Moving On

C h a p t e r 1

It's been almost Juliet's 6th birthday. Betty had been missing for almost 5 years. I couldn't believe it. Things had gotten better over the years but, they still were never perfect. I haven't wrote another book. I could barely finish my first one. After Betty was gone, I had no inspiration. I had Julie of course, but, she was a baby. She couldn't really give me much. Considering she doesn't really have anything practical to give me. However, none the less, she was still my pride and joy. Life was pretty good for the most part. Julie was about to start first grade. She was so excited. She had gotten really close to Tommy over the years. Tommy is Archie and Veronica's son. They were best friends. Archie and Veronica had two other kids since. When Tommy and Juliet were two, Archie and Roni had a baby girl. They named her Cecilia Elizabeth Andrews. They asked me originally if they could name her Elizabeth. I told them it was fine at first but, pretty soon, Archie realized it wasn't. So, they agreed on their other name they were on the fence about, Cecilia. It is Veronica's middle name. Anyways, just last year they had another baby. Another girl. Daisy Marie Andrews. Their family had grown throughout the years. They really took me in. I was uncle Jug. I was always free to help out. Watch Tommy. We were next door neighbors so it was great. We were always able to help each other out. And Alice was so great too. When things got hard with Julie, she would come over and help out. When she was sick, or fussy, or even I just wasn't able to handle it. Some days, I would get so stressed and I could barely move. I got diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I had a job as  a writer / reporter. But, I stopped writing my book series. I had nothing to write about. Nothing good enough for a story, at least. And of course, some of my serpent friends helped out at times. Sweet Pea loved to see Julie every now and then. As well as Fangs' and Kevin's little girl, Annie. They also had a baby boy named Blake. Toni did surrogacy for Kevin and Fangs. Her and Cheryl married in late 2017. They had two girls and recently adopted a little boy. But we can get into that later. And my parents came around every now and then. At least once a year. And JB was in college so she was staying with me in the summertime. If I'm being totally honest, I really liked having a little girl. To play dress up and have tea parties, it was a good distraction. From everything. From Betty. From life. She is my world. My everything. Anyways, tomorrow was her first day of 1st grade. So, I had to prepare for that. I put her to bed at 8:20/8:30. It was always around that time. If I can't get her to sleep, I usually call Alice or Veronica. Although, JB had been helping me out quite a bit. She was about to leave as soon as we got Julie to sleep. I shut the door quietly as jellybean and I finished the story we were reading to Julie. I walked her downstairs to the door and she grabbed her bags.
"Well, *sighs* better get going."
"Alright." I said in a rather sad tone. We shared a close hug and she walked down the steps out the door. She got in the car and I helped her load her bags in the car. I gave her one last hug and she got into her car. Until I heard something as she was shutting her car door.
"Daddy!!"
"Aunt Jellybean!!" Juliet was running out of the house in her little slippers with her fuzzy bathrobe on.
"Baby? What are you doing out her?" I said taking her in my arms and picking her up.
"I saw Auntie Jellybean leaving."
"Aww. Come here, you." JB said as she got out of the car and Juliet sprung into her arms. I hugged her one last time and then she was off. Juliet and I stood at the front porch as Julie fell asleep in my arms. I waved back at JB as she drove off into the night. Actually, that's rather exaggerated. She drove away pretty slow considering it was nighttime. I kissed Julie on the head as I headed inside. I shut the door behind me as hot dog glanced up at me. I slowly put Julie in her bed so I wouldn't wake her. I took off her slippers and her bathrobe. I then tucked her in and kissed her head.
"Goodnight baby girl." I whispered to her quietly as I approached the door. I love her so much. I thought to myself.
"Love you." I whispered as I was closed the door as silently as I could.
"Love you too daddy." Juliet said drifting off to sleep. She is such a precious thing I swear. After that, I got into some comfortable clothes and I sat at my desk for a little while. No, actually kind of like a long while. I had some coffee to keep me awake. I sat there for quite a while. Around 90 minutes to be exact. I know this because I continued my major writers block. I almost passed out there for a second. Then I went upstairs, set my alarm for 6:45 am. I slowly went to sleep. But, the last thing I thought about as always was, my beautiful long lost wife, Betty Cooper-Jones.