DFF Entry 3/19: Hazel, the horrid hag

"When will you stop treating me like a child molester?" James mumbled to his mother, not able to lock his eyes on his step-dad's gaze again. His hair flopped over his forehead in dismay.

"The lie detector found you out, son. You signed a confession." Mrs. Capitan was distraught, doubting that her teenage bundle of hormones would have brought himself to this disgrace had he a healthy relationship with girls. His last girlfriend dumped him for the choir class' star tenor.

"I was framed, mom. Grandma Hazel's lying about this again and you know it. There we're no bloody underpants sent back with you. She's accusing you in all this too, you know."

"But your sister is going along with it this time. We don't know what to think." Tears welled up, forming salty tar pits of mascara under Barbie Capitan's eyes. They streamed through the rouge and past the glossy red down-turned mouth. "We just want you to get some counseling."

Mr. Capitan remained seated with his arms folded as James' mom got up and led him down the fluorescent-lit corridor of the poky Telluride marshal department. "Your dad still loves you, Jimmy. We've both decided that it’s better you stay at his mother's house for awhile, maybe a couple of weeks."

The next two weeks was an earth-bound hell, eating burnt raisin bread egg sandwiches for breakfast with the least favorite of spreads, Miracle Whip. James looked forward to the day he could set the story straight.

It happened after the horrid hag's death in '95. He was overjoyed at the news, but not as much as when he would tell his step-dad all the wrongs he'd really committed while under the Capitan roof. None of which included perpetrating such a heinous crime against his baby sis, Mimi.