One

Sometimes things just happen, and they might happen at a bad time or unexpectedly, but that's life. You can’t change it, you can't really avoid it, and in the end you'll probably end up learning something from it. That is what happened to a very young couple living in a small town in Southern California. The Singletons had two little sons and struggled to make ends meet on one income. Brooke was a homemaker, taking care of the kids and staying on top of the dishes and laundry while her husband Langdon worked at a local grocery store as a cashier. They decided after their son Trey was born that she should be the one to quit her job since Langdon's job was more stable and with higher pay than her little job at the produce market.

Brooke was proud of her home, even if it was just a little apartment in a city full of empty fields and churches, nothing like you would imagine being in California. They didn't own much, and their car was an old mid-1990s Honda, but she liked to keep it clean and nice looking to keep their spirits high even when the bank account was low. Essentially, she was concerned about not "living poor" even though they were poor. She wanted people to walk into her home and not be able to guess their income level, because she kept the hand-me-down furniture looking new.

Besides the money situation, life in general was hard. She was pregnant with Todd after she graduated high school, but Langdon was in the beginning of his 10th grade year. They were young and in love, and they wanted to stay together, despite his family's wishes. Through the understandable high-strung emotions and abuse they endured from his family, they knew from the beginning that it wouldn't be a picnic. Still, they strived to prove themselves, to show that they were truly in love and not just kids messing around.

Four months after the baby was born, they got married, and on the night of their wedding they made a pact to always make each other happy, no matter how bad things got with the family, or with money, or with anything else. They had each other, and that's all that mattered to them.

One evening after the 4th of July, when summer was new and everything at home was as bright as the sun, Brooke was busy doing laundry. Because they had neither a washing machine in the apartment, nor the funds to pay for the Laundromat at the time, Brooke, Langdon, one-year old Trey, and three-year old Todd went over to Brooke’s sister Candace's house to do laundry. It was hot out, and her sister wasn't home from work, so they ran the air conditioning while the boys played with cars and Lang watched some television. On her last load, she heard the phone ring. She put the basket of clothes that she was holding onto her hip and answered the phone with her other hand. On the other end of the line was a sobbing Rachel, Brooke's sister-in-law.

"Hello?"

"Brooke, is Candace home?"

"No, she's still at the office, I think she had some late appointments tonight. Did you want me to take a message?"

"Um, no," cracked Rachel. "Are you going to be there for a while?"

"Sure, why?"

"They're trying to take Dani. I don't know... I just... when they came to the door, I just... grabbed her and... I got in the car and took off. I couldn't let them take my baby, Brooke! I couldn't let them!"

"Wait, who was trying to take her?" Brooke was puzzled and concerned over what was probably going to be nothing more than a family feud or something minor to which Rachel was typically overreacting.

"It's CPS, they were going to take her from me and give her to strangers."

"Child Protective Services? Wait! Why? What happened?"

"Your brother is what happened," she said sarcastically.

Steven.

"I was supposed to file a restraining order on him," she continued. "It's all because of that bitch that he slept with a while back. She's trying to take revenge on him so she called CPS on us, saying that he was... well, I’ll tell you later. But basically they came out to the condo about a month ago, and they saw the mess, and they told us that it was all right as long as we cleaned up the cat litter boxes, but they also wanted me to file a temporary restraining order against Steven."

"Well, why didn't you?" asked Brooke, stunned.

"I was going to once, but when I got there they were closed."

"How long did they give you?"

"30 days," she said, sounding tired and shamed.

This was a go nowhere conversation for the phone, and there were so many questions to ask. Then again, Brooke already knew why Rachel hadn't filed the restraining order. For one, she was a fairly lazy person, and effort on her part for something that she didn't want to do was practically non-existent. But more importantly, Steven probably wouldn't let her file the order.

"I’ll be here, are you coming over or something?"

"Yeah, I'm on my way there."

As a courtesy to her sister, she called Candace's dental office to give her a head's up. Candace had finished with her last patient of the day and was able to come to the phone. Brooke retold the conversation that she had with Rachel, and Candace reacted like this sort of thing happened every day. Candace was the guiding light for the rest of their siblings, because she was the most successful of all of them. It wasn't uncommon for someone to ask her for money or for a ride somewhere, and it was in her nature to give and to help whoever she could, so hearing that Rachel was coming over to hide out didn't really strike her as odd.

45 minutes later, Rachel showed up in her early-1990s Corvette, a gift from her father before he died only two months before. Brooke watched out the window as Rachel manipulated the seats in the car to pull out a calm and glowingly happy little girl, Danica. Danica was Brooke's only true niece, since Steven was her only real brother, their other two siblings being halves. She was a radiant blond, with curls and blue eyes, and she smiled her big pudgy toothy smile as Rachel picked her up out of her car seat. Rachel carried the little girl, who was wearing a purple, red, and turquoise dress, colored to look like a child had drawn hearts on it with crayons. Rachel was on her cell phone with runny mascara when they walked in the door, and she let Dani down to go play with her cousins.

"I want her to go to Brooke! Tell them that!" shouted Rachel into her phone. "Tell them that I won’t bring her back unless she goes to Brooke!"

Brooke laughed at the severity of the situation, which was now being thrust upon her. She had a tendency to laugh at inappropriate times; it’s how she dealt.

Into the phone, Rachel shouted, "I won’t have my little girl going to strangers. Who knows what they'll do to her, and she don't know them from Adam. I want her to go to Brooke so that I know she's being taken care of... uh huh... uh huh... well she's there at home all day and I know Dani will be safe there..."

It wasn't so funny anymore. But who would grant me a foster child, thought Brooke. How on earth could she handle three toddlers? Her boys were already a handful, and throwing an almost two-year old Dani into the mix was just crazy. Besides, money was kind of tight, and they were so young. Granted, they were mature and they shared a very strong marriage, but they were in no way financially stable, nor did they have the means to take a third child into their two-bedroom apartment.

The next thing she knew, Brooke was on Rachel's cell phone giving her social security number to the caseworkers who came to get Dani so that they could run a quick criminal background check. Being clean as a whistle, both she and Langdon were seen as fit to be granted temporary custody of Danica, and the caseworkers asked to meet them at their apartment, which had to be inspected that very night. Rachel was also warned by the caseworker that her car was being reported stolen in 30 minutes if she did not arrive at the apartment, and that she would be arrested for kidnapping.

Candace hadn't arrived home yet, and already Brooke was packing up her laundry while Lang buckled the kids in the car. She had intended to stay and visit, but not now that there was a time limit to get to the apartment before the social workers came in to approve or deny her home for foster placement. She felt knots in her stomach. She was a mother too, and she understood Rachel's plight of not wanting her tiny daughter to go to the hands of strangers. What if her home wasn't good enough? What if they denied her because of something completely stupid, like an outdated window lock or the cupboard that didn't close right? She had been on the other side of the system before, after CPS had taken her and Steven from their neglectful mother when their father died. She knew how strict the policies were, and how every rule had to be followed according to the book. What if something in her home didn't pass inspection? Where would Dani go? Who would have her? What would happen to her? Would she be lost in the system forever?

Rachel came over to Brooke's car after buckling her daughter in, and told her that she was sorry about everything being so sudden.

"I know that this will be rough, but it should only be for a little while. I promise to pay you guys, and buy her diapers and food, and anything she needs. I really wish that it didn't have to be this way, but there's nothing I can do, and I don't want her to go to strangers."

"But Rachel, why didn't you just file the restraining order? And what was it for, anyway?"

Rachel let out a sigh. "You know how your brother is a registered sex offender and all?"

Two


At Brooke's apartment, Rachel sat at the kitchen table cuddling Dani and crying into her dress, telling her how sorry she was. Brooke and Lang were going madly around the house to tidy up anything that looked out of place. Luckily Brooke had mopped the floors and scrubbed the bathroom the day before, but they needed to be sure to pick up the toys off the floor, make the beds, and empty the trash cans.

Brooke was angry about what Rachel had told her, but sympathetic as well. She was trying to be helpful and gracious, concentrating on the upcoming arrival of the social worker by clearing the breakfast bar of mail and paperwork. As she tidied up, she thought about what she knew was true.

The truth was that this mess was all her brother's fault: if he hadn't had an affair, this wouldn't have happened.

The truth was that she didn't believe that her brother had ever hurt Dani. While she wouldn't put it past him, she was trying to stay neutral for things to move along as smoothly as possible so that it would be over and done with.

The truth was that she didn't really know what her brother had done 12 years ago, and if he was truly a danger to children.

The truth was that being caught having sex with his 12-year old foster sister when he was 14 probably wasn't an offense major enough to have him still registering as a sex offender every time he moved, even though he spent the time from when he was 14 until he was 22 behind bars. Although that's the story he always told, something didn't seem right.

The truth was that Brooke didn't know the truth, because he wouldn't tell it. According to Steven, his foster parents caught him in the act with their daughter, and they pressed charges for rape. Steven said that the girl lied on the stand when she testified that he forced her into it and said that she didn't even know what he was doing to her.

The truth was that his story never added up, and Brooke never trusted his story. She knew that he enjoyed being a sneak and manipulating people into thinking that he's the most amazingly smart human being to walk the planet.

The truth was that he just spent way too much time on those conspiracy theory websites to know what was real and what was utterly ridiculous.

A gentle knock at the door sent Rachel into another bout of crying fits, and Brooke quickly put away her dust rag to greet the social worker. Standing on the porch was what looked like a 15-year old girl selling magazine subscriptions for her choir class, but she was in fact the woman who would be inspecting Brooke's home. Her name was Tyesha Jones and she was a year older than Brooke, who stood a good foot and a half taller. Tyesha walked around the house, checking the faucets for running water, flushing the toilet, testing smoke alarms. She said that normally boys and girls couldn’t share a room, but that it wasn’t a problem until they are five. She also said that in most cases, no more than two children would be allowed to live in the same room, but that in their case she could make an exception.

As it turned out, Brooke's home was fit to be licensed, and she sat at the table to fill out paperwork, across from a now somewhat calm Rachel. Tyesha had Brooke do an oral drug test, and fill out paperwork concerning a Live Scan fingerprint check. Tyesha asked if Brooke and Langdon were really married after she read his birth date on the paperwork.

"Yes," Brooke explained. "We are married legally. Yes he was 16. And yes, you are giving a foster child to an 18 year old. A very responsible, hard working and loving 18 year old." She had explained this to so many people that the story lost its magic a little more every time.

By the time the paperwork was completed, Dani was already falling asleep in her mother's arms. Brooke didn't have a bed for her to sleep in yet, so Rachel laid her down on the couch and covered her with a blanket from the linen closet. Tyesha said that it would be all right for Rachel to go get some clothes, a crib mattress and some toys for Dani and bring them back, but after that she was banned from coming within 500 feet of the home. She was promised a visit on Friday, and Rachel swore that would be the day that Dani could come home, on a count of all of this being a big mistake. Whenever she said that, Tyesha bit her lip and wrote something on the file.

Rachel left at the same time as the social worker after pulling Dani's blanket up to her chin. Lang and Brooke walked around the house in shock, and peered into the darkness of the sleeping boys’ room to figure out where to put another bed. They quietly cleaned out the drawers of the dresser to make room for Dani's things, as it was part of the "Child's Rights" paper they signed saying that they understood that the child had the right to have a place to store her clothes properly. There were so many things that they didn't have for this girl. Rachel would have to bring everything, even if it was just for the week. The fridge was half full and payday was four days away, but a little girl couldn't need much more food than what the kids already go through, she figured.

Brooke was the one handling all of the paperwork and dealing with the stress, and Langdon was her big supporter who believed that they would be just fine, and that having Danica would be a new and fun adventure. Neither one of them had any idea where this adventure would lead them.
Later that night, Rachel called to let them know that she was in the parking lot behind their apartment building with Dani's things. Langdon went down to get a bag of clothes and dolls, and a crib mattress with a pink sheet. She also had given him a half full container of juice and a bunch of bananas, along with a jar of peanut butter and jelly swirled together.

"I want to go up there and kiss her goodnight again, but... I'm afraid."

"Don't worry Rach," said Langdon. "She's in good hands, you know we will take care of her. She's safe here, and I know you miss her but she's going to have fun with Todd and Trey tomorrow, and you'll have her back before you know it."

"Trust me. I’ll know it. I already feel that she's missing. My daughter is 20 feet away and I can’t even run my fingers through her hair."

"I understand," Lang said comfortingly.

"Listen, my mom gave me her cell phone, since nobody calls her on it anyway. She wants you guys to have it in case you need to call, if you need anything, so it won’t run up your phone bill. And plus I want to call every day to see how she's doing."

"All right, I'll give this to Brooke."

Rachel wrote the number to the phone on the back of one of the social worker's cards, and sobbed as she turned away. Langdon quietly went up the stairs to the apartment, went inside, and gently shut the front door, as not to wake Dani who was sleeping only a few feet away. He flicked the porch light off and quietly set the stuff down on the living room floor before climbing into bed with his wife, who was wide awake and knitting a hat.





Three



"It's just for a few days," she told people. "Some ugliness happened, some things went wrong, and now I have custody of Danica." She went on to say that Rachel's court date was Friday, and that Dani should be going home that day, and if for whatever reason she didn't, she wouldn't be there for more than three weeks.

When Dani woke up in the morning, she greeted everyone with a smile, and went to play with her cousins. Brooke loved watching her niece, brushing her hair, and trying to put it into a ponytail. She never really was good with hair, which is probably why she had boys. Having Dani was so different, so alien. It was difficult for Brooke because she understood what her own kids were saying most of the time because she had learned their cues, but Dani had her own little language that surely only her mother could understand. She would ask for "woo," but Brooke didn't know what that was. As near as she could figure, it was either milk or water, because she always seemed to say it when she held out her sippy cup in front of her. On many occasions, Brooke called her a "good boy" and struggled to figure out what was a pretty dress and what was a nightgown.

You might think that being a girl, she would be a bit of an expert on girly things, but after living with boys, she had forgotten so much of it. She had never been into girly things, she wasn't really taught about femininity when she was little or offered dolls to play with. She wasn't a tomboy, but it wasn't until she was 19 that she even began carrying a purse. Now she had sons, little icky sticky boys. That seemed easier for her, it seemed like little girls were easier to screw up if they weren't nurtured right. Boys were tough and survived through things, or that's how she figured anyway. She was accustomed to dump trucks and race cars all over the floor, and her daily outfits consisting of a pair of jeans and a fitted T-shirt. She didn't even wear makeup or do anything fancy to her hair herself, and now she was being held responsible for the maintenance of this pretty little girl.

"So long as she doesn't start her period or anything, we can handle it," Langdon joked.

"I don't think that it will be a problem, honey."

"I know, it's just that girls are so different. Todd likes to make up songs about his pee pee and jump on the bed while singing them. Dani likes to sing to her stuffed animals. And what's with all of these dolls? They're everywhere!"

"I know honey, but it's just for a while."

This little girl, Danica, meaning "golden dawn" in some other language, loved her Disney movies, especially the ones about princesses. She came out of the room and asked for her mom. She pointed to the door and in a sweet little toddler voice she said, "Mommy outside?" Brooke explained that mommy was at home and that she was here to visit with her cousins for a while. The boys were adjusting, sort of. Trey was too young to really understand a change like this, and Todd reacted to it by stealing all of Dani's pillows. When Brooke went in to their room to inspect it, Dani's bed was bare, and Todd's was covered in zebra printed fluffies and her Elmo doll that was dressed like a chicken.

After getting lunch set up for the kids, there was a knock at the door. It was Tyesha, who had come back to give Brooke some pamphlets.

"Oh, I wasn't sure that anyone was home! I didn't hear anything, it was so quiet for a house full of toddlers."
"No, we're all here, the kids are just eating."

Tyesha stepped inside to see all three children sitting at the table eating peanut butter sandwiches cut into little triangles, a handful of Goldfish crackers, and drinking chocolate milk. Little Dani with her golden hair and smile happy and clean except for her peanut butter smeared face.

"Aren't you a happy girl," said Tyesha to Dani. She turned to Brooke with a look of shock on her face and said, "I think that this might be the nicest place for this little girl to be right now. I know she's homesick, but they're so resilient at this age, just look at how sweet she is."

"Yes, she is adjusting well so far, but it's only the first day."

"Still, you look like you have this very well under control. Oh, and I need to see your smoke detector once more."

Brooke led her to the hallway to show her that she had replaced the batteries on it and even bought a carbon monoxide detector.

"It's a very good sign that you guys are so on top of everything, for Rachel as well," Tyesha told her.

After the social worker left, Brooke got the kids down for a nap, or attempted to anyway, but she had a bit of a problem with getting Dani to fall asleep. She wasn't sure of her routine or what she liked to do, so she just stayed with her until she finally drifted off. Brooke used the quiet time to clean up the lunch mess and talk to Langdon about the situation a little more. She tried to explain the best that she could that Rachel was a good mother, and the problem was with Steven who had deserted his wife and daughter for a fling with a crack whore. It was the crack whore who called CPS, and it wouldn't have happened if Steven had never slept with her.

Or maybe if Steven just hadn't bothered to come back.

"Did you know that he had the nerve to yell at Rachel for ‘giving her up’?" she asked Langdon while taking a sugar cookie out of the cookie jar.

"I wouldn't put it past him, your brother is all about blaming everyone else."

"He wanted her to be on the run and hide out with Dani."

"Hide from whom? CPS?"

"The government in general. He thinks that the government is out to get him. That's why he's 26 with no work history. He thinks that if he gets a job that he will be 'in the system' or something."

"Isn't he already in the system since he has a social security number?"

"Yeah, it's just his excuse not to work. Meanwhile he smokes all the pot he can and Rachel's mom pays for Dani's diapers."

Rachel did have a job at the pharmacy back before the baby was born, but she lost it when she started stealing medications for her parents. Ever since then, she hadn't worked a single day, and Steven kept insisting that he refused to work for anything less than $30 an hour, without any professional experience in anything or an education. In the real world, things don't work out like that, but he refused to accept the real world. Unfortunately his little daughter suffered for it.

All Brooke was interested in was making sure that Dani had a decent house to live in, a balanced diet, and a safe place to sleep at night. Her brother couldn't provide those things to her, so it was now Steven's little sister's responsibility to see to it that she had everything she needed.

"Look honey," she began. "I’ve been ripped from my home before, and I was put with strangers. It sucked! And I know that this is a tough situation, but I really don't want to see her going to strangers."

"I know."

"She needs to be with family, and right now we are the only ones who can take her."

Even as she attempted to stay strong and loving for her little niece, she couldn't help but feel that anger deep inside of her for Steven. She couldn't shake the feeling that he or one of his no good friends would show up and try to take Danica. She always double checked to see if the door was locked, and she always kept the cell phone on her in case she needed to call 911.

The phone rang, and it was Rachel. She said that she had just woken up, and she wanted to check on Dani.

"She had eggs for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and she's in the room napping."

"Did she sleep okay last night for you?"

"Oh, yeah, she slept until late this morning."

"I couldn't sleep until about 6:00 this morning," which seemed to be a regular bedtime for Rachel even before Dani was born. It seemed like Rachel was up all night every night and sleeping her days away.

"Listen, if she has any trouble sleeping, open up the vitamin bottle I sent. They're really just a pill that helps her go to sleep."

"Um... you give her medicine to go to sleep?"

"Only sometimes, like when we want to go to bed and she just wants to play."

"Rachel, that isn't good, and I’ll get along fine without drugging her."

"Oh, no, it's not like you're drugging her, it just helps her fall asleep."

The whole situation struck Brooke as odd, and she got the vitamin bottle and shook a few pills out to see what they were. "Nappy Time" they said on them. She got on the Internet and researched the pills, only to find out that the makers of Nappy Time were also the makers of "Wakie Wakie" caffeine pills and "Upper Boost" energy pills, all of which are sold at gas stations around the country.

Maybe Rachel really was a bad mother, or maybe she was just misinformed. Either way, Brooke tossed the pills in the trash before heading to the kid's room for a round of diaper changes.



Four



The cell phone rang, and the number on the caller ID wasn't Rachel's, but Brooke answered it anyway.

"Hello?"

"Cup?"

"Uh... what?"

"Cuppie? Is that you?"

"OH! You're looking for Cupcake. I'm sorry, this is Brooke, Cupcake's daughter's sister -in-law. I'm taking care of her granddaughter right now so I have Cupcake's phone. Would you like me to give you the number to the house?"

"Oh, so YOU'RE the one... listen, this is Cupcake's sister Julie. How is little Danica doing?"

"Well, hello Julie, Dani is adjusting, but she's well."

"That poor little darling, well you are doing a brave thing."

"I'm just doing my job to keep her out of the hands of strangers."

"Oh, no, you are doing so much more. I can’t believe you have to go through all of this. I just wonder if she will ever go back to Rach."

"They have a court date Friday, I'm sure they'll turn her back over."

"I'm not so sure, I mean... I hate to badmouth my family and all, but I swear to God, there are things you don't know about Rachel that would shock you."

Remembering the sleeping pills, Brooke questioned in her mind what ELSE there could be.

"I just don't think they're going to let her home so easily if you know what I mean," Julie continued.

"Well, we will give Dani a home for as long as she needs one," Brooke said, trying to avoid fanning the flames of any family drama, though her curiosity was through the roof.

"I swear to God─ what's your name again?"

"I'm Brooke... "

"I swear to God, Brooke, these people, my sister, and Rachel... all they do is sleep all day, and Rachel is like a child, I swear to God, Brooke, I swear to my Lord."

"I knew that they slept a lot, but what do you mean by Rachel being like a child?"

"I swear to God, the last time I was over there, in that filthy disgusting house of theirs, and that's another thing," she raved, "Cupcake didn't used to keep house that way, she used to have that bathroom sparkling every morning for Lee, and she baked that fresh bread every morning and she was little miss homemaker, she was. But I swear to my Lord Jesus, the last time I went over there it stunk to high Heaven with cat shit, and Rachel comes out of her bedroom with a handful of candy and change and gum wrappers, and she just sets 'em up on the table like they're her most prized possessions, I swear to God, Brooke."

"Yes, the house is messy," she concurred, "that's part of the reason that they took Dani. I guess the initial visit by the social worker said that the house was cluttered but livable, but when Rachel didn't file the restraining order against my brother, it was a different social worker who came to the house, and she said that the place was condemned."

"Well, it wouldnt'a been that way if Rachel would just clean up for her mother once in a while, I swear to God, my sister Cupcake, I mean her husband was just put in the ground, and here she is disabled with her 29-year old daughter living with her, and she ain't doing shit around that house to help out. All she's doing is eating and making messes, then going back to her bedroom and sleeping all day with all them cats. They got so many God damned cats I swear to God, I think Cuppie thinks they's her babies and all, the way she does with them. She’s got that one bathroom all closed off from people using it because she just fills that tub up with that cat litter and lets 'em shit in it."

"Yeah, I’ve seen the shit tub." Brooke tried to keep up her side of the conversation, not saying anything incriminating herself, since she didn't even know this Julie lady anyway. She was polite, but she was intrigued at the same time at the things this woman was telling her.

"It's true, she does sleep a lot," Brooke agreed. "It seems like every time she calls she's either on her way to sleep or she's just woken up, and at strange times, like sleeping at three in the afternoon or just waking up at 10:30 at night. She even called me the other night at 2:30 wondering if I was in bed yet, I found it odd."

"Well, you listen," said Julie, "The last time I was over there, Danica was tired and trying to go to sleep, and Rachel was spanking her and taking her lovey toys from her as punishment, I mean, I swear to God, she was outright angry with this child for wanting to sleep."

"Are you serious?" Brooke asked in horror.

"I swear to my ever loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Brooke. She was hittin' on this girl for wanting to sleep. And Rachel, she keeps this girl up at night, all night long to keep her company because she don't want to be alone while Steven is out screwing around, so she's always tired. This poor little girl only gets to sleep when her mama the insomniac says it’s okay to."

"Oh, wow... oh wow, wow, and wow."

"You didn't know?"

"Um," Brooke hesitated, "Actually the other day Rachel told me that there were some 'baby sleeping pills' in Dani's stuff, and that I can give her one if she won’t go to sleep for me, and I found it really strange."

Julie gasped, "Oh, my sweet Jesus, you don't give her those pills do you?"\

"Oh, of course not, I tossed them out, but not before researching them on the Internet. Turns out they're just a cheap gas station sleep pill."

"You really ought to consider telling those social workers about that."

"I know... but I'm worried about sabotaging her chances of getting Dani back... but I'm not sure that she needs to go back. Then... I guess she stays here with me forever."

"Well, I know you're providing her the kind of home that the Lord intended for this baby to have, you need to do what is best for that girl."

"I know I do," she sighed. "But I'm sort of scared of what will happen if I tell the social worker, like if Rachel will find out and get mad."

"Well, who cares if she's mad?"

"I do, to an extent, only because... well you know Rachel when she's mad."

"I know sweetheart but you can’t let this go, they GOT to know about this."

"You're right."

They said their goodbyes and Brooke mulled over the information she was just told in her head. Telling the social worker was the right thing to do, but this aunt could just be a liar, or even revengeful for whatever reason. She decided to wait and see what would happen at the court hearing.



Five



That Friday, Brooke drove Dani to the CPS office in the town that Rachel lived in for a supervised visit. At first she didn't know where the CPS office was, and she had to triple check the directions on the Internet. But when she got there, she recognized it. She had been in Building B on the third floor before, back when she was in Dani's shoes.

Brooke got there before Rachel did, and she talked to two people waiting in the lobby. One was some kind of shady crack addict who said that her sister was taking care of her kid. But the other was a very old woman. Both of them thought that Dani was just the cutest little thing, but they got upset that her hair was in her eyes. Dani's hair was always in her eyes, it was too long and it needed a trim, but Rachel insisted that she not get a haircut because she liked to do it up like Pebbles from The Flintstones. That's all well and good, but I'm the one doing her hair every day, thought Brooke. Still, she respected the wishes of the mother; because she knew what it would be like if someone didn't follow her special mommy instructions.

The old woman in the lobby told her that she had a daughter-in-law with four children. Her voice and head lowered as she said that the social workers had taken three of them from the hospital room when the fourth one was being born, and that when the baby was off the machines he would also be taken into custody. She didn't say why, but it wasn't hard to figure out that the baby had most likely been born addicted to some drug, a direct result of a pregnant mother not taking care of herself.

"I got to go into the nursery and see the baby, but they wouldn't let me hold him. I tell you now, I said 'your grand-mama loves you very much,' but I had to walk out of there cuz they was pushin' me out the door like I didn't belong."

"That sounds terrible," Brooke said with sorrow.

"It ain't right to do the grandmother this way... "

"I'm so sorry ma'am... "

The old woman put her face into her hands and cried. Not more than a minute later, Rachel showed up with her mom and scooped Dani up in her arms. She cried as she held her baby daughter, and Dani was excited to see her mom and "Maw-Maw." They were all led to a small visit room, and Rachel sat on the floor and offered some new toys to Dani, who delightfully played with them while Tyesha sat watch over the situation. After about 20 minutes, Tyesha was called out of the room for something, and she looked at Brooke as if to put her in charge. In charge of watching a mother play blocks with her daughter.

As soon as she left the room, Rachel said "I should just come back here later to blow the damn place up."
Shocked, Brooke said, "Rach, keep it down, don't talk like that now."

"No, I'm serious. They're up in here taking my baby from me, what do they expect?"

"Rachel, cool it."

She gave Brooke her “angry face,” which was more like a death-stare.

"You know Id like to see how YOU would handle being in the position that I'm in. I'd like to see you TRY to get through a day like I’ve been having. Id like to see —"

"Knock it off, Rachel!” Cupcake snapped at her. “I'm tellin' you these rooms is probably bugged, and they got you on tape sayin' all this stuff. Now please, let it go and visit with your daughter. You can say all that shit when we get home."

Brooke was thankful for Cupcake's interjection, and it worked momentarily. Rachel got quiet and held Dani close.

"They better not have no cameras on me, that's a violation of my rights. YOU HEAR THAT FUCKERS?"

Brooke and Cupcake shushed her at the same time. Finally she decided to give up and went back to playing with Dani.

The reason that Cupcake was there is because Rachel lived with her, due to not being able to support herself at 29 years of age with a daughter and a husband. Nobody in the house worked, Rachel and Steven were on food stamps and cash aid, and Cupcake was living off of her husband's death benefits. Her husband was a war veteran on disability, and his checks stopped once his heart did, but they were replaced with a lump sum of $178,000, which would be enough to support her for a good long while, in theory anyway. Brooke had always felt that Rachel was taking advantage of her mother, but she couldn't say anything, because for all she knew, Cupcake was okay with it.

During the time that the social worker was out of the room, Rachel encouraged Danica to kick the walls, hoping she would put a hole through them. This behavior wasn't incredibly shocking coming from Rachel, who had an anger problem her whole life that she never learned to deal with, but Brooke felt that it was way out of line, especially since she should be showing these people that they made a mistake by taking Dani away from her sane and stable mother, not doing her a favor by getting her out of the clutches of a psycho raging lunatic woman.

After the visit was over, Dani sobbed as her mother carried her to Brooke's car and strapped her in. Rachel couldn't help but cry. It was clear that Rachel missed her daughter, and that little Dani missed her mom, but there was something not right about the situation, which was ever more apparent to Brooke after that phone call with Aunt Julie, and with what Rachel had said about blowing up the building. Brooke had tried to explain to her that she needed to stay calm, especially around these people if she ever wanted to prove that she was fit enough to have Dani back, but it was a losing battle. Rachel was convinced that someone was out to get her. This wasn't the case, it's just that the shit had finally hit the fan. Someone was eventually going to see that mess of a house that she lived in, and no doubt Steven's antics would cause some kind of trouble down the line. In this case, they finally did.

Brooke and Steven were two very different people. They both ended up in the foster care system when they were little, placed in different homes. Brooke accepted her fate, and knew that she couldn't control the situation being only nine years old, but Steven felt that he could control it by running away from every home that he was placed in. Eventually they started putting him in group homes, and from there juvenile detention, and then prison. He had always believed that the government was out to "get him," and it rubbed off on Rachel. Now she believed that "fucking social services" was just acting on a bogus call and going way overboard, when in reality they were just doing their job. She only believed it because he had shown her enough fabricated Internet videos about how Child Protective Services only took children so that they could sell them to Vietnam and parts of Africa for sex slavery. He convinced her that if they didn't get Dani back, she would be some old man's sex toy, and it scared Rachel enough to believe it.

Another thought that was always at the back of Brooke's mind was her dying mother. She had been in a nursing home for months with liver disease, a direct result of a life of alcohol abuse. She had recently had a stroke and with Steven being the only person who really cared about the old hag, the hospital called him to tell him to get there as soon as possible if he ever wanted to see her again, because she was fading fast. Brooke didn't know how much longer it would be before she died, but she hoped that it would be sooner rather than later.

Brooke felt that she couldn't be bothered to worry about a dying old woman who couldn't have been bothered to take care of her living children back when it mattered. She just let her drug and alcohol problem get worse and worse, never giving a thought to her kids. Now one of those kids was returning the same neglectful favor.