Free Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 by Claudia Hall Christian Page A

She watched him gulp down every bit.
    “ Happy?” he
asked.
    “ Are you sufficiently
restored?” she asked.
    She laughed at his mock indignation. Turning
in place, she started toward their bedroom. Laughing, he chased
her.

CHAPTER
NINETY-FIVE In the
Glow
     
    Wednesday early morning —
5:20 A.M.
    “ I see that we’re running
out of things,” Jill said to Honey.
    Jill was standing in the middle of the
kitchen pantry. Honey and her sport wheelchair were in the
doorway.
    “ No Captain Crunch with
Crunch Berries, no chips, no chocolate chips, no dried mango and
less of everything else?” Honey asked.
    “ Yep, that’s what I see.
We’ll be out of peanut butter by tonight.”
    “ You watch.” Honey wheeled
backward to let Jill out. “This pantry will be full by the time we
return from work.”
    “ I’m sure there’s a
reasonable explanation,” Jill said.
    Honey raised an eyebrow.
    “ It’s not magic,” Jill
said.
    “ Not like objects that fly
through the air or people surviving death or knowing the future…”
Honey squinted at Jill.
    “ But this is
food.”
    “ Uh huh,” Honey said. “And
I’m telling you that’s a magic cabinet.”
    “ How did it get to our
apartments?”
    “ Exactly. How did it get to
our apartments?”
    “ Honey, really.”
    “ Magic!”
    ~~~~~~~~
    Wednesday morning — 7:25 A.M.
     
    Ring!
    “ Ah fuck.” Sandy heard the
phone ring while she was in the shower. “Noelle can you get
that?”
    “ You owe the jar five
dollars,” Nash yelled at her. “No f-bombs.”
    “ Fine,” Sandy said. “Will
one of you answer the phone?!?”
    Sandy tried to finish washing her hair. Her
head was under the water spray when she heard her name.
    “ What?”
    “ It’s Daddy but they won’t
let us talk to him.” Noelle extended the portable phone in her
direction. “Has to be an adult. Please, please, please can we talk
to Daddy. Please?”
    With the shower curtain draped around her,
Sandy grabbed the phone from Noelle.
    “ Hello?”
    “ Are you an
adult?”
    “ Last time I checked,”
Sandy said.
    “ Will you accept the
charges from Aden Norsen in Canon City Correctional
Facility?”
    “ Yes,” Sandy
said.
    “ Sandy? Sandy? Don’t hang
up! Sandy?” She heard Aden’s voice as she pushed the phone to
Noelle.
    “ Daddy? It’s Noelle. She’s
in the shower, Daddy.” Noelle’s eyes welled with tears.
“But…”
    Noelle held the phone out to Sandy. Turning
in place, Noelle ran off to her room.
    “ Great job, jerk-off. You
just broke the child’s heart. What do you want?”
    “ I have to talk to you,”
Aden said. “We’re getting out, Pete and me.”
    “ What? Why?”
    “ Because of the fight and
the fact that we’re better. They’re putting us on house arrest.
Ankle bracelets.”
    “ Good thing your house
hasn’t sold,” Sandy said.
    “ I want to come home to you
and the kids.”
    “ I want a billion dollars.
We don’t all get what we want,” Sandy said.
    “ Sandy, please. If you
don’t agree, I have to stay here,” he said.
    “ You don’t get to upend our
lives on a whim again,” Sandy said. “We already have a very full
day. We don’t need to add you to our list.”
    “ I don’t want to upend your
life. I just want to see you,” Aden said. “Hold you. Love
you.”
    “ I’m going to finish my
shower,” Sandy said. “Why don’t you talk to your children? You do
not have my permission to discuss this with them. And I’m reminding
you, I am their full legal guardian now.”
    “ I won’t. Sandy,
I…”
    “ Try to ask them about
themselves. They miss you. God knows why…”
    Holding the phone, and his bullshit, away
from her head, Sandy grabbed her terrycloth bathrobe. She stomped
down the hall to Noelle’s room. Noelle was laying face down on her
bed crying.
    “ Sweetie, your Daddy wants
to talk to you,” Sandy said. “Can you do that? Are you okay to do
that?”
    Tears streaming down her face, Noelle
nodded. Nash came to Noelle’s