Chapter
5
After a
busy day at school, Jessica was ready to get home and enjoy some free
time. She liked school, but she didn’t like
having to follow orders all of the time.
At school her teacher was in charge of her. But at home, she was in charge of
herself. Jessica’s mother let her do her
own thing. Well, that is, most of the
time. The school bus pulled up to Jessica’s neighborhood and stopped to let the
children out. There were about twenty
kids who got off at Jessica’s stop. Jessica
smiled as she watched James hurry off of the bus. He jumped from the last step and took off at
a dead run like a man who had just been freed from prison. James couldn’t wait to ditch his backpack and
put on his play clothes. James hated his
school uniform. It wasn’t that the
uniform was uncomfortable, but it just represented school. And James hated school. It wasn’t that he hated learning; he just
hated to sit still; he hated the restriction of school. Jessica talked a few moments with
Gloria. They made plans to get together
after supper. Both girls were pretty
responsible and they both liked to get their homework and house work done first. The days were getting warmer and longer. There would be time to talk after
supper. The early evening would be warm
enough and the time change had made the days a little longer.
Jessica
came into the house and called, “Hi mom, I’m home.” But no one answered her voice. She heard James upstairs rummaging through
his drawers looking for his favorite pair of jeans. His jeans had holes in each knee, but oh, how
he loved those jeans! “James,” Jessica
called out, “Your jeans are down here in the dryer.” In a few moments, James came down the stairs
and ran into the laundry room.
“How did
you know I was looking for my favorite jeans?” James asked.
Jessica
smarted off to him, “James, I know everything.”
She liked to be on top of everything.
She liked to be in control. “Your
baseball hat is on the back porch too.” Jessica added.
James was
amazed and thought that Jessica was reading his mind. “How did you know I would be asking about my
hat? And how did you know it was on the
back porch?” James wondered.
Didn’t you
know that I know everything? Jessica said.
Jessica was so pleased with herself.
What she didn’t tell James was
that he wore the same jeans and the same t-shirt and same hat every single
day. And she had just stepped over the
hat on her way into the house. It was
easy – but she didn’t tell James that.
She just let James think that she could read his mind.
Jessica
asked James, “Have you seen mother?”
As James
pulled on his t-shirt he started for the back door, yelling back to
Jessica. “If you know so much, you tell me where she is!” And he was
gone. The only thing Jessica heard was
the back door as it slammed behind James.
Jessica
found the white plastic clothes basket and pulled the rest of the clothes out
of the dryer. Then she picked up the
rest of the clothes that James had piled onto the floor while he was looking
for his t-shirt. “James, why didn’t you
just put the clean clothes in the basket?” she thought. “It wouldn’t be that much harder.” Jessica carried the basket into the living
room and began to fold the clean clothes, putting them into piles. “I wonder what’s for supper?” she
thought. Jessica went into the kitchen
and looked in the refrigerator. It was
almost empty. No ideas for supper came
to her mind. So she went to the dining
room table and unzipped her book bag.
She got out her math book, some paper, and a pencil and looked for the
page where her homework was to be found.
Jessica
was almost finished with her homework when she heard loud voices out back. Her mind focused on the sounds. She recognized her mother’s voice and then
heard her step-father’s growling. They
were fussing at each other again. It
seemed like all that they did was to fuss and fight.
As they
came in the back door, Howard was saying, “Well, if you didn’t spend so much,
we wouldn’t have to get a pay-day advance.”
Jessica’s
mother retorted, “Well, if you had a better job, we would have plenty of
money!”
Howard was
almost yelling now, “Well If you would get a job instead of sitting around all
day watching soap operas, we would have plenty of money coming in!
Jessica
knew where the conversation was headed.
It always ended the same way: Jessica’s mother blaming Howard and Howard
blaming Jessica’s mother. Jessica didn’t
want to be in the middle of this. She
hurriedly stuffed her books and papers into her book bag and started out of the
house. As she went out of the door, she
heard her mother say to Howard, “Well if you brought all of your paycheck home
instead of leaving half of it at the bar…”
and with that, the door slammed shut behind Jessica as she left the
house. The door muffled the sounds of the
argument. But nothing could clear the
argument from Jessica’s mind. “Dear
God,” she thought, “Please help my family.”
What Jessica didn’t realize was that God was already working on
answering that prayer!
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