Beth's Problem Part One.

This story picks up right after Phillip and Harley's honeymoon. They
have come home to their new house.

Harley is sorting out decorations Buzz sent over a couple of days ago.
She is standing by the tree that Phillip bought last night-a handsome
Douglas fir. She reads the note again: "Harley-
Frank and I thought it would be good to have family
decorations for your new family. Love, Dad." 
Philip walks in with Lizzie. "We're back!"
"Hi, guys! Guess what Dad brought by?"
"What did he bring, Harley?" Lizzie says, walking to the box and
looking in. 
"Hopefully not a bomb." Philip says.
"Quit it.He brought ormanments for the tree." Harley hits him on the
shoulder. "He really likes you, Phillip. He just doesn't want to admit
it."
"Uh-huh, sure."
"Can we decorate the tree tonight, Daddy?" Lizzie asks.
"Yeah! That sounds good! I've  got some ornaments I brought from the
house in the car. You ladies start to sort out the ormanents, okay?"
"Sounds good." Harley gives him a kiss. Phillip leaves for the car.
Lizzie is studying a angel that is made from a plastic spoon and a
pipe cleaner halo. "Who made this?" She asks Lizzie.
"I did. God, I was about your age." Harley says, rubbing Lizzie's
neck. "See? In the spoon I made her eyes blue, and around the edges
she has yellow hair... boy, it still holds up after all these years."
"My mommy is an artist. You knew that right?" Lizzie smiles at Harley. 
Harley smiles at Lizzie back, although it's hard. Beth.
Couldn't she have a Beth free day? Would it be so much to ask for? She
took a breath. "I knew that. She probably does a lot of paintings of
you!"
"She used too. She hasn't in a long time."
"Oh, really? Why?"
Lizzie looked down at the plastic spoon angel. "She just doesn't. Not
for a long time. She hasn't painted anything in a long time."
"Wow. You know why she stopped?" Harley couldn't care less why Beth
stopped or not-but she wanted to be polite to Lizzie.
"She stopped after Daddy left. Then she would go in her room and cry a
lot."
Good God, Harley thinks. Didn't Beth have any self respect at all?
Phillip told her that he offered over and over to come to Springfield.
She refused, over and over.
"She would play this song over and over again," Lizzie continues. "It
was this song about walking on by when you see him on the street."
Beth liked Dionne Warrick? Well, Dionne Warrick was cool. Harley
always thought of her as a Michael Bolton kind of girl. "Well, it's
good your mom is feeling better, isn't it?" Harley says. She wishes
she had never brought this up. It's too nerve wracking.
"Yeah, but she still gets sad."
Now Harley really wishes she hadn't brought it up.
Oh, no. She is not the evil stepmother here. Phillip and Beth were
long seperated and divorced by the time
her and Phillip got together. She will not feel guilty about this.
"Sometimes she still stays in her room for hours. And sometimes she
has to leave during dinner too."
"She stays in her room?"
"Uh-huh. One time I walked in and she told me to go away, it was her
private time. She was drinking something-something red."
"Something red?"
"Yeah, and she was drinking it straight from the bottle. I don't know
why she was doing that. She always yells at me when I drink from the
milk carton. She just kept on crying and saying: 'Lujack, I miss you
tonight.'" Lizzie shook her head. "I don't know who Lujack is. Do you?"
Harley thinks. Lujack, Lujack... oh, yeah! Phillip's
cousin, they were engaged to be married. He shot his video in Fifth
street, and she played the single "Out in the Streets" over and over
until the tape snapped off. Frank and Pops told her to quit playing
that song,
but she couldn't stop. "I think he was someone your mommy knew a long
time ago."
"She was crying really hard."
"Oh."
"I'm going to help Daddy with the ornaments. Want to come with me?"
"No, sweetie, it's okay. Go and see your daddy, okay?"
Lizzie runs outside. Harley looked at the angel. Beth.
She couldn't have a drinking problem, could she?
Oh, she didn't want to think about it. She knew Beth's stepdad Bradley
was a mean drunk, and he was a father figure to her... and maybe it
would explain why Beth had changed so much when she returned to
Springfield...
but maybe Harley was wrong. Maybe I've seen way too many afterschool
specials, she thinks. She heard Phillip coming in with Lizzie, Lizzie
chattering away about that she was going to play Ruldolph's girlfriend
in her Christmas pagent. Phillip nods, looking at her totally adoring.
She suddenly wonders about her girl Daisy-eleven now, too old for
Christmas pagents, maybe singing at a choir, looking at boys. Why does
it have to be so hard? Harley thinks. Why am I haunted by my daughter?
Why do I have to worry that Beth might be drinking too much? Why does
things have to be so hard?
She heard her mother's voice in her head: "Who said life was fair,
Harley Davidson Cooper?"
"Harley?" Phillip touches her arm. "You okay?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." She will discuss Beth later with him. Hopefully,
it's nothing. "Hey, let's get the tree
decorated, okay?"