Chapter 2

She called me one day, excitement pouring through the phone. “Ohmigod, Mark! Bobbie just came over! He has the best, the very best, news! He found your ex, and just emailed both her attorney and yours with her address, car license plate number, and her new employer! I’m so, so, so proud of my brother, and so happy for you! If this works out, you may see your kids again!”

I did not know what to say. Ashley noticed. “Are you there? I would have expected you to be jumping up and down with joy!”

“Yeah, I’m here. I do not know what to say. I’ve ... I’ve waited so long for this, and now, it’s hard to believe that this may be getting resolved. I just don’t want to get my hopes up, only to get them crushed again.”

Ashley had a muted conversation with someone on her end of the phone, and returned. “Mark? Bobbie wants to talk to you.”

“Put him on. I really have to thank him in person, but this is a good start.”

A new voice came on. “Mark, this is Bobbie. The information you gave me last week really paid off. When you call the board of Nursing and ask where a licensee has had her Board scores sent, well, that really shortens the list of calls you have to make. It turns out, they even record changes of name, which is really handy when you call another state, oh, let’s pick one out of the air at random, like, er, Kentucky, just as an example, and ask about a licensee newly practicing in their state. Once you know what town they are in, you can find their employer pretty easily. It turns out that there are only so many hospitals in any county. I was really surprised at how helpful your attorney, and your ex’s attorney, thought that information might be!”

I drew a deep breath. “Bobbie, you do realize that there is no way, absolutely no way on earth, that I can describe just how deeply in your debt I am, right? And, that means that there is no way I can ever adequately repay you. You know that, too, right?”

The baritone laughter from the phone washed over me. “No, man, really, you are already repaying me. You cannot know how unhappy Ashley had been, before you came along. She told you about a couple of her ex boyfriends, right? And, you met Tim, right? Hell, Tim was the pick of the litter! A couple of times, I had to have a sit down with some schmuck, and let him know what was not acceptable behavior when with my baby sister, and then explain consequences of failing to meet performance standards. Once or twice I had to provide a little in-service to establish that I was not fucking around. You! Hell, man, Ashley lights right up when she talks about you, and her stories of your outings and how you treat her, man, gotta tell you, you not only meet the standards, shit, man, you are re writing them! About goddamned time she found a stand up, grown up man to pal around with! And, what she tells me about your attempts to find your kids? Dude, that’s a MAN, right there! Anything I can do, to help a man be a MAN for his kids, I’m in! And, you keep on treating Ashley right, and you and I are gonna stay alright. Let me know what your attorney tells you, OK?”

“Ok? Ok, the man asks? Hell, yes, it’s OK! That is, if you do not hear me shouting for joy when it actually happens!”

Ashley came back on the line, and we chatted for a while. I had to consider how to care for my kids, once they were home again. Food and expenses were no issue. I’d have to figure out supervision when they were home and I was working. Ashley bounced a few ideas off of me, and we decided to talk, in person, the coming weekend.