Free Horse Camp by Nicole Helget Page B

women. They’d probably understand. They wouldn’t send a woman with children back to prison. They would probably try to get her home to her kids as soon as possible. But I guess it’s all relative.
    What do you mean the divorce is final? I never believed my parents would actually get divorced. Why didn’t you just say you’re sorry so we wouldn’t have to go through all of this? Why didn’t someone tell me that you were really, truly divorced? Daddy can’t be in Hawaii with anyone else, because he didn’t want to divorce you. He said he’d take you back. He just wanted you to realize the consequences of the choices you’d made. He wanted you to apologize and come back home and live the way we were living before, with Daddy as the pastor and you as the wife and us as the kids. You must be wrong. He’s probably in Hawaii for church business, not a vacation. If he were going on vacation, he would have brought us kids along. And who is Peggy? I’ve never even heard of her!
    This is too much stress, Mom. First you get charged with a serious crime, then Dad files for divorce, then I have to move to a farm where there is no Internet or phone service, then I have to get used to a new family, then you get sent to prison, then I have to get enrolled in a new regular school in a new town that hardly has any buildings in it. Tomorrow, Sheryl is taking all of us to town for school shopping. Um, I thought we’d be out of here before school. And also, I hope she doesn’t expect me to dress like her or like June Bug. Their look is just a little too hoochie for me. Don’t say I’m being mean, because I’m not. In fact, I’ve sort of gotten used to having them around. If nothing else, Stretch’s mood is a hundred times better when they are here.
    Before you go to prison for good, will you send the rest of my Zombie Cowboy series? At the end of book two, Patience Lonelyheart discovers that Handle Boomton is descended from a long line of vampires and that’s the reason he’s only seen prowling at night. I am embarrassed to admit that I missed so many clues that are now so obvious. He made his money by gambling in the saloons at night. He had pointy teeth. He wore black from head to toe. Anyway, now Patience Lonelyheart and Eamon Cloversniffer have to figure out a way to prevent the marriage, which is taking them a long, long time and many, many pages to figure out. It’s a very complicated plot.
    Signed,
    Penelope
    Dear Daddy,
    Thank you very much for the postcard from Hawaii. Boy, this is such a surprise! Peggy’s swimsuit is very colorful. Yes, I agree that God works in mysterious ways, but I am not sure that Peggy applying for the church accountant position means that God was putting her before your eyes to take as your wife. That’s really mysterious, probably a little too mysterious for it to be God’s work. But you are the minister and would know more about those signs than me, I guess. Yes, I am taking good care of the boys. Yes, I can see that it will certainly be handy to have a wife who is also in charge of the accounting at the new church. It’s hard to believe that Peggy is an accountant, though! Is she a real accountant? Has she gone to college? At first, I thought that was a picture of you with a waitress or something!
    Pauly really wants you to call. I checked my phone the last time I was in town, and there weren’t any messages from you. Maybe you’ve called or texted but my phone just isn’t receiving the messages? I also checked my email at the library (which is run by a Catholic nun), but I couldn’t find any emails from you, either. I checked the junk folder and spam folder, too. But, my email’s been acting funny, so maybe I just accidentally deleted your messages. Anyway, Pauly really, really wants you to call, text, email, or come and see us so we can talk about all of this. Especially since Mom