Carry on Wayward Daughter

I got on this plane all hung-over trying to shake the fear that my dad would horribly screw up my mom's meds or forget to turn on the feeding tube. My sister lived close by and I was pretty confident that she would be checking in on a regular basis. I wondered what would happen to George with his extradition, wishing there would have been something that I could do for him.

I went back to work and just tried to keep it together. I called home every couple of days to make sure things were going well. I got back into the daily routine pretty quickly. I had been promoted to assistant supervisor at work. I was running the show in our building, in charge of hiring in the department. I scheduled myself into the early shift and was there every morning at 5 am. I made home-made bread every morning. It was such a hit that the board members would request that I include the bread in their board lunches and functions. Before I knew it, I was getting bread orders from just about everyone in the agency.

The radio station that I listened to in the morning had a trivia contest every day. I won all kinds of cool stuff. There probably weren't a whole lot of people up at that time of the morning. There was me and the guy that ran the half-way house, another non-profit a few blocks away. If I didn't win, Jack did. And the joke at the radio station was they were changing the name of the trivia contest to the Cindy and Jack show. It got to be great fun. Jack and I finally got to meet and became friends. I remember he had a very cool garden and grew those giant pumpkins, the ones that you see on the news in October for being the biggest.

I really liked my job. I was so glad that George didn't screw that up for me. I volunteered whenever staff was needed to chaperone. It turned out to be another great way to get into places for free. Non-profits, especially ones that benefit kids, get lots of free tickets. And if there's one thing I like, it's free stuff.

Barbara F got fired because of absenteeism, which was a direct result of the emergency appendectomy and the anorexia. Big mistake on the agency's part; she sued them and won. I was a little afraid that her winning that lawsuit would affect my job because of our close friendship. She even won her job back, but who wants to work for a place that fired them for being sick? So she took the money and was done. She got a job at a big hotel in town as a hostess for the President's Club. It was kind of like a private bar for big shots. She got paid a boat load of money to plan parties for people and then act like the hostess.

I had to go google to see who was president then, and it was Reagan. There was a big deal when someone came to town, but I couldn't remember who it was. I remembered that Bush was vice president, and it was he who came to town. The secret service was all over town for a week or two before he came. The president's club was reserved for him and Barbara F was in heaven. She's a die hard republican but I never held it against her. We just never discussed politics. Back then, I didn't really care about any of it anyway. Bush senior's trip to Rapid City was a big deal. The only other big deal I can remember was one of the ABC soaps were filming somewhere outside of town. I think it was General Hospital, but I'm not sure. I know it was one of my soaps and I only watch the ABC ones.

Things were good. And then I got the phone call from Nancy to tell me that they did extradite George and he would be coming back. A detective was going to Ohio to escort him back. She still didn't know the time frame, but for now he remained jailed back home.

A couple days later I get a call from my sister that my mom was back in the hospital. She had another staph infection and also a problem with her feeding tube. Those feeding tubes were relatively new and all kinds of things went wrong with them. Susan says I should come home. I called my supervisor and gave her the details and she encouraged me to go back home to help. I called Barbara F and gave her the details and she said if you go home can I go with you? She had a job interview that she would like to explore in Marietta. I said sure and we left that night for Ohio, with a half gallon of rum and a cooler full of coke and ice.

We made great time, travel wise. I'd driven home several times by myself. I even did a ride pool once with a group of four other people. It was one of those things where you would advertise your travel plans and the people that were heading your way would help with gas expenses. I only did it one time. I was scared to death to rest because we were in my car and I didn't know these people. The last stop that time was in western Indiana and then I continued alone, relieved and determined to never do it again. Nothing happened, but it could have.

I drove the first part of the trip and Barbara F tended bar. When it was her turn to drive, I decided to nap a little. I wasn't asleep very long when I hear, Cindy who who, what should I do if there are red lights behind me? Barbara F's youngest couldn't say Cindy Lou Who, so I got tagged with Cindy who who. I reluctantly woke up and said that she should probably pull over. I asked her what she did wrong, and she thought maybe she might have been speeding.

An Indiana State trooper comes to her side of the car and demands license and registration and you were speeding, by the way. The cop looks at our stuff, and says to me, don't you wear seat belts in South Dakota. I said Trooper Hooper, we most certainly do wear seat belts in South Dakota, and we wear them in Indiana as well. I was sleeping sir, and when Barbara F woke me up, I took of my seat belt because I was twisted up in it from sleeping. I swear to you his name tag said Trooper Hooper, I couldn't make that up! Trooper Hooper kept Barbara F's license and wrote her a ticket and sent us on our way. I drove the rest of the way, and Barbara F tended bar again.

We made it in record time. We went straight to the hospital. My mother's first lucid words to me were: What did you do, fly low? I said no, mom; I just had help driving. Her infection was clearing up and she was being discharged in the morning. I told my mom about taking Barbara F to Marietta and she and I went to my mom's to get some much needed sleep.