Chapter 6

Jill felt very conflicted, her own personal love life was really going great. Tom Patterson had been courting her continuously for the past three weeks and the two of them had finally given in to their mutual attraction. For the past week they had made love together every day. The sex was great but the personal closeness and sense of belonging together made it even more special. It had been a very long time since Jill had felt so personally fulfilled. Unfortunately, her personal happiness was made far less complete due to the fact that her daughter, Donna, had once again bolted off into what Jill thought of as a self destructive direction. She was shocked to see Donna entered into a full blown lesbian relationship. She felt terrible for poor Jim who had taken their split up hard and who had to work every day with the woman who'd broken up his happy home. Her heart really went out to him. Sandy, her other daughter, was so mad at her sister, she'd vowed never to speak to her again for as long as she lived.

As September settled over Southern California, and the evenings came increasingly early, Jim started getting home just as the dusk was settling in. It was one of these early evenings, as he was pulling up to his parking spot that he almost ran Donna over. She was lying in his parking spot nestled in a pool of vomit and smelling like she hadn't showered in at least a month. Her beautiful hair had been cut very short and her skin tone was very sallow and unhealthy looking. At first, staring down at her, Jim didn't recognize her as the former love of his life. When recognition finally dawned, he ran over to Jill's house and pounded on her door. Jill and Sandy came running and soon 911 had been called and an ambulance was on its way.

The ambulance attendants, after a quick examination, cleared her breathing passages and handled Donna gingerly, placing her on the gurney carefully and putting her in the ambulance for transport to the nearest hospital. Jill and Sandy followed in Jill's car but Jim declined their invitation for him to join them. Sandy came over the next morning to tell him that Donna was not in any imminent danger but that she'd been diagnosed with low level alcohol poisoning and had evidence of recent intravenous drug use. The hospital would keep her for several more days as she had been placed on a psychological hold since she was suspected of attempting suicide.