Their stalemate was interrupted by a school administrator who had been waiting off to the side. The older woman approached his vehicle with a disapproving glare, looking from Becca to John, and back to Becca. “Hello? What’s going on here?” the she asked. Her voice was reedy and filled with judgement.

“Just trying to grab this little one,” John said with a friendly wave.

Nope. That came out wrong.

Behind thick glasses, her magnified blue eyes widened. She clutched a walkie-talkie, threatening to call for backup. “Excuse me?”

John glanced at Becca, who was thoroughly enjoying herself. “Becca, please tell the nice lady that I’m here to get you.”

His niece smirked.

“Sir, do you have clearance to receive this child?”

John sighed again and retrieved his wallet. “Yes, ma’am. She’s my niece, and her mother is in Europe. Becca will be my ward for two months.” He reached across the passenger’s side to hand the confused woman his driver’s license.

He understood the woman’s bewilderment. Becca’s burnt sienna skin and curly afro puffs bore no resemblance to John’s white skin and green eyes. He stared at his niece with a perturbed expression, silently willing her to speak. She rolled her eyes and let out a huff.

“Yeah,” she finally said. “This is my uncle Johnny and he’s late...as usual.”

The school marm relaxed the grip on her walkie-talkie and took another sneaking glance at the two. Of course she had questions, but was too polite to voice them. “I see, well, Mr. Donovan... I encourage you to be mindful of the time in the future.”

“I’ll do my best, ma’am,” John said, starting the engine. The roar of his busted muffler filled the school parking lot preventing anymore conversation.

Becca scooted past the administrator and climbed into the pickup. As they rolled out of the parking lot and on to Center Street, John glanced down at the girl and scowled.

“You know better than to pull that,” he said.

“How else will you learn to be on time?”

Oh, the mouth on this one... “Let’s start over. Hey kiddo, how was school today? What did you learn?”

Silence filled the cab as they stopped at a red light. Then sniffles. A drag of a jacket sleeve across the nose. John looked down again to see a quiet stream of tears roll down Becca’s cheeks.

Okay, so it was a bad day. John caved under the pressure of seeing his niece’s tears. “What is it, honey?”

“Nothing,” she muttered.

“No, not nothing. I’ve known enough women to understand what ‘nothing’ means. Now what’s wrong?”

“I miss Mom,” Becca snapped. “I hate school and Dad won’t talk to me.”