Page 65 of Valentine's Daddy To Go
“Vivica, I’m sure he’ll come back home. He always does.” Brian isn’t a social butterfly who neglects his family. Maybe he went to go cash that check I gave him, and it’s taking longer than usual because of how big it was.
“That’s not the problem!” Vivica cries with worry. “He came home, but then he took Mackenzie and Madison and took off.”
I stare at her.
“They’ll be fine with him, right?”
“No, they won’t. He was clearly high, so God knows where he took them. And he’s not answering his phone. I’m worried something bad is going to happen to my girls.” She’s wringing her hands, her nails digging into her skin. I’d be more concerned with her if I wasn’t so caught up on something she said.
“He washigh? What do you mean he was high?”
Vivica starts blinking back tears, realizing what she just told me.
“He was high. Like on drugs.”
I stare at her.
“Brian does drugs? For how long?”
Vivica bites her lip tearily.
“Um, yeah, he does. He wasn’t a regular drug user, it was just here and there, but it was the reason why he was late each morning to his job. He was always trying to recover in the mornings.”
“But how did he hide it? I mean—” I’m at a loss for words.
“Brian’s always been a great talker, you know? He was always able to hide it from you. I mean, you always gave him the benefit of the doubt, but he’schanged,” she says in a tearful voice.
“Okay, um, is he dangerous when he’s high?”
Vivica begins to cry again.
“I don’t know.” She’s starting to pull back. But we don’t have time for that. I need the facts, and I need them now.
“Vivica, you need to tell me everything. Is he dangerous when he’s high?”
“Kind of. I guess.” It looks like she’s not ready to answer that question, but I have a whole bunch queued up in my mind.
“Where does he get the drugs? Does he cook them himself?”
My sister-in-law sniffles, wiping at her pink nose.
“He didn’t always. Over the last year, he fell in with a harder crew, and he’s been using more, so his work has been suffering a lot. It’s gotten to the point where this crew offered him a position cooking meth. So he’s been going to Jaybird during the day, but then he’d head over to their encampment at night to cook for them. And as he used more and more, he grew erratic and his anger management has been all over the place.”
“His anger?” I ask, dumbfounded. I’ve never seen Brian fly off the handle before. He’s always been more of a crybaby, but I guess if he’s doing drugs, it could really warp his brain.
“Yeah, it’s been getting kind of bad,” Vivica says before wrapping her arm around herself and looking down at the ground. “I wish I had told you sooner, Nellie.”
I stare at her. How could I have been so out of the loop with everything? How did I miss all of this? But there’s no sense in kicking a dog that’s already down.
“Do you have any idea where he could have gone?”
“I don’t know. He just stormed in here and grabbed the girls, before turning around and leaving. He got fired again, so I think he’s unraveling,” she chokes up a little bit. “Madison and Mackenzie haven’t seen any of the bad stuff. I’ve been doing my best to hide it from them, but it’s getting hard as Brian’s behavior becomes more erratic. I don’t know what to do.”
“What you need to do is calm down. Panicking won’t help us find Madison and Mackenzie.”
Vivica nods, tears falling down her face.
“What should I do, Nell?” she whimpers, wiping her face.
