All the Good Girls go to Heaven

[MoonsAreBlue]

I really like Bindi. It's sad that she dies, though! I always get so excited when I see you've updated. How in the world did you come up with this wonderful storyline? Also, it Tita Bindi's daughter? I kind of got the impression that she is, but I'm not sure.

[alex51299]

I really like Bindi. It's sad that she dies, though! I always get so excited when I see you've updated. How in the world did you come up with this wonderful storyline? Also, it Tita Bindi's daughter? I kind of got the impression that she is, but I'm not sure.

I agree, even though since Ailyah is an elder when she's telling the story, Bindi must be too so she'd eventually have to die.

[ApplesApplesApples]

I really like Bindi. It's sad that she dies, though! I always get so excited when I see you've updated. How in the world did you come up with this wonderful storyline? Also, it Tita Bindi's daughter? I kind of got the impression that she is, but I'm not sure.

I can't really tell you how I came up with the story, because the first scene I imagined hasn't happened yet, and that would be a spoiler.

Yes, Tita is Bindi's daughter.

[mackendall2]

Your writing is wonderful!  I cannot wait for the next update.

[wednesday21]

I like Bindi too... She seems like a great friend for Ailyah.

It's totally not okay that Cayden robbed the bank. I'm wondering what he's going to do. Keep it coming.

[loveSims]

Awesome update! Can't wait for more.

[ApplesApplesApples]

Chapter 8

I didn't hear from Cayden for two whole days. His mother answered the door when I knocked, and she wouldn't let me in even though I explained several times that I was Cayden's friend.

I spent that Saturday with Bindi, shopping for baby toys for Zach's two-year-old birthday. Bindi was a very pleasant companion, never talking too much or too little. I'd never had a real girlfriend before, and I found myself almost wanting to confide in her all of Cayden's troubles. She constituted a nice change of pace, easygoing and relaxed. I'd always thought I had no patience for that sort of people, the ones who liked to take their time about things and preferred quiet reflection to passionate impulsiveness, but after Cayden's nail-biting intensity it was like a vacation. Cayden would never have stopped to chat idly about onesies or the advantages of wooden versus plastic toys. Cayden would never have stopped to chat idly, period.

But I couldn't tell her. We didn't know each other well enough, and it wasn't my secret. I would have appreciated her perspective on it, though. (When I finally did tell her everything, years later, all she said was "Huh. It all makes more sense now.")

I got home and was about to head inside when I noticed someone sitting on the watch tower.

"Cayden?" I called up softly from below.

"Up here," came his voice.

I climbed the ladder and sat next to him.



"What's been going on?" I asked. "I was worried."

"The money's all returned. They have no idea it was me that did either thing. I've been laying low for a while just in case; I didn't want them to come question you. So how are you planning on getting me fifteen thousand dollars?"

"Fifteen?" I'd had some ideas, but not fifteen grand's worth. "I'm working on it."

He grinned rather sadly. "You have absolutely no idea how to get it, do you?"

"Don't lose faith so easily. I'm a woman of resources."

He snorted.

"What?"

"It's just funny that you think of yourself as a woman."

"I'm almost one."

"You've got a long way to go."

"So, um, Cayden?"

He sighed. "What are you going to ask me for?"

"Nothing special. It's just that I was wondering about Bindi. She said you guys used to get along."

"Did we? She's always seemed like a crazy twit to me."

"She's not like that. If you got to know her you'd see."

He leaned back, pillowing his head on his hands, and looked at me with eyes half-closed. "Hmm. So you're friends with her? Nothing like harassment to break the ice, huh?"

"That was fun for you? Watching me be mean to her because you made me feel guilty? Cayden, is there anyone or anything in the world you care about other than me?"

"Well, me. And my mother. And I'm sure I'd care about my sister if she were still around. Outside of those? No. I have no reason to care about anyone else because no one else ever cared about me."

"Bindi told me you defended her when people were teasing her about her mom. You must have been in second grade. Don't you remember?"

"Of course I remember. I knew what it was like to get teased about your mom, and it's probably harder when you're a little stick-figure girl and can't beat anyone up about it. I helped her get into the slide and dealt out a few black eyes to keep them away from her. Even got sent to detention for it. But I didn't do it for her. I did it because I hated everyone at school and I wanted to keep them from something they liked to do."

"I don't believe that's the only reason."

"Oh, yeah, go ahead and give me a noble motivation for it. Take a moment and think about this. When have you ever seen me do anything for anyone that wasn't you or my mom?"

"Never, but I know you weren't always so antagonizing. I have this theory."

"Oh, boy," said Cayden and lifted his eyes to the ceiling of the watchtower. "What's this fabulous theory of yours?"

"It explains why I don't remember you before I was six. It's because you weren't so mean before."

"You think?"

"I think maybe it started when your sister died."



He looked at me. "That's your theory? I'm such a loser because I lost my sister when I was seven?"

"I think it was one of the things that happened. I mean, you had your mother sick before that, and your dad left your family and everything, but when your sister died something snapped."

"Okay." He smiled a little. "How much do I owe you for the session, Dr. Peng?"

"I'm serious."

"Sure you are. You've got your serious face on. Little dimples and everything."

"The thing with Bindi, was that before or after your sister died?" He picked at his shoelaces. "I'm right, aren't I? It was before. Before she died you cared about other people." He didn't answer. I touched his shoulder. "We're going to get your mother into a clinic, Cayden. I promise I'll do everything I can. Will you do something for me, though? Try to give Bindi another chance. She's a really nice girl. She's got a hard life, too. She's raising her little brother, and her grandfather lives on a pension. Her mother hasn't been around hardly at all. She's actually a lot like you."

He cocked an eyebrow.

"Maybe not. But your situations are similar. You had different reactions, but you come from similar backgrounds."

"The difference being she turned out to be a nice, well-behaved girl and I'm a despicable criminal?"

"More or less." I laughed and pinched his cheek. "Don't be so sour, Cayden. You know I love you anyway."

I don't think either of us had really said those words before then, but it wasn't a big event. We'd said it in other ways, and we both knew it. It wasn't something that had developed suddenly. It had grown with us, becoming as much a part of who we were as anything could be. Telling Cayden I loved him was like telling him I had a brain or bones or kidneys. Completely unnecessary. He just smiled and ruffled my hair in return.

That evening I went for a long jog to clear my mind. The open air always had a focusing effect for me. So I thought, turning over every option time and time again.



I returned home for supper but my parents were going out. "It's a fundraiser for cancer research and treatment," said my mother. "There are so many people who don't have what I had. I know what it's like now."

"That's great, mom. It's a good thing to do." I hugged her. "Have a good time."

"I'm sure we'll have a marvelous time and that we won't be at all bored," said my father.

"Jim, behave yourself," said my mother playfully.

"Why can't we just give them money? Why do we have to go to this dinner thing?"

She shook her head, smiling, and took his arm, guiding him out the front door. I watched them go. Unfortunately this gave me more time to think and no excuse not to. I decided to take a nice shower before scrounging for leftovers in the fridge.

I was shampooing my hair when the answer came to me. It was so obvious and simple that I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before. I quickly rinsed off and went over to my father's desk, where he kept a nice big block of letter paper. I tore off a sheet, uncapped a pen, and was about to start writing when I realized I didn't know what to say, or even where to send the letter.

Well, I knew where to start asking, though.

I knocked on the door to Cayden's house. I knew he wasn't in, because he had the evening shift at the supermarket, and that was just as well. The faint chatter of a TV came from the other side of the door, but no one answered. I opened the door and poked my head in.

"Excuse me?" I said.

Cayden's mom looked at me. She hardly seemed to notice I was there.

"Can I come in?"

She nodded slowly. I stepped inside.



"Hi," I said nervously. "Remember me? I'm Aliyah Peng. I live next-door. I'm Cayden's friend."

She looked at the TV.

I see-sawed my weight from one foot to the other. "I wanted to ask you something."

"I know who you are."

"Aliyah Peng, remember?" I sat down on the couch beside her armchair.

"I know."

"I wanted to ask you about Cayden's dad. His name is Carl, right?"

Dana closed her eyes. "Carl's gone."

"I know. How could I find him? I need to tell him something."

"Carl left." Dana opened her eyes and looked across the room, seemingly at someone standing a few feet away. "We were young when we had Trisha and Cayden. Cayden was three. Trisha was six."

"That must have been hard for everyone, right?"

"Carl got tired of me and the kids. He wanted to take a job in another city, one that paid well. He didn't want to take us."

I looked at the spot she watched and could almost imagine it.



"'A family would hold me back,' he said. He was smart, like Cayden. Really smart. 'I have a good shot at making it big.'

"'But you can't just leave me to look after the kids by myself,' I said. 'What about my future?'

"'You don't have a future. All you're good for is this. Pushing out kids and lazing around at home all day while someone else has to support you. I'm tired of working sixty hours a week at minimum wage and having it all go into diapers and food and clothes. I'm not going to let myself go to waste. I was meant for bigger things.'

"And then he left."



"Where did he go?" I asked.

"He... left." She seemed to struggle to continue, but she looked back at the spot she'd been watching. "I had both the kids after that. Cayden forgot his father. Trisha didn't. But we moved on."

"That's good, but where is Carl now? It's really important for me to find him, for Cayden and you."

"I love Cayden," she said, smiling. "He's such a good little boy. Turned three just a couple of months ago." She pointed to a spot next to the fridge. "There he is. See?"



"Yeah, he's a good boy." I tried to remember exactly what Cayden had told me. "He sent a game station for Cayden and a dollhouse for Trisha. When did he do that?"

"A few years after he'd left. He sent a letter, too. He said he was doing well in his new job."

"Where did the letter come from?"

"I read it over there at that table."



She hesitated a moment, then said, "I still have it. It's in my room, in the drawer in the bedside table."

"Could I see it?"

She nodded. "You can get it if you want."

I found it easily. The only other things in the drawer were a silver pendant and the picture frame I'd stepped on when I was six, the one with the picture of Trisha. "Does he still live here?" I asked, showing Dana the address.

"I don't know."

"Could I borrow a pen?"

I finally had to make do with an old magic marker whose tip I had to suck until it worked again. I wrote the address on the back of my hand and returned the letter to its former place.

"Thank you, Dana."

She'd wandered over to the window and was peering out between the blinds. On impulse I gave her a hug. She returned it rather absently, still trying to see out the window.



"Your son loves you so much, you know that?"

She looked at me all of a sudden. "Yes, I do. He loves you, too." She looked around as if searching for eavesdroppers and whispered in my ear, "Be careful. At heart he's just like his father. He'll leave you, too."

"No, he won't, Dana, don't worry."

"He'll choose himself over you."

"Thank you for the story."

I never even considered her words. They were completely ridiculous. Cayden would never choose himself over me. I went home and called a friend of my father's, a computer technician who might be able to help me.

"I'm trying to find out if someone still lives at an address from ten or twelve years ago," I told him. "And if he doesn't, where I could find him."

"That's easy," said my father's friend. "We have the Internet now. All you have to do is look the address up in the white pages website and see if it's still under the same name."

It took a while, but with my father's friend guiding me I was finally able to get Carl Morey's new address. He lived across the country now, in a wealthy neighborhood. I thanked my father's friend and hung up to start writing my letter.

I still have a carbon copy of it. This is what I wrote.

Dear Mr. Carl Morey,

My name is Aliyah Peng. I'm a close friend of your son Cayden. I don't know if you've been in contact with the family you left behind lately, but Dana has developed a severe bipolar condition that's been getting worse over the years, and Cayden is having to work to support her on top of taking care of her. Cayden has found a clinic where Dana would be comfortable, but he needs fifteen thousand dollars in order to move her in. He would never ask you for the money himself, but there's no other way he can get it.

Please understand I would never write to you if I didn't care very much about Cayden and his mother. Now that Cayden is about to turn eighteen he might start thinking about college, but he can't do anything if he has to take care of his mother. Cayden is very bright. Don't let him waste it.

Sincerely,

Aliyah Peng

I put the letter in the mailbox that very night before my parents came home. A little over a week later I found Cayden leaning on the wall next to the garage door when I went to get my car in the morning, holding a letter.

"Good morning," I said.

"I found this in the mailbox yesterday. Apparently the clinic accepted my initial fee."

"That was fast."

"Yeah, especially since I never paid the initial fee."

"Someone must have paid it for you."

He glared at me. "I got that. But I haven't told anyone the name of the clinic. Not even you."

"Someone must have found out the place you'd done your paperwork."

"Was it you?"

"Where would I get fifteen thousand dollars?"

"You told me you'd find a way."

"No. I was still looking. I guess I can stop now."

"Aliyah, are you sure you don't have anything to do with this?"

I shook my head and opened the garage door. "No idea. Maybe you have a rich uncle or something." If Cayden's father didn't want him to know it was him that had done the payment, I wasn't going to tell him. It wasn't like he deserved credit. Fifteen thousand dollars for a mental clinic coming from someone living where he did after twelve years of indifference except for a pretty dollhouse and a state-of-the-art game station was far from generous.

Cayden grabbed me from behind and whispered in my ear, "You know I know you're lying, right?"

"I guess I can't fool you."

"No, you can't. You promised you'd never lie to me."

"Why does it matter? I got the money. I'm not going to reveal the source if the source doesn't want to get revealed." I got in the driver's seat. "You want a ride?"

"Was it my father?"

I shrugged. "Take the bus if you want." I closed the door. The passenger's seat door opened as I started backing up and Cayden hopped in.

"I'm taking the SATs."

"That's great, Cayden! I know you're going to do great. Do you want me to help you study?"

He grinned. "As much as I'd appreciate someone to distract me and make it impossible to study, no thanks. I think I'll do it on my own."

"I don't distract you. How do you know I'd distract you?"

"Hmm, let's see. Earlier this year you helped me study for mid-terms. You convinced me to do it on the top of a hill and the wind kept blowing my pages away. Then you got bored and started climbing trees. Then you put a spider under my shirt."

"You wanted to study for five hours straight! We could just do it a little at a time."

"Thank you, Aliyah, but no."

I sighed dramatically. "Okay. I'm not going to force my help on you."

"You already did," he said, but he was smiling.

Cayden never told me when his mother was getting taken to the clinic. It happened sometime after his eighteenth birthday. I woke up one Sunday morning and found him sitting on my loveseat, watching television on mute.

"How did you get in?" I asked, yawning.

"The front door was open."

I got dressed and went to sit next to him, pulling my shoes out from under the couch and slipping my feet into them. "How long have you been here?"

"Just an hour or so. The maid opened the door at around seven and I came in right away."

"What are you watching?" I asked, blinking bleary-eyed at the television screen.

"It's done. She's installed in the clinic."

I stopped in the act of raising the volume. "You didn't tell me you were moving her in."

"You were going to offer to help me, and I didn't want your help. I wanted to do it alone."

"So it's done? She accepted it?"

"She's not entirely sure what's going on, although I explained it to her in one of her lucid periods and she seemed to understand it pretty well. She knows it's best for both of us. At first she was worried Social Services was going to take me away. She always forgets how old I am." He wouldn't look at me.

"It's okay to feel relieved, Cayden."

"I know. I am."

"What's the matter, then?"

"I'm just going to miss her. What am I going to do with myself now that she's gone?"

I snuggled close to him. "Whatever you want. The world's open to you now."

He put his arm around my neck and leaned close to me. "Whatever I want?"

"Whatever you want," I said.

"So long as I have you anything will be enough."

"You do."

He closed his eyes. "Forever?"

I let my eyes drift closed as well. "Forever."



If only I'd been right.
Thank you for reading!

[forever_mone]

Just found this story and I just want to say that your style of writing is amazing! I should be working instead of reading this, but it is just so good, I couldn't stop. Please keep up the wonderful work! I'm excited for the next installment.

[ApplesApplesApples]

Just found this story and I just want to say that your style of writing is amazing! I should be working instead of reading this, but it is just so good, I couldn't stop. Please keep up the wonderful work! I'm excited for the next installment.

Thank you! I hope you don't get in trouble at work 

[Teacup Chihuahua]

Wow Another excellent update AND another cliffhanger (dang) Apples please promise me if you ever write a book you  will let me know  and I promise I will buy it Love,Love ,Love your writing (I put you up there with JK Rowling,Nora Roberts(hope you have heard of her) and Stephenie Meyer Brilliant,Amazing and Enthralling

[ApplesApplesApples]

Wow Another excellent update AND another cliffhanger (dang) Apples please promise me if you ever write a book you  will let me know  and I promise I will buy it Love,Love ,Love your writing (I put you up there with JK Rowling,Nora Roberts(hope you have heard of her) and Stephenie Meyer Brilliant,Amazing and Enthralling

Thank you! About my book, I'll be sure and let you know.

[Teacup Chihuahua]

Now I have the Starstruck Moodlet lol (from talking to a brilliant author) btw listen to your friends ! I think you would enjoy her books (not sure how old you are. If you are over18) I think you would enjoy reading her books written under JD Robb
( I can't really tell you how I came up with the story, because the first scene I imagined hasn't happened yet, and that would be a spoiler.)
What a mysterious sentence !!! Extremely curious
Looking forward to the next chapter ,

[ApplesApplesApples]

Now I have the Starstruck Moodlet lol (from talking to a brilliant author)

Haha that made me laugh 

[ratchie]

Can we get this back on topic please. Thanks.

Rachel

[Teacup Chihuahua]

Sorry