Learning How to Fly

In my heart, I also knew that sooner or later I was facing another divorce, another humiliation and setting another terrible example for Erika who, by this time, was completely lost to me.

She had decided to live with her father and do as she pleased, not attend school, and come and go without any supervision on his part. Erika, after two months of living with Alan, the truant officer called to inform me, had not been attending school, and I had better get her back to her classes or there would be consequences. What they were I don’t know, I just remember being frantic to talk to her. Somehow, I tracked her down and told her she had to go back to school or come live with me again. I had no money for lawyers to try to get the courts to force her to stay with me while Alan could always charm someone to work for him for free. I allowed her to stay with Alan but warned them both that she had to stay in school or, forget about what I would do; the law would take care of it. Meanwhile, other mothers kept telling me that this was normal behavior for teenagers and that eventually she’ll find her way back to me. That didn’t make any of it less painful to deal with.