a month of Sunday's

a month of Sunday's

fiction
edward w pritchard

Latonya had slapped at her teacher an elderly lady and the school was investigating the matter at the request of CSB. Her Mother saw the incident differently and had called the Children Services Board and had reported that the teacher had grabbed at the daughter's arm and left a bruise.

At the hearing rather than the usual dependency and neglect magistrate the head magistrate Joseph handled the matter for he had decided that any second or third complaint from the same household would come to him. This was the third time in seven years that the Mother had reported different teachers to the CSB for various incidents concerning her daughter.

Joseph was taking at tough stand against the Mother's position and there had been three hearings and the Mother had reported Joseph to the judicial review, the County Executive and even the newspaper, to no avail for Joseph effectively had no boss and was because of the sensitivity of the cases he handled isolated from retaliation by the irate public.

The Mother worked at cable company in re-installations and was extremely busy at work. There was a special program in progress that after a disconnect of cable and various movie channels a reconnection could be done without catching up the back payments. All that was required was one months billing and a $33 fee. The phones were ringing off the hook with incoming calls and looked to remain so for three or four months until, the program was discontinued in July. The Mother was working Monday through Friday and Saturday one to five PM. She started at work at one o:clock on Saturday now, rather than the usual time of nine AM; because at the last hearing on the daughters case involving striking a teacher the head Magistrate Joseph had ruled that for four weeks the girl Latonya would serve Saturday detention 8AM till noon. Because of the Mother's incorrigible attitude at the hearing the Judge had ruled the Mother must go to the detention as a condition of him not finding her in contempt for filing frivolous litigation through CSB. The Mother protested and objected but at length her Attorney convinced her that she was fighting in the wrong venue and she should comply and move on.

The Mother's favorite part of her week was Sunday, her only true day off. She loved to dress up and go to Church and see her friends and then stop on the way home at a nice restaurant. It made the rest of the week bearable, especially now that she was working Saturdays at the cable company an intense job.

The first Saturday of detention was past and the Mother was now going to the second one with the daughter tomorrow. After coming home from work Friday night at about 6PM the Mother had laid down on the couch exhausted at 7PM and then slept for 12 hours and then woke up and had to hurry off to detention and then work.

While at the second detention the daughter had done none of the homework she was to do as a condition of her "probation" and the next day after the Mother returned from Church she sat with her daughter and walked the daughter through the fill in the blanks, and coloring of maps, and matching exercises that she was behind on.

The next Sunday the Mother had slept in till 10:30 AM and she had missed Church. About four PM the daughter came to the Mother and asked her to help with her homework for tomorrow. The Mother refused and decided to let the girl handle her own problems and the Mother vowed to stop protecting her.

The fourth Saturday the Mother served her fourth detention and the next day rose early and put on her best dress and went to Church and then out for a long afternoon meal.
end