Gen 1.6 Can't Be Too Careful

The weeks and months that followed fell into a predictable pattern of sing-a-grams, getting Juniper up to grade-level, and Shane. She noticed that for a guy who worked a stable job at a factory, he kept some irregular hours, but she chalked it up to being a single father. Jasmine, called Jas by almost everyone, was the light of his life and he would do almost anything for her. Jas had big dreams and Shane had put her in private school to help her achieve them. Lupe had no idea how he could afford that on his salary. Maybe Jas had gotten a scholarship?

Cuddling in bed one night, Lupe asked, “What is Jas' mother like? I never hear you mention her or a custody arrangement?” Lupe felt Shane's chest muscles tense underneath her head and he let out a sigh.

“Melissa and I were high school sweethearts. We'd known each other since kindergarten and her older sister was best friends with my older sister Marnie.” Shane rolled onto his side to face Lupe. “She was a daredevil and a real speed demon. We got into a lot of trouble together and ran with a bad crowd. She was an ace with a wrench and could soup up a car like you'd never believe. The day after graduation, I got her pregnant in the backseat of her daddy's caddy.”

He ran his fingers through his hair, and rubbed his hands restlessly along the curve of Lupe's side on top of the blankets, “Our parents were furious and took us before a justice of the peace practically with the test in her hand. I think they hoped that marriage and a baby would cause us to settle down, but Mel still had to race. Jas was still little, maybe two or three. I got home from work and it had been raining. Mel said she was going out and I told her to be careful 'cause the roads were slick. I know she had to be racing, but the coroner said that she came around a turn too quick, lost control of the car and wrapped it around a tree. She was twenty-one. Her family moved away to get a new start and the next year my folks died. Marnie asked me and Jas to move in the old farm to give her some company and it's been like that ever since. Now that she's married to Marlon, me an' Jas decided to give them some space and get our own place.”

His hand moved from her hip to her rear and pulled her closer cupping her bottom. Lupe traced his jawline with her finger enjoying the rasp of his stubble and pulled him in for a kiss. They made love slowly and sensuously drawing it out as long as they could.

Afterward, Shane glanced at the clock and stood, “I'm sorry, baby, but I gotta get going. I gotta get breakfast with Jas.” He started getting dressed. Lupe threw on a robe, smile frozen in place to see him out. In the living room, Floyd barely lifted his head as they went by. He was used to this ritual. Lupe opened the door and let Shane out and leaned against the doorjamb looking down. Shane turned around to say good bye and lifted her head with his hand under her chin, his thumb resting in the hollow under her full lips, “I wanna remember you just like this” he said kissing her.

Lupe drew back and looked up at him doubtfully, “With my hair all mussed, no makeup, and wearing an old robe?”

“Especially with messy hair and no makeup. You look like the cat that got the cream.” He kissed her harder, one hand at the small of her back pulling her in.

When Lupe got back to her bed, she found Floyd had made a nest in the middle of the bed and had stretched out diagonally. Lupe sighed, moved the dog over, and settled down for sleep.

Too soon she awoke to a child in crisis, “Lupe! Where's my homework? I can't find it anywhere!” Juniper was walking in aimless circles around the living room looking at things, not under things and not anywhere near where she usually did her homework. Lupe went into the kitchen and found it on the counter next to Juniper's lunchbox. She gave Juniper's take home folder a once over discarding the junk flyers about nursery schools and after school programs and signing the permission slip for the class fieldtrip to the bistro. It sounded like a good excuse for the teachers to have a nice lunch, but what did she know? “It's over here, Junie!” she called out, “Did you eat breakfast yet? Sorry I wasn't up.” Lupe had thrown on an old nightshirt before she flopped down with Floyd, but she still felt like she might as well be naked.

“I had some cereal and milk and a banana. And I read the comics. I love Dogz!” Lupe had to smile. When Juniper had come to her three years ago, she was barely able to read the simple sentences in Frank I'm Not and Bluish Eggs. The fact that she was reading for recreation was awesome to her. She was still a little below grade-level, but Lupe was so proud. She grabbed Juniper and gave her a quick squeeze before she wriggled free and ran for the bus stop, “Mom! I'm gonna be late!”

“Remember, you've got visitation with your mother this afternoon!” Lupe called after her. The visitation was a farce. Half the time the woman couldn't be bothered to show up and the other half she didn't seem quite right.

Juniper always dragged her feet coming home on visitation days. Lupe had considered signing her up for an after school activity on that day, picking her up and taking her to the diner afterwards. However her inner unwilling child told her that there were too many opportunities for things to go wrong with that. Juniper had to be at the appointed place at the appointed time, even if her mother didn't show up. What was the term the guardian ad litem use? A show of good faith? Privately, Lupe called it a load of bull shit. On Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons the kid that normally could not get in the house fast enough suddenly took a great interest in the pebbles on the side of the road and the swishing noise willow sticks made as she whipped them this way and that. She noticed birds she'd never seen before and her shoes just wouldn't stay tied. Lupe chivvied her into the taxi to the diner. She spent the ten minute drive whining.

By the time she entered the old fashioned boxcar she'd settled down and accepted that this was going to happen. The elderly waitress knew the drill and settled Juniper at a booth to wait and Lupe a couple of tables away where she could see them. Lupe ordered a coffee, got out her notebook, and jotted down the date and time in blue ink and noted “court mandated visitation.” Juniper got a piece of pie and a cup of milk and started in on her homework. If her mother was going to show up, she'd be there in the next fifteen minutes and homework was a better use of her time than trying to talk to her. Nina had three main flavors to these meetings: happy-drunk and gushing about her latest man, beligerant and trying to turn Juniper against the system and Lupe, or woe-is-me. Nina wasn't really interested in what Juniper was up to or what Juniper was interested in. Nina was more interested in Nina and she never asked a single question of Juniper that she didn't answer herself. Nina thought herself a good mother who had been maligned by busy-bodies.

Juniper began with math, her favorite subject. Then, she moved on to her spelling words which she hated because the letters liked to dance around and form pictures in her mind. She was getting better at reading, but her brain was better at seeing the shape of the word than the individual letters. Books with lots of pictures helped. She ended up doodling down the page as usual. “Gigantic” became a giraffe chasing “haiku” and “lyric” up a tree made of “tone.” At this point Lupe came over and looked at her work, “I like the way you drew the line making up the tree trunk, it's a very funny picture, but what does it have to do with spelling, mija?”

“'Tone' just looked like a coconut tree to me, and haiku looks spooked and what could be more scary than a gigantic angry giraffe?” Juniper darted a glance at the clock above the milkshake mixer, “Is it time for dinner? I wanna burger and fries and a milkshake!”

“Yes it's time for dinner, thank you for being so patient. We'll continue working on your homework later.” Lupe marked down, “6:00, no show, ordering dinner” in her notebook. She wanted to adopt Juniper outright, but it was hard going. Half the time Juniper called her mom anyway, and that would just have to do. When she got home, Lupe emailed their social worker to let her know that Nina had missed visitation for the third time this month and let Floyd out.

Just before falling asleep that night, Lupe sat bolt upright. Today was the first day of fall. When was her last cycle? They'd been careful but not too careful, especially when she was menstruating. Lupe knew her cycle and she knew when the safer and less safe zones were and planned accordingly. Shane agreed with her boundaries and they used condoms most of the time and they had both gotten tested. It was one of those nights where she only knew she slept because of how often she remembered waking up and looking at the clock.

The next morning, she headed to the bathroom and hunted in the medicine cabinet for her emergency pee tests and a cup. It was positive.

Note: I've got like 4 screen shots for the next few chapters because I got really involved in playing and also plain flights of fancy. Enjoy the great walls of text!