Chapter 9

I blinked at the thin curvy young woman in front of me. It took me a moment to realize, this was the daughter I had never met as Adam. This was Lucinda Diaz, my 17 year old daughter. A very sexy, but not actually my daughter, 17 year old.

“Where have you been? Why did you change the locks?”

“Lucy, what’s going on? Why are you here?”

“I’ve been texting you, where have you been?”

“I’ve been out of the country working. I have a new phone, I don’t know where my old one is.”

“So you don’t know that mom threw me out of the house last week?”

“No, I didn’t know that at all,” I said, pulling out my keyring, and unlocking the door.

She went storming in, and sat on the recliner. “Well you’ve got to help me. I’ve been staying at Angela’s house. You’ve got to make mom take me back.”

I closed the door, and sat on the bed. “Tell me the story, Lucy. What happened, why, and when.”

“Mom found out I’m pregnant when she discovered a pregnancy test in my trash can. She had no right to come into my room. She was so mad, at first she grounded me, but there was no way I was staying in, it’s not like I could get more pregnant, right?

“That’s when I came in a little late, and just a little drunk, and she started screaming about alcohol babies, and the next morning she threw me out of the house.”

I scanned my memories, “You have a retarded cousin in Puerto Rico, my sister’s kid, she drank thru a pregnancy, and the kid just isn’t very bright.”

“Well I’m not going to drink the whole time I’m pregnant!”

I scanned her with my power, she was about six weeks along. “Have you been to the doctor yet?”

“No, why would I go to the doctor? Jesus, dad I’m not sick, I’m pregnant.”

“Those tests aren’t always accurate, if you make an appointment at your doctor’s, I’ll go with you and pay for it.”

“But I bought the error proof test!”

“I’m sure they are very good, but they might be wrong. Can you call and make an appointment?”

She nodded, looking as if maybe her life wasn’t going to be quite so terrible. She called, and made an appointment for the following day. While I sat there, I reached out and started conjuring things into my closet. She hung up, and told me what I already had overheard, she had an appointment for 1130am tomorrow.

“Do you want to sleep here, or do you need to go back to Angela’s?”

She pointed at her backpack, “I was hoping that I could sleep here, Thomas snuck out mom’s set of your keys, but they didn’t work. He says that she said that you were out of the country.”

She looked around, “What happened to your apartment?”

“It got upgraded while I was gone. I just got back, it’s pretty nice, I think.”

“How in the world am I going to sleep here? I expected the place to be empty.”

“I’ve got a blow up mattress in the closet, or you can sleep in the recliner.”

“Mattress, please,” she said.

“It’s in the closet, we will pull it out at bedtime. Do you need to do homework or something?”

“No, I’m good. Do you have anything to eat?”

“Not really, but I can get anything delivered. All I’ve got in the fridge is bottled water.”

“Can you get me thai food? I love that spicy cashew pineapple fried rice you used to bring home sometimes.”

“I think they closed, I’ll check,” I paused, unsure what to say, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” I offered.

“It’s ok,” she said.

“I’m also sorry about how I used to be,” I said.

“Well now you can make it up to me,” she said.

I looked up the Thai place I had from the memories. It was open, but I wasn’t in delivery range anymore, “They don’t deliver this far north,” I told her, seeing her disappointment I added, “Want to go out? We can take an Uber there.”

Her eyes lit up, “Oh, can we? Thank you daddy! You really are the best!”

I checked the time on my phone, it was early. “I need to get some new furniture, we have time before dinner, unless you are hungry now?”

“I’m actually really hungry, I didn’t have lunch.”

“Ok, let’s go eat, then you can help me pick out a table for in here. I was thinking a nice pub table, with two chairs.”

“I don’t know. Let’s go eat first.”

We headed out the door, she left her backpack on the recliner, marking it as her territory. I locked the door, and we went back down the five flights of stairs. The Uber picked us up with only a five minute wait, and we hurriedly jumped in out of the cold. The restaurant was dark, but smelled great. I ordered extra of everything, knowing this was going to have to be her breakfast if I didn’t get to go grocery shopping on the way home.

I drew her out, asked about her boyfriend, who I learned was named Chad. I asked what he thought about her being pregnant, and she admitted that she hadn’t told anyone. It apparently wasn’t young love, she was just his current fuck buddy. It sounded like she had fought for the position, for some reason.

Either the girl wasn’t very bright, or really had no future goals in life. A few additional questions to draw her out determined it was a big helping of both. After dinner I took her to a high end furniture store, where we wandered around looking at stuff. She took my arm, wrapping hers around mine, in a really sweet kind of way.

The salesman finally approached us, so I whispered to her, “He probably thinks you are my girlfriend,” which made her snort in laughter.

“Hi, I’m looking for a pub table with two leather padded chairs preferably in oak.”

He considered me for a moment, then turned, “We have that,” he said, walking rapidly down the aisle. He stopped at the back corner where I found a very nice pub table, with two high backed chairs, wrapped in a nice brown leather, with copper nails.

“That’s perfect, do you deliver?” I asked.

“Of course, delivery is 25 dollars.”

“Great, now where do I pay?”

He grabbed the ticket off the item, took my address and phone number, then swiped my card, promising a delivery between 4 and 6 tomorrow.

“I can’t believe you just spent nine hundred dollars on a table and chairs!” she chastised after we were back in the Uber.

“If you are going to come visit, we need a place to eat. I don’t want to eat in the bed.”

“You need a bigger place, dad.”

“Tell me why my place is too small for me?” I asked.

She didn’t have an answer. A bigger place and she’d try to move in with me. Not something I wanted.

I had the Uber stop a block short so we could run in and get stuff for breakfast. She picked up a box of cereal, so I grabbed a carton of milk, and a package of eggs and bacon. I also grabbed toilet paper and paper towels because I only had access to ones with German and French on them.