Chapter 6

“I miss my babies so much.” A woman with croppedbrown hair was speaking from the head of long linoleum table. She wore a purpleblouse and small, gold hoop earrings. As she continued speaking, tears sprangto her eyes. ‘I don’t even know how this happened. I’ve never done a thingwrong, but there has to be someone in the room when I spend time with my ownchildren.”

            “I haven’t seen my kids sinceSeptember,” a woman across the table with shoulder-length blonde hair said. “Myex keeps cancelling my visits, and no one does a damn thing about it.”

            Ava sat on the opposite end of thetable from the brunette. Mexico Lindo 2 looked like any other Mexicanrestaurant you’d find in a strip mall. The décor was very red and green andhorse-y (as in carved horses and painted horses covered every spare inch ofwall space). While it wasn’t the best food Ava had ever had, she could see whythis particular group liked the restaurant. Anonymity was a given. No oneseemed to take any note of who came and went or what business was beingconducted at the dining tables.

            “I know you’re all frustrated,”Rachel said. “There are plenty of reasons to be sad and angry about what’shappened, but if we want to do something about it, we’ve got to stay focused.How have you all helped your cases this week?”

            Ava wanted to take notes, butthought that might make her less approachable to the women of Divorce Busters,so she had decided just to listen this first time around. She had been anxiousall day waiting for this meeting and this opportunity to pursue a real story,but now that she was here, Ava felt both a little sad and a little let down.These women were in real pain, and she felt for them. At the same time, a tableof women at a Mexican Restaurant hardly seemed like the group to bring downcorrupt judicial officials.

            “I’m looking into getting a newattorney,” a curvy brunette said. “Mine still hasn’t filed the appeal Irequested nearly six months ago.”

            “And how are you looking for a newlawyer?” Rachel asked.

            “Well, I started by scratching offthe names of any lawyer this group has.”

            The whole table laughed. “What’smost important right now is to stay the course,” Rachel said. “We are fightingan uphill battle, and this won’t be easy, but I do believe that together, andwith dedication, we’ll be able to prove that the family court system is notdoing right by women.”

            The woman with cropped brown hairspoke again. “But how?” she said. “We’ve been meeting at this crappy restaurantfor months, and it seems like all I’ve accomplished is finding a place to cryevery week and risking my job by making so many personal photocopies of mycourt documents. If paper and frustration were commodities, I’d have enoughmoney to buy my kids back.”

            “That’s one of the reasons I’ve triedto expand our resources,” Rachel said. “I’d like to introduce you all to AvaCarson. She’s a reporter.”

            Ava had been buried in herhalf-eaten burrito and had a mouth full of tortilla and cheese when all eyes atthe table turned to her. She had not expected to be introduced to the group,and she certainly hadn’t expected to be introduced to the group as a reporter.

            “I don’t want to get you ladies tooexcited, and I’ve told Ava that we’re not ready to go public yet, but I’m justso happy to have a reporter on our team,” Rachel said. “With her sources andresources, I’m sure we’ll get somewhere. We will be heard!”

            The women at the table clapped.

            “I can’t believe we have an actualreporter on our side,” the curvy brunette said.

            “What paper are you with?” theblonde asked.

            “I’m actually with Gloss magazine,”Ava said as she struggled to swallow the last of the bite still in her mouth.“And I’m more of an editor than a reporter.”

            “What other big stories have youworked on? Would I know your work?” Geena said.

            “Actually ….” Ava started hersentence, but was pretty sure that credits like 10 Ways to Lure Your Loverand  How to Get Red Wine Out of MostAnything wouldn’t do much for her cause.

            “Now, Ladies,” Rachel said, “There’sno need to overwhelm Ava right now. I’m sure she wants to get her bearings.Observe first, right Ava?”

            Ava nodded. It sounded like a goodexcuse to her.

            “When she’s ready, I’m sure she’llwant to interview all of you and see your documentation, but let’s let her moveat her pace. All reporters have their own method, I’m sure.

Untilwe know how she wants to proceed, let’s go back to talking about yourindividual cases and progress until we have to get out of here.”

            Ava sat in stunned silence for thenext half hour listening as the women at the table shared more details abouttheir skewed custody arrangements, ex-husband troubles and seemingly unjustjudge’s orders. Were these women telling the truth? What was the other side ofthe story? And, perhaps most importantly, what did this group expect from hernow that Rachel had outed her as an interested and respected “reporter” of allthings?

            When the group broke up for theevening, Ava pulled Rachel aside. “I thought you said we were going to keep myinvolvement in all this quiet?”

            “I know that’s what I said,” Rachelsaid. “But these women needed hope. And I’m so happy to have you here. Do youhave any idea how many journalists have turned me down when I’ve tried to getthem to take interest in this story?”

            What a great sign, Ava thought. Shewished she’d known this last part before. “But, I don’t even know if I’m goingto write a story about this, and if I do, I certainly don’t know what the storywill be yet.”

            “Allright, allright, I get it,”Rachel said, winking at Ava, “you’re just here to hang out for now. There mightnot be a story.”

            “Exactly,” Ava said. “I’m not makinga commitment to you or this story just yet.”

            “Of course, of course,” Rachel said.“No promises.” She smiled. “I can’t help the fact that I just have a feelingthis is all going to work out.”

            “You can have all the feelings youwant,” Ava said, “but you just said it – no promises.”

            “See you next week then?”

            “See you next week then,” Ava saidand headed towards the door. Realizing she’d left her cardigan on the back ofher chair from dinner, she turned around to go back to the table. As shestooped to reclaim her sweater, Ava left a hand brush against her shoulder. Shelooked up to see the blonde woman from Divorce Busters at her side.

            “I’m glad you’re here,” the blondesaid.

            “Thank you for saying that,” Avasaid, “but I was just telling Rachel that I’m not comfortable making anypromises about the resources or attention I can offer right now.”

            The blonde nodded. “I’ve been soalone since they took my kids, any news is good news right now. And it looks tome like you have an honest, kind face.” Before Ava could say another word, theblonde was out the door.

            At home later that night, Ava pulledout her laptop to jot down a few details on the meeting at Mexico Lindo 2. Shealso made a note to ask Rachel about the married and maiden names of the womenpresent that night. She might as well start looking into more of the details onthese cases.

            Ava was also pretty sure that “real”journalists were supposed to leave their emotions at the door when looking intostories, but Ava couldn’t help but think about the blonde who had found her atthe close of the meeting and the pain in her eyes.

            Whether the allegations of DivorceBusters were founded or not, people were being hurt, and if she could doanything about that pain, hell, it’d be more than she’d accomplished in twoyears at Gloss.