Donna did like her first semester. Then she applied for the scholarship. Thanks to Mary Beth Bateman, with some credit owed to her son Joseph and the board, Donna received a full scholarship. At first she stayed at home and attended the college David did. Then she decided to go to an out-of-state university. Since she had a 4.0 grade point average so far, the Foundation raised her scholarship funding to cover the additional expenses. Donna went on to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. During her junior year in college she met Mark Stillman, who was also an engineering student. She brought Mark with her to meet David several times during vacations, and David told Donna that he really liked Mark. After they married, both went to work for the same automotive design firm. She and Mark and their children would come by and visit David fairly regularly. David and Donna called each other often. Later, when David was much older, she would call every Wednesday around noon to see how he was doing. He told her it wasn’t necessary, but she insisted. She commented to him several times that she didn’t like that he was there alone. So it was important that he was home on Wednesday afternoon to take her call. She said she wouldn’t worry if he would promise to talk to her on Wednesdays. It’s the least I can do, he thought to himself.
Donna turned another page and looked at a picture of Sarah sitting at the kitchen table in her parents’ house.
“How old is she?” Donna asked.
“Oh, about 14 I’d say.”
Donna looked back at the picture.
“Whose baby is that?” she asked, pointing at a baby Sarah was feeding.
“Me,” David said.
Donna paused for a moment. “Really?” she asked.
“Yes; and you don’t know how much I owe her.”
She turned the page and saw a picture of Sarah sitting on the floor with her and Courtney. She was holding out toys to them. Both were laughing, and trying to grab the toys.
“I don’t like that one,” she said.
“Why?”
“Mom never loved us.” Then she paused. “Right?”
She looked up and saw that David had a serious look on his face. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, she just gave us up.”
“That’s not true. It took a hell of a lot of persuading to get her to let you stay here.”
“Still, she could have…” David cut her off.
“When you and Courtney first starting staying here…did she make you?”
“Well, no.”
“Did you want to stay with her?”
“No!” Donna hollered.
“You wanted to stay here?”
“Of course I did!”
“So she gave you what you wanted.”
Donna thought for a moment. “I guess so, when you put it like that.”
David smiled at her. “The album is yours. Share it with Mary, and tell her about Sarah.”
Donna smiled as she closed it. “I will. But where’d you get it?”
David laughed. “I have no idea. I found it on the kitchen table.”
Donna sat down at her desk. It was a big desk, made of oak and with lots of drawers. Sitting on top were some of her schoolbooks stacked up neatly. Some pens and pencils sat next to the books, lined up in order of size, the smaller ones being first. At the far end of the desk was a plastic cage with a gerbil in it. There was a tube that led to a small compartment on top. Next to the desk was a bag of wood shavings. Donna changed the wood shavings and put fresh water in the water bottle every day. Kerry was amazed to see no dirty clothes anywhere. The bed was even made, and there was a clothesbasket by the bed full of neatly folded clean clothes. There was a large Bay City Rollers poster on the wall above the desk. Sitting beside the TV was a stereo with a large number of records in the cabinet, arranged in alphabetical order. One of Leif Garrett’s albums was sitting on the record player.
“Your room sure is clean!” Kerry said. Then she got up and walked over to the cage.
“Why do you have a mouse?” she asked, tapping on the compartment at the top of the cage.
“It’s not a mouse; it’s a gerbil. That’s a different species!”
“A different what?” Kerry asked.
“A different species, dumbshit, and don’t tap on his cage or you’ll wake him up!”
“Who cleans your room?”
Donna opened her math book. “I do! It’s better than you and Courtney! You live in a pigpen!”
Kerry laughed. Then she walked over and stood next to Donna.
“Oh go away!” Donna yelled at her.
Donna Butler
Daughter of Sarah (Larimore) Butler, and step-daughter of Harold Schaefer. When Sarah's husband Walker Blaine dies, Sarah seeks to re-marry quickly. She chooses to marry Milton Butler, who carries himself as if successful and well-off, but turns out to be lazy and debt-ridden. Donna is one year younger than her half-sister, Courtney Blaine. Before moving in with her uncle, David Larimore, Donna follows Courtney around. Courtney seeks out trouble and Donna finds herself in the middle of it. But Donna is actually a shy, quiet girl who prefers order and routine; quite the opposite of Courtney, who feels at home in the middle of chaos and anarchy. That said, she can also be somewhat devious- just ask Kerry. Donna is also highly intelligent, excelling in school and attending advanced classes in several subjects. She has different musical tastes than her sister, preferring pop rock as opposed to the hard rock that Courtney and her band have chosen. From Donna, David learns that it's a good idea not to run out of Sugar Smacks. When it seems as though Donna will not be able to go to college, David obtains a Bateman scholarship for her, with a little help from Zach, of course. She will go on to marry Mark Stillman, have a daughter named Mary, and work for an automotive design firm. As David gets older, Donna and Courtney agree that she will call David every Wednesday evening. David's taking her call signals to them that he is fine.
Sarah lit a cigarette and smiled. Then she noticed the book he was reading.
“You know what, David?”
“What?”
“You think too much. You’d be happier if you didn’t think so much.”
David leaned back in his chair. “You might be right.”
“And you read too much,” she added.
David looked up and noticed that she was tapping her finger on a book sitting on the table. Apparently she didn’t recognize Donna’s English textbook. She had forgotten to take to school that morning.
“You should have been a philosopher.”
David lowered his book. “I don’t like philosophers; they make things harder than they need to be.”
“That might be. But it’s rules that bring order out of chaos.”
David lowered his book again and looked at Sarah. This was an odd word for her to use, he thought to himself. She must have read it in a book.
“I like chaos; it’s interesting,” David said, smiling at her.
“That’s not reasonable! And coming from a man who thinks he’s so reasonable!”
David set his book down on the table. “Well, Sarah, a reasonable man can’t be reasonable all the time.”
There was a brief pause and both laughed.
“Then you’ll get on well with Courtney and Donna. Chaos seems to follow them wherever they go.”
David smiled. “Courtney perhaps. But Donna’s way is different.”
******************************
“Sort of, but Mom says ‘no Kerry.’”
She pulled out a box of Sugar Smacks from the pantry and shook it. Earlier, David noticed an empty box of Alpha-Bits sitting beside the garbage can. He had bought it the day before.
“You’re almost out of Sugar Smacks!”
He laughed. “They don’t go well with Pepsi anyway. But write it on the shopping list,” he said, pointing to the small notepad hanging from a magnet on the refrigerator door.
“There’s no pen!” Donna hollered.
David began checking his pockets for a pen.
“Why ‘no Kerry’?” he asked, looking around under the papers on the kitchen table.
“Mom thinks that Courtney gets in trouble ’cause of her.”
“I see. Do you think that’s true?”
“No, Courtney gets in trouble by herself.”
David smiled. “What kind of trouble does Kerry get into?”
“Well, sometimes she skips class. Once she got in trouble for writing swear words on the bathroom wall at school. Yesterday she got in a fight. Oh, and she even smokes!”
David quickly realized that this list could go on and on.
“What do you know about her parents?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“But she still goes to class, right?”
“Yeah, mostly, “she said, heading toward the hallway. Then she turned around and shook the cereal box up and down.
“We’re out of Sugar Smacks!”
Courtney walked over to the plastic cage and banged on the top.
“Why do you have a mouse?” she asked.
Kerry stood up and pushed her. “Don’t you know a gibbil when you see one?
Courtney looked at Kerry and then peered into the cage. “I know it’s a gibbil!”
Donna jumped up. “You’re both dumbshits! Now go away!”
Courtney grinned at Donna, then grabbed Kerry by the shirt and dragged her out of the room.