Chapter Twenty-Six

My tummy was growling and brother was awake. I wish I was sitting at the table with the other kids and Miss Bea was serving us a nice grilled sandwich with some of her tomato soup. When I grew up that became my favorite meal. I wonder if Miss Bea’s memories had something to do with it.

Someone in the front seat must have heard my growling because we pulled in to the McDonald’s restaurant. “Are you going through the drive-thru son?”

“No, we should go in. I don’t want food crumbs in the car.”

Daddy parked and we all got out. I had to pee real bad. I was putting my hand between my legs and prancing. Grandma saw this so she took my brother and my hand and we headed towards the ladies room. She changed brother and I peed. I washed my hands and when Grandma saw me doing that, she followed.

When we got back out to the lobby, our food was placed on the table and spread out. I don’t know exactly what daddy was eating but it seemed real messy. I am glad he didn’t get me that sandwich. Grandpa had one too. Grandma was going to be eating fish. Brother and I each had a plain hamburger and we all shared french fries. The grown-ups had dark drinks and my brother and I shared a carton of milk.

It tasted alright but not near as good as Miss Bea’s cooking. I tried real hard not to tear up. I didn’t want daddy to get upset about me missing the home we had just left. Well, he may think I didn’t love him anymore, so I held my secrets inside of me.

“Of course you’ll bring the kids with you and all of you will move back home. It’s the best place to be for now. You don’t really know how long that trial will take and of course there is the divorce filing to think about.”

Daddy didn’t say anything. He just kept eating. I don’t know what a divorce was but I always saw his eyes get sad when the word was mentioned. It did seem like daddy did just about everything his parents said. I hoped when he got sad or teary-eyed, that was his way of letting me know he missed mama too.

“I saw in a newspaper that was sitting in the bathroom that her trial starts on Monday. It’s about time. Just wasting our tax dollars sitting there in jail. We just want to get this all done and move on,” grandma said.

When my brother and I were done eating, grandma wiped our faces off. I wish she would let me do that by myself, after all, I was a big girl now. She couldn’t get all the ketcup off brother’s face so she licked her finger and wiped the red stuff off.

Grandpa threw all the trash away and grandma picked up her purse and we all left the restaurant. Back in the car we went.

To be continued…