a little matter

Betty wasn't sure what to do about this matter of Ed's son Ollie. At least, she'd made a few phone calls and someone she knew down at the Children's Institute knew of who Ed spoke of.

At least, Ed felt comfortable enough to talk about his son. He'd also done some odd jobs around the house and he did know how to paint a room.

"What are you going to do?" Her daughter Tiffany asked. "Marry him?" She sat at the kitchen table, picking at the pumpkin bread that Betty served with decaf coffee.

Betty looked at Tiffany, as if being pregnant had made her strange. Betty only sighed and thought of her own life when she was young.

She had not came from the best family, like she thought she did when she was little. There was  a short time when she loved her cozy home with her mother and father, out in rural Iowa. And then, things went bad when her father left them.

She'd watched her mother become ill, and it wasn't long after that, she moved in with her father's new family that he'd evidently started before her mother passed away. She had a feeling now that maybe her mom had done herself in, but she didn't know for sure. It was a long time ago, and she didn't want to spend her time researching it now, just so she could be depressed, all over again.

No, she would look forward and not dwell on how much she hated her father's family( it wasn't long until she was married off to some other family that she didn't like much better). It had been a rocky road, and she'd been alone most of her life to raise her own family.

She'd hate for Ollie to feel that way. He needed a real home to come home, too.

"No. Why would I marry Ed?" She'd been done with marriage for a very long time now. "I'll just adopt his son."

"What?" Tiffany sounded offended. "What about Dewey?"

"What about him?" Betty winced. He was a teenager who had been distanced..since..well, he was quiet. She would have to settle on that. "He's doing fine. He's got a girlfriend. He's got his scholarship now." A college recruiter had it all settled. He'd move to Lincoln by June. As much as she hated the sport he thrived in, she couldn't say no to the scholarship.

"You're too old, for anymore kids." Tiffany told her.

"I'm not the one pregnant." Betty's smile was smart. "First, I have to see if..if he'd even consider it."

Betty hadn't even met Ollie yet, but she'd spoken to who he was staying with. She knew they needed a break from him.

"What if..what if..he.."

"What? I have spent plenty of nights worried where you'd gone, you know. He couldn't be any worse than you." She reminded Tiffany about all the fights she'd get in at school. She didn't want to her daughter was a bully, but she might have been.

Now Tiffany looked at her annoyed.

It might be rough, but it was the right thing to do.