Egos

Chapter Six

"Walk towards the good in life and one day you will arrive."

-Atticus

Ava tottered out of the house nervously. For the first time in a long time, she wore heels, make-up, and a power suit. A legal pad adorned one hand, and the other was occupied by her daughter.

With Dani on her hip, Ava climbed into Sarah's SUV. "Good morning."

"Well, I guess that's the best anyone can hope for in the legal field, am I right?" Sarah's laughed, although her attempt to lighten the mood went unnoticed for Ava's fussing over Dani.

How was she to leave her baby girl, her precious angel, alone, with an older woman? What was she doing, how was she failing so poorly as a mother? The monstrosity of Danielle spending her first day truly away from her mother was weighing on Ava profoundly stronger than any burden Charles could've mustered.

At the same time, Sarah was left to wonder if the physical distance between Ava and Dani would be only figurative, as Danielle's spirit was light and joyous, and Ava's was slowly returning to said state. "Before," Sarah concluded to herself, "Ava was much farther away. After all, she was underwater and unreachable, but now she's a mere call from her daughter."

"Mother? Did you hear me?" Ava asked.

"No, dear, I'm sorry. I must've wondered off."

"Oh, okay." Ava stated simply.

Perhaps, she was unwanted by her mother, just like everyone else. Assertively, Ava decided to force her mother to love her, ever so slightly. After all, didn't she deserve some recognition for her pain? Did Ava not deserve just one person to love her, unconditionally, no matter what? One person to say she was doing a half-decent job, with everything she was going through?

"Well, I was just wondering if you think I'm up for the job. You probably just think I'm too weak, and I understand. I'll just go home, I guess."

"Ava, sweetheart, what are you talking about?" Sarah turned to look her daughter in the eye, peeling her own away from the speeding roadway beneath her. "I know you're up for the job, or I wouldn't have brought you on. And you know I love you; don't you go assuming my feelings like that."

"Okay." Ava stated bluntly.

"I'm just stressed," she thought. "Stress makes the brain do odd things."

Before long, the McAlister family arrived at the home of Lori Mayberry, a woman old enough to be Sarah's mother, but young enough to care for the future. The future that Ava had protectively left in Sarah's car, insistent that no woman would see her child without first being inspected.

Leaving Dani with Darius, whom had been scoping the house for two weeks prior, Ava walked carefully towards the door of a one-story, barely one-thousand square foot house at the end of a gravel drive. The house was surrounded by love, that much she could see. A tire swing hung in an aged oak to the left, while to the right a playset creaked in the wind. With each step she took, Ava measured the safety of her daughter, her world, if in this situation.

By the time she entered the house, the smell of bacon, pumpkin bread, and vanilla candles hit Ava with the force of a tsunami. "At least Dani will eat well," she thought quietly.

"Hey baby!" a woman shouted, tottering to the door in a pink apron. She had weathered skin, an ebony brown that was wrinkled from years of smiles. "Now, you must be the Mama, yes. So, where's the little girl, hm? I know I ain't fixin' to teach you 'bout your ABC's."