessica's mother still hadn't told her the truth. I knew she was waiting to do so, but it happened when Jessica was 15. She's 22 now. I told Ms. Broward that I'd talk to her when she had a break. I really thought she should have known, but she acted like she had no clue.
Jessica Broward treated me like a godsend, asking me to help her with the games that had been planned by the teacher. She was unfamiliar with them, but I knew them since I had volunteered in the class before. Each game just had a Valentine's Day twist added, which was easy to figure out. Colors were all red and white, the big Tic-Tac-Toe used hearts for O's and hearts with an arrow through them for X's, etc.
Jessica was a beautiful woman now. She was a petite blonde, standing about 5'2". She had piercing azure blue eyes. Her hair looked like it would be down past her shoulder blades, but was currently up in a ponytail. She had been pretty as a teen, but now she was drop dead gorgeous.
When it came time to pass out the Valentine's Day cards, I realized that Tessa and I had forgotten to put names on them, so we were allowed to go to a corner of the room and write on them quickly. Well, I wrote on them. There is nothing quick about a third grader's hand writing.
Other than that, things were actually going well, until lunchtime when she had a break and asked me again abut her cousin. As soon as I told her about the divorce and it was due to Elizabeth's cheating, she accused me of lying. 'Elizabeth was an honorable woman. She loved me and would never do that to me.' I just looked at her and told her to ask her mother. Margaret knew the whole story and was NOT on Elizabeth's side. That's why I was sure Jessica should have already known.
I went across the cafeteria to give Tessa a kiss and hug and to tell her I'd pick her up in carpool this afternoon. I walked back past Jessica without looking at her, and left.
I wouldn't have had much time to do anything if I went home, so I just sat in my car, pulled out my Kindle and started reading the Aycrishi Sodality series, from one of my new favorite spicy fantasy writers. I was about six pages in when I heard a tap on the window. There was a policeman there. Apparently, someone had seen me sitting outside the school and thought I looked suspicious. I tried to explain why I was just sitting here, waiting for school to get out to pick up my daughter, but he wouldn't take me at my word. I suggested going inside to talk to the office to verify the story. He agreed, but said he had to cuff me until my story could be verified.
I had to be perp-walked back to the school office and sat down on a bench so the officer could find the people that had checked me in and confirmed my story. While I was sitting there, several of Tessa's classmates saw me and told her I was there. She came by, saw me in handcuffs, and came running up to me. While I was explaining, the officer came out and took the handcuffs off of me.
Tessa hugged me, but Jessica, or should I say, Ms. Broward, came up hurriedly and told Tessa she wasn't supposed to be out of class. She would be reprimanded, and possibly have a note written to her teacher. She took Tessa by the hand and pretty much drug her back to the classroom. Tessa kept looking back over her shoulder at me.
The officer told me I couldn't just sit in my car outside the school, so I got in my car and drove to a local strip mall to park. I turned off my car and once again pulled out my iPad. This time, I had just started when felt a huge jolt as someone backed into my rear fender. I jumped out of the car in time to see the face of a scared teenager as he slammed his car into drive and sped away. The car didn't have a license plate, just a note in the rear window, but it was a late model blue Buick sedan.
