Deana had always compared all the boys she dated to her dad, even at 18, but she figured that probably wasn't out of the ordinary for a teenage girl. She gradually drifted away from the fantasy for a real life with a husband. She was at college, and had fallen head over heels with a guy on the football team. Their brief but very hot romance ended in her getting pregnant and both of them having to drop out of college.
They had struggled from the very start. His parents wouldn't have anything to do with Deana or her new daughter. They constantly urged him to leave, and pay child support so that at least one of them could have a life. After, one fight too many, he did what his family wanted him to do. Deana's husband dumped her in the Kmart parking lot. After going through boxes of Kleenex and eventually got over the initial shock, she soon discovered that being a single mother was tough.
With every decision, you either reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. Make a wrong choice, and life can be hard, but for a single mother it can be complicated as well. It seemed many doors were closed to her and many people looked down on her and penalized her. She was a hard working individual, but try as she might, she couldn't catch a break. Daycare was outrageous.
The few times she qualified to be on unemployment and food stamps and earned any money at the same time they punished her. For every dollar she earned they would take a dollar away from unemployment and a dollar away from food stamps, so she lost a dollar for each one she earned. The support system wasn't designed for people that didn't want to stay on it. Finally fed up with bureaucratic bullshit, she said fuck you to food stamps and to the people who could care less that ran the programs. She worked multiple part time minimum wage jobs in order to make ends meet. Her ex-husband's true nature showed itself, his only contact with his daughter was a monthly check.
All of her paychecks combined didn't add up to one good paycheck. Even though she lived in a one room apartment, by the time she paid her rent and the daycare, food and things for the baby, there wasn't much left. She had tried very hard, but finally realized she couldn't do it on her own. She placed Beth in her carrier and went to a pay phone.
"Hello?"
"I have a collect call for anyone from a Deana Taylor, will you accept the charges?"
Dean responded, "Yes."
"Hi dad thanks for accepting the charges."
"That isn't a problem, why didn't you call me on your cell phone?"
"I pawned it, along with my wedding and engagement rings and everything else that I could."
Dean could hear a mix of emotions in his daughter's voice, "What's going on?"
"Dad, I know you're disappointed in me with how I turned out, but..." Deana had to stop talking, she couldn't talk and cry. She took a deep breath, "Can I come home? Please do this for your granddaughter if not for me."
"Honey, what are you talking about? I'm not disappointed in you. I take it you didn't get my letters."
"I didn't get any letters from you, Beth and I had to move around a lot."
"I wrote and told you that you could move back in with me, if you wanted to. The post office never returned the letters to me. When I didn't hear anything, I figured you didn't want to."
Deana started crying again, "I thought you were ashamed of me."
"Baby, that can't happen, I love you."
She was overwhelmed with the thought that all of her struggling could have been so much easier if she had just contacted her dad sooner. Then she beat herself up wondering how stupid she was.
"Dee, are you still there?"
She felt her heart jump in her chest as her dad called her the name he had used for her all of her life. "Yes, I'm still here."
"Would you like for me to come and get you?"
"Yes," her tears wouldn't stop.
"You quit your job; let your landlord know you are leaving. Just tell me where you are and I'll be there Friday morning to get you, and we'll go pay any bills you might have."
Friday morning came and brought with it a knock at the door. Deana opened it and standing there was the one person that would make her life better. She hugged and kissed her dad, then brought him inside. She felt tears of happiness slide down her face as grandfather and granddaughter played with one another for the first time. Sunshine filled the day and her heart. First he took her out for breakfast. After driving around paying off all of her bills, they returned to catch up her rent and get her things. For the first time in a long time Deana felt the weight of the world off of her shoulders.
As they drove away from her apartment and the town that had treated her so badly, she got choked up with emotion, "Dad I'm sorry you have to do all of this."
"Shut the hell up. --"
She froze, had her dad just cussed at her? He had never done that in his life. What was going on?
"-- You happen to be talking about the person that means more to me than anything, and you need to stop being mean to her."