Fiction:
Holly Has Two Daddies"'and that's why I don't live with my mom and my stepfather
anymore," finished little Timmy O'Toole, taking a step back from
the podium and beaming proudly."Very good, Timmy," said Mrs. Lansdale, watching as he sat back
down at his desk.
"Our next student to read their essay will be Holly. Holly, why
don't you come on up, so we can all hear about your family."The class's eyes turned collectively to the smiling little
blonde girl as she stood up and went to the front of the room,
clutching her report in her hands."My Family, by Holly Beecher," she began.
"My name is Holly Beecher and I live in a big house with my
daddy and my other daddy. My daddy's a lawyer. My other
daddy's an 'independent contractor'.""My real daddy met my other daddy, Uncle Chris, when he was in
prison. He went to prison because he ran over a little girl on
her bicycle while he was drunk. Uncle Chris says that daddy got
'screwed by the system', but he was kind of glad he did because
otherwise they wouldn't have met each other.""Other people in my family are my grampa. My grampa didn't like
Uncle Chris at first, because he was in prison. Uncle Chris
said that daddy was in prison too, so what did that make him,
and then daddy got mad and had to yell at them both. After that
they liked each other. I used to have a brother, but he died.
My mommy died too, so I went to live with my grampa until daddy
and Uncle Chris got out of jail. Daddy's case got overturned
and Uncle Chris got paroled, so now I live with them. The End."
Mrs. Lansdale looked at the girl dubiously. She'd heard about
the girl's unusual family background -- everyone at the school
had -- but she seemed to be doing all right. And when she
thought about it, Holly's family was probably no weirder than
any other kid's in the class. "Very good, Holly. You may sit
down."Besides, the two former Oz inmates really kept those rowdy PTA
meetings in line.