A Safe Haven

Seven

Getting Spencer to go to bed often seemed like a fulltime job in itself, so Mark had established a bedtime of 9 o'clock for him. From books he had read, he knew that children like Spencer needed a routine so Mark established a chart. All the good things that Spencer did for the week earned him a point each and the times he misbehaved got him a minus point. At the end of the week on Friday, all the points were tallied up and if he had a positive amount of points, they did something special on Saturday. The treat depended upon how many good points he had earned and it listed a guide of what they could possibly do that day. If there were minus points, there was a consequense depending on how many he had earned as well.

"It's time for bed," Mark said after Spencer had been playing the video game for awhile.

"No its not," Spencer whined as he played. "The big hand is not on the 12 yet. It's still on the 6 and the little hand is almost on the 9 but not yet."

Mark had been working with him on learning how to tell time. The teacher at school had confused him and after a bit of research, he found out that lots of children don't understand how a basic clock works in these modern times. Most clocks were digital and because of that, he bought a regular old fashioned clock for the living area and Spencers bedroom. So he knew when bed time was. "Your right and I'm stopping you early because if I wait until 9, it takes until almost 9:30 to get you off of there."

"But Mark, can I at least wait until the big hand is on the 9?" Spencer looked back at him with puppy dog eyes pleading. "Pleeeease!"

"No and if you don't get off within a couple of minutes you will earn a minus point. If you have a tantrum that will earn you another minus point and you've been doing pretty good this week so that would be a shame," Mark said with a sigh.

"But Mark pleeeease!" Spencer begged again.

Mark was looking at his watch. "Your running out of time."

Pouting, he turns off the game and gets up. "But can I have a bed time story at least."

Mark smiled. "Yes you may."

Still sulking, Spencer went to his room changing into his pj's and when Mark went in, he read him a children's bible story about Noah's ark. Soon, his eyes widened at the descriptions of how the animals supernaturally came forth and went into the Ark. He described some of the animals from the monkeys to the huge elephants and was amazed at how the waters filled the earth making the huge boat start to float. All the wicked mean people died in the waters and then when the waters went away God sent his rainbow in the sky as a promise never to destroy the world with a flood again. By the time it was over, Spencers eyes were closed into a light sleep.

Mark kissed his forehead. "Night son." He loved seeing Spencers expressions since he had never been exposed to bible stories or anything thing about God before he came here.

Ace was waiting for him, when Mark came to his office and he shut the door behind him. Then he sat down in his large office chair. "Your not in any trouble but I prefer if you don't talk about what you've seen in here, especially to Spencer. I'm going to tell him the truth in my own time."

"He's your son, isn't he?" Ace said pointing out what seemed obvious to him.

"Yes, but I'm not sure he's ready to hear that," Mark admitted with a sigh.

Ace shrugged. "Or maybe your afraid he would be pissed to find out you left him to be raised by some horrible people. That you abandoned him?"

"That's not how it was," Mark defended a bit more hotly then he intended.

"So how was it?"

Mark took a deep breath and said, "I went to prison on a false charge. My foster sister and I were having a relationship. We already had a child that we had been raising, but that was under the thumb of my father. We took our daughter and ran because my dad was very abusive. Essie was pregnant again and we were trying hard to survive. Somehow, my own dad set me up to be arrested for his crime of robbing a gas station. While I was in prison, my dad was doing horrible things to the girls. Later, I had befriended a guard that helped me prove I was innocent and after I was released, I found out that my dad sold Essie's baby into the black market. I don't know what happened to Essie. She just vanished or he killed her or sold her as well."

"And your daughter was raised by this monster?" Ace asked grimacing thinking of the girl he spoke to.

"Yeah, only I recently found out she ran away and was picked up by the police. She's in a group home now."

Ace was shaking his head. "Look, I'm sorry I was snooping. I just wanted to know something about you, I guess."

Mark nods. "I figured it was something like that. I would have done the same. But now that you know I ask that you keep my secret until I'm ready to speak about it and not to talk about it randomly to other people. It's nobody's business."

"Yeah. I wont tell nobody but are you planning to do anything about your daughter?"

"Yes. I'm arranging for her to come here under the same pretense. I want to get to know her first. Maybe you can help me with that but you need to keep in mind, your related. You two would be cousins," Mark said looking into Ace's eyes as if he could read what he was thinking.

"She's your problem, not mine, and your one to talk. You were fucking your sister." Ace said smirking and went back to his room.