Chapter 32

When they go to pick Hannah up to take her with them to orientation on this Monday, the eleventh of June, he takes the whiskey with him. Hannah has fallen in love with her yellow shorts outfit as she is wearing it again, and Sarah is wearing her black and white stripped short outfit.

Christopher walks up onto the porch and an old lady comes up to the very dirty screen door. "That's Christopher," says Hannah.

"Here's the whiskey I promised you."

"I thought you forgot about me. I thought you were one of those hypocrite rich people who think they don't have a duty to share their wealth."

Christopher really wants to tell her to go f•©k herself, but Hannah would be the one to pay. "I'll tell you what. I'll buy you a small bottle every Wednesday. I'll give it to you when Sarah and me come over to pick up Hannah for swim practice on Wednesdays. We'll also pick her up on Saturdays for the swim meet and then bring her back. However, I would also like to pick her up on Thursday and Friday so we can get our own practice in. If you ever want to go watch her I'll give you a ride."

"Why don't you just keep her?"

"Excuse me?"

"Instead of picking her up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, why don't you just pick her up on Wednesday and bring her home on Saturday."

Christopher is quickly beginning to not like this old woman. He feels Sarah pulling frantically on his arm. He looks down and she is looking at him with an intense stare because she wants him to say yes. The screen door may be dirty, but he can see the hope in Hannah's eyes from the other side. "I watch Sarah on Thursdays. That means Hannah will have to spend the night at my house also."

"That's fine. She can stay with you the whole time. You bring me that bottle of whiskey every Wednesday and we'll get along just fine."

"I will need you to sign a paper giving me the right to care for Hannah if she gets hurt."

"Sure, sure." She pushes Hannah while saying, "Make yourself useful and get me some paper, and don't forget a pen, stupid."

"Hey! She is not even close to being stupid." As Hannah disappears into the house he yells out. "Hannah, also get your clothes and anything you want to bring over."

"What would you know about it? You've only known her for a few days. She is worthless, like her murderous father."

Sarah can see Christopher making a fist and she quickly grabs his hand. Christopher is in a rage and there has always been one constant in Christopher's life, and that is it is never a good idea to piss him off. "I tell you what. Since we have to do this one Monday let us keep her for the whole week."

"Fine, Fine. It's about time, girl." She grabs the pen and paper roughly from Hannah's little hands.

Christopher pulls the screen door open and steps up on her. He shakes it off, steps back and turns to Sarah and says, "Why don't you help Hannah get her stuff together so we can go."

"Don't you be stealing anything. Damn kids."

Christopher continues holding open the screen door until the two girls fly by him and go to the truck. She hands him the paper, grabs the screen door, and slams it shut. Christopher takes the time down the walkway to calm down. Even then he has to sit in the truck for a second longer.

He is stunned, and then he turns to the girls and says, "Wow! Sweetheart, don't you listen to that ... person. You are beautiful, smart and worthy of love and acceptance. Okay?" Hannah nods with tears in her eyes but with a smile on her pretty face.

"Alright, everybody, gather around over here."

"Come on, babygirls." says Christopher, acting all excited. He takes each of them in hand and they walk over to the guy standing on the raised platform.

"Okay, first of all we will need you to sign or get signed this injury waiver so we won't be held responsible and so we can take you to the doctor if needed. Let's do this first please."

"Great!"

"What?"

"That means I'm going to have to deal with Hannah's grandma again to get her to sign this. Didn't she only agree to let Hannah do it if I paid for it and she wouldn't be bothered by it?"

"Yes." Sarah says, with the same distasteful frown Christopher has on.

"I have an idea. What's your last name sweetheart?"

"Carrington."

There is a little folding table off to the left with a lady sitting in a chair. When the three of them get up there, Christopher says, "Hannah Carrington and Sarah Kelly are mine."

Of course almost everybody present knows Christopher from either being a writer or the community hero, though he doesn't feel like a hero when he thinks about that all-around sad moment. When Christopher says that Hannah is his, Hannah looks up at him real fast. Then she looks over at Sarah and Sarah smiles at her and touches her arm with tenderness.

"We know you have the right to sign for Sarah, but do you have the right to sign for Hannah?"

"Her grandma wrote me this note here," he says, handing it to her.

The woman reads it out loud. "I the grandma of Hannah Carrington give all rights of Hannah over to Christopher what's his name. You know him, he is rich and some kind of local hero. Anyway, Hannah is now his problem and he has the right to do anything with, to and for her."

Christopher takes the note back from her and says, "I guess I should have read it."

"That's okay. I know Hannah's grandma. We'll take it so none of us have to deal with her."

"Thank you."

"Someone will have to make sure Hannah gets to the practices and the meets. Will you be watching over them?"

Christopher strokes the girls' hair and says, "Yes, I will be loving and spoiling these beautiful little girls."

"You know we could always use another person to help out."

"Do it, Christopher, do it!"

He looks down at Sarah and then back up at the lady. "What would I have to do?"

"Show up an hour early and help set the place up, and stand on the sidelines making sure everybody behaves themselves."

"I guess I can do that. Would you girls mind showing up an hour earlier than all the other kids?" They shake their heads no.

"I was just going to sign up for the last spot," says another lady a couple places further back in line.

"Oh thank god. Please, you can have it. Besides I wouldn't make a very good officiating crew because my girls can do no wrong." As Christopher is signing the papers and moving the girls off to the side, Hannah is just staring at Christopher wide-eyed and beautiful.

"Okay, we have this written down for you on the other paper you just got, but we will go over it now." Christopher is standing there with his arms around the shoulders of Hannah and Sarah, so Hannah holds out the paper so they can all see. "There are two divisions. The first one is, and I recommend this one for first years, is freestyle. The second one is individual medley that includes freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. Both of which will start from the diving platform.

"There are four age groups, four years old to six years old, seven years old to ten years old, eleven years old to thirteen years old, and then fourteen years old and up. If for some reason a certain age group doesn't have enough competitors, we will incorporate them into the next age group and do a time delay or advance depending on which way the age thing works out."

Both of the girls look up at him with confused looks on their pretty faces. Christopher laughs and says, "I got it."

"Okay, that's it for today. Take the rules and regulations home and study them and we'll meet back here Wednesday to start our first practice at eleven in the morning."