Excerpt: The Wrong Side of the Mississippi

“Moooooom!”
“Beeeeeeeeethyyyyyyy!” she mimicked, swinging the door open to her three year old's room. Standing in the middle of boxes stacked higher than her small little frame, Bethany's pouty lip and scared expression made her look even more petite and fragile than normal. Her antics obviously weren't as funny to the little girl as she thought it was.
“What's wrong princess?”
“Chase won't come out of the closet,” her voice shook with emotion that threatened to not stay contained for long. Savannah followed Bethy's long pointy finger to the closet. The tip of a fury tail stuck out from underneath the sliding doors, giving away Chase's exact location.
She tried to open the door, a big fury body stopping the door on the track, “Chase, move Sponge Bob,” Despite the name, their one hundred and twenty – five pound Burmese Mountain dog was not made of sponge.
“No! We're not goin'!”
At six years old, he was still pretty manageable and wasn't one to disobey. Trying one more, unsuccessful time to open the door, she gave up and leaned against the door. “Why not Bubby?”
“Cuz we don't wanna!”
Bethany pressed her body against her mom's leg, wrapping her arms around her mid thigh, “Bubby says that if we leave, we're leaving daddy behind. And he'll haunt us. Is that true mommy? Will I not 'member him in Missapippi?”
“It's Mississippi dummy,” Chase chastised, a loud sniffle following his statement.
“Chase, be nice,” Her reprimand held no real threat of consequence. The weight of her daughter's words brought Savannah to her knees. Sliding down the door, she motioned for her daughter to come to her. Sniffling, she folded her little body against her moms, pushing her curls out of her face to no avail. They sprung right back to form, just like Austin's used to. Savannah constantly teased him about his hunting trips were really a trip out of town to get his hair permed. Women lost half their hair trying to get curls like he had. A long with her long lean body and gangly legs, Bethany got her daddy's curly hair. Closing her eyes, she prayed for the strength to be able to make her kids whole again. People said there wasn't a hand book on how to raise kids. That wasn't all together true. At her baby shower for Chase she got three different books on what to expect during the first year. Those went on top of the books she'd gotten to tell her what to expect while she was pregnant. Then when Chase turned two, they got books on potty training and how to deal with the terrible twos. There was even a book on how to get Chase over the jealousy of not being the only child anymore. But where was the book on what to tell your children that their daddy wouldn't haunt them just because they were moving on with their lives without him?