Never feel alone

Chapter 35

Stef

I climbed into bed beside my wife, massaging my temples gently with my fingertips.

"Headache?" Lena asked, looking up from her book to watch me.

"Little bit," I nodded.

She reached out to rub my shoulder. "Is something bothering you, honey?"

I fluffed my pillows and lay back. "Callie and I had an interesting talk tonight.

"What about?" Lena asked. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," I assured her. "She went through some paperwork and found Donald's address, and she went to his house to confront him about why he didn't show up today."

Lena chuckled. "Are you sure she's not your biological daughter?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, amused.

"I'm just saying," she said, "that the two of you tend to... take matters into your own hands. You're very similar in that way. Almost uncannily so."

I opened my mouth to protest, but couldn't come up with an argument.
I feel bad, punishing her," I finally said. "She really is a great kid. And I do understand why she did it. It's hard for a girl, not having a good relationship with her father. I know from experience. But we know nothing about this man, and the neighborhood he lives in isn't exactly a safe place for a young girl to go wandering alone. She needs to understand that what she did was reckless. And the only way to do that is by showing her that her actions have consequences."

"You're right," Lena agreed. "You're absolutely right. Did you have a punishment in mind?"

I shook my head. "She's already in bed. Let's just sleep on it, and come up with something in the morning."

By breakfast, Lena and I had come up with a punishment for Callie. It wasn't as easy as it seemed; in many ways, she wasn't a typical teenager. She didn't watch much TV, and she didn't have many friends that she hung out with, or any after school activities. It almost seemed like grounding her would just be sentencing her to do everything she normally did. There was really only one thing we could take away from her that seemed meaningful.

So, while Lena started the Saturday morning pancakes, it was up to me to take our daughter aside and tell her what we decided.

Callie was sitting at the table, playing with her phone. As I came up behind her, I could see that she was posting a beautiful photo she'd taken on Instagram. She really did have a talent for photography. Lena was right that she and I were a lot alike in many ways, but Callie had an artistic eye that I didn't have. "Honey," I said, placing my hand on her shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Sure," she said. "What's up?" She still gripped her phone in her hand.

Come with me," I said, leading her out the door to the porch swing. When we were seated, I turned to her and looked her in the eye. "Mama and I talked over what you did yesterday," I told her. "And we both agreed that we'll have to punish you."

"Okay," she said, almost unaffected.

"Its not because we don't love you," I reminded her. "Its because we do. Punishments are there to keep you from doing something wrong a second time. Giving you consequences for your actions shows we care."

"I know," she nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"Well," I said. "We're going to take your phone and internet away this weekend." Two days didn't seem like much, but Lena and I never took the kids' phones away during the school week, in case they needed to get in touch with us in an emergency.