SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, STORY

 SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, SATURDAY STORY

On Saturdays, I write fiction (and I’m going to keep trying until I get better!!! <grin>)

My life has been with the “good people” - people who go to church, who are nice and kind, and well educated.  I have heard of some of the “not-so-good people” and I’m going to try to work with that.  (And, I’m writing this before starting, I’d be surprised if I don’t have a happy ending (Pollyanna Karen).

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Arterio Disu had dropped out of high school at age 16.  Not that high school was doing anything for Arterio.  His attendance was spotty (at best).  His mother couldn’t take care of him (or his four younger half-brothers and half-sisters).  He had joined a gang when he was 10.  Most of his education was with the bros in the gang.  He started as a delivery boy, moved up to marijuana sales and distribution, and was an alcoholic and drug user by age 13.  

In school, Arterio had wallopped his math teacher in seventh grade and was on in-school probation.  By ninth grade, he was in the district’s alternate school.  The concept was to try to give the kids off the streets some skills to be productive and try to show them a better life.  But, in his sophomore year, he was gone - back on the streets.  Street smart, but not book smart.

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Femme Gutierrez might have been the female Arterio Disu - with some changes.  Her mother was locked up in the state penitentiary and was being raised by an aunt (if being “raised” means that there was a bed on the floor of a cheap apartment for her).  Auntie Aaliyah was generally strung out on dope and what little money she made by being a prostitute. Like Arterio Femme was in a gang.  Auntie Aaliyah made sure that Femme was on birth control and had an IUD because pretty much every boy in the gang had sex with her.  She also was a high school dropout and had spent some time in the female juvenile corrections system.  

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Femme had some problems with her IUD and was not wearing it one night when she hooked up with Arterio.  And, a month later she missed her period and a pregnancy test showed she was pregnant.  

In Texas, Femme couldn’t get a legal abortion, she didn’t have the money to travel to another state, so, with some help from a Women’s Clinic she carried this unwanted baby to term and gave birth to a girl that she named Shaylee, Gutierrez.  Arterio was long gone and Femme didn’t even try to find him to tell him he was a dad. The birth changed Femme some - but not enough.  Having a baby with you on the streets limits your ability to make money.  She asked about putting the baby up for adoption, and so Shaylee Gutierrez was a baby without a family, and without a caring mother.  Adoption wasn’t easy for a baby like Shaylee.  Some potential adoptive parents weren’t sure if Shaylee wasn’t already addicted to drugs and the questions of “nature” (heritage) versus “nurture” (family)  popped up.  A black couple took Shaylee on a pre-adoption trial.  Things were good for a few months until the man lost his job in a technology slowdown, and the couple had to move to Silicon Valley California.  Shayless was back to being an orphan.  A couple in their 50s took Shaylee in as a foster child.  But with two children already in the family, Shaylee was just a hair too much for the couple to handle.  The other two children in the family were in school, and having an infant at home cut into the lady's work as a programmer/analyst at Dell Computers.  

Placement number three lasted five years.  A white couple who had a son about three months older than Shaylee took her in.  Things went well for two of those three years.  Then the boy started to bully Shaylee.  (Some of the boy’s friends used inappropriate words starting with N.  Shaylee withdrew and the boy started to taunt her.  The mother recognized the boy as the aggressor, but when faced with sending Shaylee back to the Department of Services to Children or disciplining her son, The son won out.  

The next several years were similar couples took Shaylee in - largely for the money that they got as foster parents.  Just when Shaylee was making friends, something went wrong, and back to being a state of Texas orphan.  

Shaylee was lost in the system.  In seventh grade with her fifth foster family, Shaylee started to run track.  Running was frequently her way to be alone. The coach noticed her ability and started to work with her.  The coach’s praise did a lot for Shaylee’s confidence.  Not only was she a good runner, but she had a supporter.  Without really trying, Shaylee’s grades and academic success got better.  

Her foster mother had also been a runner and still did running for fun and exercise.  Soon Shaylee and Kyndall, her foster mother, were running on Saturdays and Sundays.  And, Shaylee found two people who supported her - her foster mother and her track coach.  

By ninth grade, Shaylee was running cross country in the fall and then track in the spring.  Her middle school coach took a job at the high school and was able to still help Shaylee develop.  Her legs seemed to have springs and early in the track season, Coach Wilson tried her on the long jump.  She set a record for the ninth grade on her first jump.  

And, a word that didn’t exist in Shaylee’s vocabulary was starting to be used - “college”.  

Meanwhile, Kyndall and Marcus Rice started talking about adoption behind Shaylee’s back.  On Shaylee’s birthday after a barbecue party in Rice's backyard with the track team and Coach Wilson, when things were settling down. Marcus and Kyndall had Shaylee sit down and Marcus directly said to Shaylee.  “You’ve made our lives fuller, and we have learned to love you.  Shaylee, if you are willing, we’d love to adopt you as our very own daughter.

Shaylee cried happy tears as the three of them hugged.

Four months later, there was an official announcement and a grand party with both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins at the official ceremony.

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Karen writes.  I write “Love Wins” and “Love transforms”.  Today’s story had a girl who was an “untouchable” - labeled a loser from her birth, but through love was transformed into a daughter - a real daughter for real parents.  

(I read a recent news article about a similar situation).

How can we love the unlovable?  How could anybody love Arterio and Femme - her birth parents?  

My friends TF and JF have two awesome adopted children, and other friends BW and LW have two adopted children.  It isn’t always easy - but love can win - if you work at it.

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Are there people that you know who have fallen through the cracks?  How can you love them?  

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LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, JANUARY 28, 2023

(and, yes, it became a Pollyanna story)