Free Live-In Position by V.S. Tice

faced him.
    “Fractions.” I narrowed my eyes.
    “Fractions?” I swear he almost rolled his eyes.
    “Yes, fractions and measurements.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Plus she’s practicing reading when she reads from the recipe book.” I raised a brow at him actually hoping he would continue to battle this one out with me.
    Both Victoria and Mrs. Baker had grown very quiet and still, their eyes flicking back and forth between Dr. Bishop and myself as we engaged in our standoff. For one moment, he seemed flustered, but he pulled himself together and grumbled as he walked out of the kitchen. I sighed in frustration and went back to Victoria and Mrs. Baker.
    “You alright, dear?” Mrs. Baker lightly rubbed my arm.
    “Yes,” I breathed out. “I just don’t get why he is so…Argh!”
    After taking a deep breath I looked to Victoria. “Hey, why don’t you go upstairs and get washed up. I’ll clean up the mess down here, okay?”
    She nodded and ran off.
    Sitting down, I faced Mrs. Baker. “Please help me understand him before I douse him in Holy Water.”
    She burst into laughter. “Dear, I wish I could help you, but I’m afraid I don’t completely understand him myself. Just know he wasn’t always this way. It has a lot to do with Victoria’s mother,” she sighed and patted my hand. “She left him. Just up and left him and Victoria. Now, I don’t know the whole story, I just know it crushed him.”
    “But why take that out on Victoria?” I begged to understand.
    “Honey, when you look at Victoria, do you see Collin?” She raised an eyebrow at me.
    “I-I don’t know…what are you saying?”
    She pressed her lips together tightly before speaking. “She looks just like her mother. When he sees her, he sees the woman that walked away from them.”
    “That’s not Victoria’s fault. She’s his daughter. He doesn’t have to be so detached and calculating with her.”
    “You and I know that, but he can’t seem to be any other way.” She scooted her chair back and stood. “Come with me.”
    Mrs. Baker led me to a closet in the dining room. She took out a key and unlocked the door. What I thought was a china closet was more like a mortuary or shrine of clothing. Women’s clothing hung on racks. Shoeboxes were stacked beneath them. Beneath the shoeboxes were trunks stacked upon each other.
    “This is supposed to be for holding dinnerware and silver, but instead this is where he keeps all of her things.” Mrs. Baker reached into a drawer and pulled out a picture, holding it out for me to see.
    The picture contained a smiling Dr. Bishop. He looked much younger. In his arms was a slender, beautiful woman. Victoria was her clone. Everything from the red curly hair, round face, and the fair porcelain skin was her mother’s.
    “That’s Grace, Victoria’s mother.” I nodded in understanding. “They fell in love when he was in medical school. Victoria was definitely a surprise to both of them, but they decided to keep her. They were going to marry around Victoria’s second birthday, but Grace left. She just disappeared one day. I don’t know what happened, but he was very different after that.”
    I handed her back the picture. We headed back to the kitchen and started cleaning up the cookies.
    “Why does he keep all of her things? Shouldn’t he give some things to Victoria and get rid of the rest, or does he think she is coming back?”
    Mrs. Baker sighed. “Honestly, I think he hopes she will come back to him.”
    We finished cleaning in silence, but my mind whirled with new information.
    Dr. Bishop holding onto a woman, his past, seems so out of character for the man I know. To live longing for someone who deserted you and your child, how does someone go on or move forward?
    Still lost in thoughts of pity and sadness, I climbed the stairs. My foot slipped from the final step, and I reached for the banister as my body lost the battle with gravity. Suddenly two arms were wrapped around