Getting By

There is an adage that says that youth is wasted on the young, although to watch my son, you would never believe it. Besides his capacity to wind people around his finger, an inherited trait he didn't get from me, he seems intent on fitting all of life's possibilities into a few short years. Not quite two, but he's wise beyond this, and he races about soaking up every detail he can/ What is more, he is consistently creating new past times for of us, and I sometimes have trouble keeping up. I am glad of it, however, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Still, he finally asked me the question I have been dreading all along. It caught me off guard nonetheless, coming as it did on the heels of our trip to Cos, and enjoying the tea house behind Stylus as we were. He'd come to me with grime on hands, and when I sat wiping it off, the query came. "C'sta and Sage have a mommy. Sean and Billy have a mommy. The twins [Nathan and Marlo's] have a mommy. Why don't I have a mommy?" Despite my going over this in brain for quite some time, I was yet at a loss for words for several ihn together. Eventually, I told him that he did have a mother, but that she had to leave us, and I didn't know what happened to her. He was silent, and I admit I held my breath, but he accepted the explanation. How long that will last, I have no way of knowing.

When I emerged from the tunnels this time, life had gone on without me. I am used to it by now, and whereas usually it is a measure of some pleasure in the thought, it just bothered me this round. I'd had a few plans laid when those of the club pulled me away to tend to monetary matters, and now things have taken a turn that renders those plans pointless. Flesh of interest is now owned by another establishment, and because of this I went about thinking on what to do about hands being in the shop. It was then that the redhead showed back up, and after she begged me in the library for something that wasn't entirely comprehensible, I paid the city for her. Known as Ann, I call her Shop Slave more often than not. This is not one of those purchases due to some consuming wish or need to possess, but entirely a business arrangement. I use her, I mark her, and she will remain as long as she is pleasing. There is nothing more really to say about it.

I suppose you could say, I am getting by.