Bette sat in darkness unwilling to move from her spot on the sofa that she had dropped into upon entering the house.  The past several days had exhausted her.  She allowed her mind to wander to her mother.  She only had fleeting memories and a few pictures.  Her Dad told her that her love of art was from her Mom. She had dismissed the idea at the time. 

            What a sorry lot they were she thought to herself.  Dad couldn’t seem to settle down with one woman although Bette suspected from his comments over the years that her mother leaving him hurt him more than he admitted.  Every now and then he would express regret that he cheated on his wives but that happiness overrode everything else.  There was a contradiction there that Bette did not recognize until this moment.  She had always thought that her Mom left because Dad cheated on her.  She remembered telling her Dad that she felt she failed the woman she loved the same way that he had failed her mother.  While he did not comment she thought that there was something else that he was not saying.

            Why did he still hang on to the art that her mother had created? Why did she?  Instinctively she had put a watercolor her mother had done by his bedside to comfort him in his last days.  Of all the women he had been with there were no others that he kept mementos of.  Did it mean that she was the one true love of his life? Impossible, she thought.  Still the thought kept nagging at her. 

            She fell asleep troubled by her musings. 

            I’m taking our daughter, Melvin.  You can Tom cat around but I’m not going to be here when you return.

            You’re not taking her anywhere, Melvin exploded.  You don’t even want to be seen with her much less have to explain what you are doing with a little negro girl.  I’m the better parent to raise her.  She’ll be better off without a mother than be with a mother who runs away at the first sign of trouble. 

            Maxine, stay with us.  Stay with our little girl.  I don’t want to run around.  If you just gave me a little affection I wouldn’t turn elsewhere. I love you. You are the only woman that I love. That I have ever truly loved.

            I can’t bring another child into a world that would hurt him or her just because of the color of their skin. I can’t Melvin.

            Stop running Maxine, love will see us through.

            Bette woke suddenly shivering.  The dream seemed so real.  No, she thought it couldn’t be real.  She was just exhausted and the dream must be a reflection of all the stuff that had happened between her and Tina.

              Bette didn’t question her decision to take Angelica and drive off into the night.  She had reacted without thought as if she were being propelled into action.  She would not lose her daughter.  It was only a dream she said aloud to herself.  She was just confused and tired.  She went to her bed and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.