Page 14 of Recipes for Life

"Wait. You called mydad?"

"Act like a child, you get treated like one."

"I know I have no right to ask but...take care of her, okay?" I croaked out without looking back and hopped into my dad's truck.

The next morning, I woke up, signed the divorce papers, and sent both her and her lawyer a copy.

Chapter 10

Three years later...

Odette

I tapped my pen on the medical chart from the last appointment.Only one more to go. Around a year ago, I got hired at one of those quick cares in town. I loved my job; my schedule was mainly normal, working seven a.m. to four p.m. Monday through Friday, but I did pick up shifts at the hospital if they were short and it was my weekend without Lux.

"Odette, your last appointment is here, but uh...the school called. Said they couldn't get ahold of you," Gennie, our receptionist, told me.

"What?" I gasped as I quickly pulled my phone out of my white jacket pocket. I always kept the ringer off when I was working, but had it on vibrate. I could feel the vibration and checked it when I had a minute. Since I hadn't felt anything all day, I didn’t spare it a second glance. I noticed I had three missed calls from Lux's school.

That girl... She was six years old, starting first grade, but she acted like she was thirteen.

I realized the button on the side of my cell phone had been flipped down, effectively changing it from vibrate to silent mode.

Damnit. Yesterday I got a phone call saying she pushed a boy on the playground. When I asked her about it, she shrugged and said he was picking on another girl, and she was tired of it.

"Do you make fun of her?"

"No! She’s nice; I like her glasses," she said as she ate her snack.

"What do the other kids say to her?"

"Well, Bobby is always mean to her. He calls her four eyes and throws sticks at her."

"He does, what?"

She nodded. "When I said something to the teachers, they told me to mind my own business."

"Excuse me?"

"I know. Uncle Leon said that I should punch him in the face the next time he does that, but Daddy told me that we use our words, not our fists, but I didn't like that. So, I pushed him instead." She nodded as she happily ate her gummy bears.

"Daddy is right; we use our words, not our fists. Did you ask him to stop?"

She sighed as if I were bothering her with my questions. "No."

"Next time, you ask him to stop first. I'll talk to the school about this, ‘minding my own business’ thing.”

That seemed to make her happy, and she agreed she wouldn't push or punch anyone anymore.

I listened to the voicemail left by the school.

"Good afternoon, Ms. James, this is the school's nurse. I'm just calling to let you know that Lux came in here earlier; she has a fever and a bit of a swollen throat. I think she might have strep,and she needs to go home. If you could give the school a call at your earliest convenience...thank you."

Shit, that was two hours ago! Why did they wait until now to call the clinic?

I dialed the school's number, and after hitting a few prompts, I was transferred to the nurse's office.

"Hello?"

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