excerpt

                                VISIONS

                              (an excerpt)

by Sookie

  Molly Peete, an impoverished widow, has been left with her now five year old grandaughter, Staria, to care for. Molly's beautiful, but wayward daughter, has disappeared.Molly and the child live in a rural area.  the closest neighbors are five miles away. Staria is lonely, withdrawn, and quiet.

  Molly loves the child, but feels she must find a way to see that the child gets what she needs and deserves.  Molly has a small income supplemented by selling homegrown vegetablesand eggs.  She also raises a few chickens and rabbits  that she also sells but still has to scrape hard to just get by.

  Before her daughter, Isabella, disappeared she had revealed the name of Staria's birth father. She confided in her mother that she had worked briefly for him as a clerk. According to her, he was a wealthy married rancher. He had no other children to leave his fortune to.  He shared with her that his wife was barren.

    Isabella stated that one night after a long grueling day at work, he approached her and asked her to join him at a local bar and grill for a light dinner and drinks. She accepted. After a night of drinking and dancing, they left went to a neighboring hideway and were intimate. It was the start of a brief fling that lasted two months.
   
    Two months later, she discovered she was pregnant with Staria but never told her employer.  Instead she quit her job, moved to a small city, got on welfare and stayed until the child was born. At the age of three Staria was brought to Molly by her mother.Isabella, unemployed, depressed and broke, she spent her days sleeping, paying no attention to her child.

    This went on for two years. One morning the old lady went to wake her daughter for breakfast,only to discover Isabella had left during the night. No note, no warning.
Staria, now five years old was old enough to enroll in school. But how? No money,
no close relatives and no resources.

    As the old lady and the child sat eating a meager breakfast, she continued to have many questions that needed answers she didn't have. Maybe, she thought, Isabella will contact me later,How can I support this child if I have to? I am getting on in years and my health is failing and what would the circumstances be if I  contacted Staria's father?