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.

When Jim arrived at work he immediately sought out Lupe and informed her of what had happened. Lupe expressed concern but told Jim that she hadn't seen Donna in over six weeks. She had assumed, after Donna left her apartment without saying a word to her, that she had either gone back to Jim's or returned to her mother's to live. She did confirm that Donna had been drinking quite a bit and had taken to going out for long stretches of time even before she left Lupe's. She wanted to know what hospital Donna was in and Jim gave her Jill's home number and told her she could call there.

A week later Sandy came over to tell Jim that Donna had been released from the hospital and had decided to return to her grandparents house to finish up her senior year of high school. Jill had put her on a plane to Chicago the previous morning. Jim thanked Sandy for the information and told her that he hoped everything worked out OK for Donna. The following day at work he filled Lupe in on all that he'd learned and then the two went back to their pattern of only discussing bank matters.

Jim didn't see or hear much from Jill until she stopped by one Saturday evening in early December to share the news that she was getting married in Las Vegas on the following week-end and asking Jim if he would mind taking care of Sandy for five nights while she and Tom enjoyed a brief honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta. Jim's first thought was to refuse, and he began that refusal by reminding Jill about the two incidents involving he and Sandy in the past. Jill's position was that she trusted Sandy being with Jim and that she was confident that whatever happened, Jim wouldn't do anything that he thought would cause Sandy harm. Jim told her that he was afraid that something might happen anyway and he didn't want the potential problems that could develop. Jill looked Jim right in the eyes and told him that nothing that happened between he and Sandy would be a problem as far as she was concerned. She said that Sandy was mature enough now to decide things for herself and that she, Jill, could think of a lot worse things in life than for Sandy to wind up having sex with him. Reluctantly, Jim agreed to do it and gave Jill a hug and a kiss and wished her all the happiness in the world with her impending marriage.