Chapter 1

“Steven! We have got to do something with that girl! Did you know that she came home drunk again last night. It is the, the, God, I don’t know how many times she has done it. And what about all the other times when she was with friends.” That was my wife bitching about our 17 year old daughter, again. It seems to be a routine with her. Coming home drunk at least 5 nights a week and making life a hellish place for us. We could not rely on her for anything. Cooking, cleaning, even watching her younger brother. OK, so he was 14, but still, he needed to be watched! Boys will be boys.

Let me introduce us to you readers. I am Steven and my wife is Debbie. We have been married for 20 years now and thought we would be starting to wind down our working time to ease into our retirement. But our daughter, Lisa, was changing our plans on that. Money being used to get her out of trouble. Lawyers, counselors, doctors. They were starting to enjoy our retirement monies. And lets not forget the fact that our son Brian had his soccer camp canceled when we had to use that money for a lawyer. His heart was broken but he knew why. We did love her, but life was tough for us.

We were at wits ends with her. It seemed that we may have to put her in an institution to get her straight. But they also cost money. Hell, I want to retire at 60 with a nice pension. But that will have to wait if we do that. The one we did look at cost $2,500 a month. And they are talking 4 months! With no guarantee!

I work as a corrections officer at a minimum security prison. Most are here for minor drug offenses, DWI, or getting ready to rejoin society. We have never had any real problems here. The big thing here is that the state used us to train service dogs for the police, airport security, medical training, helping the blind and handicapped. We even had teams that did community work of the elderly. Paint the outside of homes, do landscaping, in winter shovel snow. I had a good group of male and female prisoners that I worked with.

One summer day we were doing lawn mowing for some elderly people, when one of the prisoners called out that we were out of water. I went to the local corner store and got water and ice for them. While there, I over heard a conversation in Spanish. I guess they thought they were safe talking that way around a white guy. I learned Spanish in High School and learned more working with the prisoners. Anyway, one guy was asking about his daughter, and the other replied they found a place to rehab her and it cost nothing to them. Well that got my curiosity up. It was my turn at the cashier. I turned to the one man and asked him about the place he had found. I explained about my daughter, briefly. He gave me a card and wished me luck. I looked at the card and it had a cross on it and a prayer with a phone number and web site. I put the card in my wallet and got back to my prisoners. Yea, they were thirsty. I gave the 15 to drink and sit in shade. Well back to work boys and girls. I told them to finish out the day and we would head home, even early. It was an ugly summer day. Back at the prison, A/C never felt so good. Collected all the tools and locked them up. Had everyone sign there work sheets. Told them I would put in report about the extreme heat and humidity. I turned them over to the inside guards and went to finish my report. 6 hours of work put in, and 60 minutes of rest break. No incidents to report. Sat at the computer and finished all my paper work. Almost time to head home. Oh, wait! That card. Pulled it out and looked up the site. Seems that it was a conclave for girls to become nuns. They took in hardened girls and turned them into nuns who would become teachers, work in hospitals, become visitor aids to shut ins. Seems they had enclave on a private island. Funding for the place was from many different denominations. He would show his wife tonight.

Chapter 2 »