Andrea, From Homeless to Happy

"Okay, Andy, but it's time to call."

I dialed her number. "Mr. Bell's office, Mrs. Norman speaking. How may I help you?"

She knew it was me; why the formal greeting? I answered in a fake English accent, "Good afternoon Mrs. Norman. Did you get the package I sent from Seattle Billing Company, Inc.?"

"No, I did not. Was it sent by U.S. mail or another method of shipping? One moment, please excuse me." I heard Adele talking to someone.

"I'm back. They just went to lunch. Do you have something to write with?"

"Yes."

She gave me her address and all her phone numbers. Then she asked, "Do you need anything?"

"We're fine, Adele, warm and loved. We need to get my dad out of Cheri's control because I think she's drugging or poisoning him."

"Andy, have you thought about getting a throwaway phone?"

"No. But that's a good idea. I have to check our finances first."

"I could buy one, and you could meet me for lunch and pick it up. Have you had Abby to a doctor for her checkup?"

"No, I've tried to stay out sight downtown."

"Do you remember your dad paying for all your doctor visits and the delivery? I could make appointments for both of you. Do you have her birth certificate?"

"Yes. The nurse filled it out and gave it to me. Could you go to the doctor with me.?"

"I would love to take you, but I can't take a chance someone else would get assigned as Mr. Bells' secretary if I took off. What about that woman you live with?"

"Danni, that would work."

"Call me Thursday. I'll have a plan. Bye."

"Bye."

"Let's go home, Mark. Thanks for having my back."

*****

The next day was frigid, a few degrees above zero, and the wind was strong enough to make fir trees lean over. So instead of using all of our logs to heat the room, we moved our sleeping bags closer to the stove and closed the damper partway. I could hear Sissy and Mark talking and kissing and talking, and you know.

I got up at half-past twelve and heated a big pot of beef stew. I served everyone so they could stay warm. Then I ate and washed the dishes. By then, it was 2:00. I handed Abby to Sissy and snuggled with Danni in the bag. When I woke up, it was dark outside. Danni and Mark made sandwiches with cold cuts. I ate, went potty, and fell asleep. Abby woke me up twice, but she fell right back to sleep.

*****

Thursday morning, Dec. 3^rd, it was still below zero, but there was no wind. We ate and did food runs in the morning. After 1:00, Danni and I walked over to Walmart.

When I dialed my dad's office, Adele picked up. "Andy?"

"Yes., hi Adele."

"Can you meet me this Saturday? I can pick you up anywhere."

"Saturday is bath day, and we have an old clawfoot tub we pour hot water into. For some reason, there's still electricity to the well pump, and we have a stove for heat, making hot water, and cooking."

"Well, all of you are welcome. Whoever comes, bring clean clothes, and you can get your Saturday bath here. Then I'll feed you."

"We always leave at least two adults in the house. That way, we can chase away homeless men who aren't as nice as us. Can I bring Danni and Alex?"

"Of course. Now, where can I pick you up?"

"What about the Walmart near 84^th street in Southeast Lincoln by Nebraska Highway? At the main entrance?"

"Is 10:00 fine?"

"Uh-huh, see you then. What are you driving?"

"A Lincoln Navigator, dark blue. I'm still trying to get a pediatrician appointment. Oops, where did the time go? They're coming back. Bye."

"Bye."

"Oh, Danni, I hope this works. If it doesn't, I won't leave you."

"It will, baby. Let's go see if they have cardboard today?"

That night Danni kissed me, and we made love.

*****

Friday was a typical day, cold but not below freezing; Alex and I made $74.53 panhandling. We had to leave our spot early because I thought I saw one of the twins going into a jewelry store. I jumped up, and we went in the opposite direction, looking side to side but keeping my head down.

*****

The next morning excitement flowed thru the house. At 9 AM, we left the house; Danni, Alex, Abby, and me, carrying clean clothes in a backpack for us and a clean sleeper and diapers for Abby. We got to the bus stop at 9:10, and after a short wait, we rode the bus that dropped us two blocks away from the Walmart in South East Lincoln at 9:45. Abby was awake, blowing bubbles and waving her arms around.

Danni walked around the corner of the store where I thought Adele would be coming from. Danni came back walking fast a few minutes later and called out, "Dark blue Lincoln Navigator, female driver by herself."

A Navigator turned left and headed towards us, and I got a good look at the driver.

"It's her." I walked towards the street, waving my arms. She smiled and stopped. We piled in, said our greetings, and were off to Adele's house. We pulled into the driveway, and I remembered I had been here when my mom was alive. We got out of the car, and Adele's husband, Jason, greeted us at the front door. Introductions were made, and Adele asked, "Bath's or lunch first?"

All three of us called out, "Bath first." Abby chimed in with a big pocket of gas that squeaked out.

"Yea, Alex and Danni go first." Adele grabbed Abby and laughed because something worse followed the gas. As we changed her diaper together on the floor, Adele began filling me in on everything she knew about my father.

"His health doesn't seem to be very good, and he won't take any hints about going to see a doctor. The witch has also contacted his personal attorney and very good friend, John Cartwright. I think she's trying to get him to change his will."

I loosened my blouse after changing Abby's poopy diaper and let her feed. Adele's husband Jason seems uncomfortable being in the same room, so I tried to ease his mind.

"It's okay, please don't be embarrassed. Danni has taught me that breastfeeding is very natural, and unless somebody complains about it, I just do it, although, in very public areas, I do cover-up."

"She's right, Jason; it's as natural as changing her baby's diaper in public. No one complains about seeing a baby naked on a blanket at a picnic being cleaned up. If you remember, I breastfed both of our children, and you never complained when you were watching."

We sat around the dining room table talking, and when Abby had drunk her fill, Jason took her in his arms, saying, "I can't wait until I'm a grandfather." Adele and I talked, and I gave her all the details of what happened after daddy brought Sherry and her daughters home with him.

"None of us at work had any idea how bad it was for you at home. We believed most of what they told us and chalked it up to jealousy. Hell, it will be a struggle for me to keep a smile on my face and not jump out of my chair and beat the shit out of that bitch."

Danni and Alex came into the dining room with satisfied smiles on their faces, so I got up and took Abby back to the bathroom, and bathed her in the sink. She wasn't very dirty, so I soon had her diapered and dressed and down for a nap on Adele's bed. Now it was my turn to enjoy a soak in hot water without heating buckets of water on the stove.

I eased into the hot water, and about ten minutes later, the door opened, and Danni came in, "I told Adele I was coming back to wash you, but I don't think she believed me." She kneeled on the floor next to the tub and washed me with a washcloth and a bar of 'Dove' soap, then sat on the edge of the tub, gently stroking my belly. We relaxed and enjoyed thirty minutes of companionship without any fears or worries until the water got cold.

We rejoined everyone in the dining room, and Jason was down on the floor with some matchbox cars playing with Alex. Adele was making lunch, and when Danni and I joined her in the kitchen, she asked with a smile, "So is this a mommy-daughter relationship, or are you two lovers?"

I blushed, and Danni started speaking in tongues, "Um, well, it's like this, you see, um, we help...."

"It's okay, Danni; who am I to judge someone. Promise me you won't hurt each other if you separate, and I emphasize the word if instead of when. It happened to me in college, and for my girlfriend Isabel, it was real; for me, it was a way to find release and keep from getting pregnant, and when I broke it off, Isabel was devastated."

We ate lunch, talked some more, and made plans to ride out the winter before trying to save my father in the spring. As we were climbing out of her SUV at the bus stop, Adele gave Danni a flip phone and told her, "I programmed every number I could think of, even the phone numbers of an obstetrician and a pediatrician."

On the bus ride back and the walk to our house, Danni had a grip on my hand and never released it until we were safely home.

*****

I took Abby to a pediatrician a few days later, and he told me she was healthy and happy. He gave her all of the 1-2 month vaccines and made an appointment for the next round of shots in two months. The next day I went to an obstetrician to check my system out after giving birth, and he told me, "I'm not advocating being homeless, but you are very healthy for a nineteen-year-old woman living without an address."

Two weeks before Christmas, I was feeding Abby while sitting in the garden area of Walmart that was covered but wasn't inside the store when a familiar woman looking at real Christmas trees saw me and froze.

"It's you; I've been looking for you without luck and had given up on finding you again."

I stood up, ready to run.

"Please, don't run. I'm by myself, and I just want to talk to you. Can I do that, please?"

"All right, but if I see anyone I don't know coming toward me, I'm gonna scream rape as loud as I can."

"Okay, I understand. I don't want to hurt you, I just want to help, and I'm afraid all I've done so far is to scare you." She grabbed another folding chair and set it ten yards away in front of me before sitting down. I sat down and waited with my legs on high alert, waiting to sprint through a fire door to my left.

"My name is Gloria Wainwright, and I run a legal adoption brokerage in Lincoln. I have a list of parents who want to adopt, and I put them together with pregnant women or those who just given birth who want to give their child up for adoption."

"I do not want to give my daughter up for adoption. You can see how healthy she is from where you are, so she's not at risk, and neither am I, so forget it."

"You misunderstand, I never got the chance to ask you if you wanted to explore adoption, but I can see how healthy your baby is and how determined you are to keep her. Now that I know the two of you are thriving, even though you're homeless, is there anything I can do to help you?"

"No, and you're lucky you didn't threaten me because part of my family is standing behind you."

Gloria stood and looked behind her and saw Danni, looking very protective, and Alex hiding behind her, clutching an action figure.

"I don't know why I'm doing this, but something tells me I can trust you, so here goes. My name is Andy Bell, and my baby's name is Abby, and I lived in my father's house in Omaha until Abby was born, and my stepmother tried to give her away for adoption at the hospital. That's why I ran away to Lincoln and became homeless."

Gloria looked shocked but got control of her emotions and asked, "She was born September 17 at Lincoln Maternity hospital, wasn't she?"

"How did you know?"

"Your stepmother, Cheri Bell, called me and said her daughter had just given birth but couldn't take care of the baby and wanted to give it up for adoption. I met her at the hospital with a packet of forms, and we talked before finding out you ran away. I figured then that Cheri wanted to get rid of the baby, and you didn't, so I left."

Gloria gave me a business card before we separated, and as we walked back to the house, Danni asked, "Are you sure giving her your name was the smart thing to do?"

"Time will tell."

*****

A few days before Christmas, I panhandled downtown in front of a major department store. Lincoln was in the middle of a mini heatwave with highs in the lower 50s, so I dressed down and brought Abby with me. Shoppers were in the Christmas mood, and my little box in front of me was receiving a lot of donations in bills, which I kept stuffing in a purse I was wearing under my shirt.

I'd been in front of the store for about three hours, and Abby was getting fussy and smelled funny, so I picked up my box, stuffed all the bills in my purse, and dumped all the coin into a Salvation Army kettle. As I walked down the sidewalk, I ran into Cheri and my two evil stepsisters. Before they could react, I cut across the street, weaving in and out of the crowd on the sidewalk, before hiding behind a van. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I peeped around the back of the van to see what they were doing.

They were still standing in the same spot, hands up in the air and pointing in my direction. Translation, they knew it was me. I turned and zigzagged through the city and suburbs until I reached my Walmart and the road to home.

Everyone was home, and they could see I was upset, so Sissy grabbed Abby, and Danni and Mark hugged me, asking me what had happened. Sobbing, I told them about running into my father's new family and the fact that they recognized me. That night, Danni and I were sleeping alone on the other side of the stove, and I wanted, no, I needed her to make love to me.

She undressed first, slowly teasing me as she slid her jeans and panties down and kicked them aside. I was on my back, and she was standing over my face rubbing her almost hairless pussy, and I could see the moisture seeping out onto her fingers. She plunged three of them inside her and stroked in and out a few times before removing them, glistening with her juices. Bending over, she presented her fingers to my lips, and I lunged, sucking them into my mouth. I can only compare what I was feeling to a patient waking up from surgery getting the first sliver of ice placed on their lips.

Pulling her fingers from my mouth, Danni quickly removed her blouse and bra before frantically pulling my clothes off and then lying on top of me.

"What do you want, Andy?"

"Um, I want you to make love to me."

"I know that, but what do you need? Where do you want this to go, between you and me? What do you want to happen?"

"I don't understand; I want her to make love to me, and I want orgasms, and I want someone to hold me."

"I'm not going to touch you until you open up completely to me, so tell me everything worth thinking and describe what you 're feeling right this minute."

"I'm um, I don't know, I'm confused; what do you want to hear?"

Danni rose up and straddled my belly with her knees. She placed her right index finger in her mouth, then withdrew it and put it on my heart. As tears rolled out of her eyes, she asked me one more time, "Tell me what you're feeling, what you've just bottled up and hidden deep inside, what you think about when you're trying to go to sleep after making love. Please, Andy, tell me what I need to hear."

Boom! A lightning bolt jolted my heart, and suddenly everything was clear.

"I want you, Danni. I want you to bathe me, dry me off, dress me, and brush my hair. I want you to teach me how to put on makeup, take me shopping, and show me how your mistress should dress. I want you to hold my right arm as we walk in public, staying slightly behind me, showing everyone that you belong to me. I don't want a puppet who has to please me; I want a partner whose greatest desire is to please me, knowing I will always satisfy her sexual urges and a lover who will eagerly display the ring I will place on her left ring finger."

Her tears of joy were pouring out of her eyes, down her cheeks, and onto the sleeping bag. Ever so slightly, her head was nodding, and the word yes was formed on her lips.

"Danni, you opened my eyes and made me see who I truly am, and I want to go forward in this life with you underneath me, on top of me, and by my side. Now, I will do things to you and show you what you asked for."

And I did.

*****

Christmas came, and most of the presents were for Alex and Abby; Alex got a few toys but lots of books, and Abby got bigger sleepers and more disposable diapers. Mark gave sissy a pretty silver ring, which didn't surprise anyone, and I gave Danni a gold ring which did catch everyone by surprise.

A few days later, Danni, Abby, and I were downtown trying to get a little cash from people returning gifts. I was in a good spot, and Danni was a few feet away, looking at faces in the crowd. We felt it simultaneously, the feeling that someone was watching us. We looked at each other and then focused across the street, and I saw two young men; one was staring directly at me, and the other was staring at a piece of paper in his hand. My heart froze when they both started across the street, heading directly toward me.

Forgetting about the box, I shouted, "Danni," and ran into the store, following a predetermined path through the store that led to a side door on another street. If Danni heard me, she would've temporarily blocked the entrance by stumbling into the rotating doorway.

I wasn't thinking, just reacting, and just like the last time I was in danger, I was ducking and weaving through the city to a fast food store where we agreed to meet if we got separated. I was there almost an hour before Danni came in and ordered some coffee.

"I'm freezing." She took a big gulp of hot coffee before continuing with her story, "After I blocked the door, I followed them into the store, staying far enough behind that they wouldn't spot me. They searched the streets around the store before finally going into a parking garage two blocks away. I waited at the exit, and they were driving an SUV that had an Omaha city sticker on the windshield. They looked like college boys, and I thought immediately of your stepsisters."

"Well, they definitely recognized me, and that's the second time I've been spotted downtown. Crap, that's where all the best-panhandling spots are. Let's go home and talk about this with Sissy and Mark."

After dinner, we decided to send Sissy and Alex to get donations for the next three days, and Danni and Mark would look for anybody watching the homeless people begging for money. Abby and I would stay here, out of sight.

By the time darkness fell on December 30, we had no doubts that someone was looking for Abby and me. Danni had taken the cell phone with her and had individual pictures of seven different men searching the crowd with their eyes. To them were the college boys we spotted before.

The next morning, New Year's Eve, I called Adele and asked her, "Are my father or Cheri acting strange?"

"What do you mean, Andy?"

"I bumped into the evil twins and mommy dearest a few days before Christmas, downtown, in front of one of the big department stores. Tuesday, Danni and I spotted two college boys eyeballing me, and when they started walking toward me, I took off. I stayed off the streets with Abby the next three days, and Sissy took my place, and Danni got pictures of seven different men that looked like they were searching the crowd for someone."

"Shit! Can you send me the pictures?"

"Okay," I said, and Adele hung up.

I handed the phone to Danni, and she sent the pictures. A couple of minutes later, the phone rang, and I answered; it was Adele.

"Oh my God, Andy, this is getting way too crazy. The two boys are going with Betty and Linda, and one of the men is a private investigator."

"How do you know that he's a PI?"

"Because he was in your dad's office Tuesday afternoon, and Cheri gave me a bill to pay him."

"Cheri's trying to get rid of Abby and me, but why? If I'm not trying to contact my father, I'm not a danger to her. So, why...."