Dadgelo Part Two

That was a subject Angelo had opinions on, to say the least.

"I find it weird," he admitted. "There's so many parents who are so willing to ship their kids here without a word of warning, staying behind themselves. It's not nice to say, but what kind of shitty parent doesn't go with their kid to a strange island filled with weird magic shit? My parents weren't really in my life before, so you think I'd be used to the idea, but people are so blasé about it here. Like it's a totally normal part of life that like seventy five percent of parents are totally willing to just abandon their kids and let them be raised by strangers."

Maybe that was getting a bit too serious of a conversation, so Angelo tried to change the subject.

"I've got the next month or so off to give everyone time to adjust before I start working again. I had vacation days stacked up, so it wasn't a big deal."

"Let me tell you something important," Angelo said. It was something someone had told him once--someone who was really in no position giving good life advice, and yet did anyway--and it had stuck with Angelo since.

"If a parent abandons a child, it doesn't reflect badly on the child. It reflects badly on the parent. The parent chooses to have a child. The child doesn't choose to be born."

It was something that mattered a lot to kids who felt like they'd been thrown away--the idea that others would judge them. That others would think they hadn't been good enough.

"As for all that other stuff, pretty much yes to all of it. I've been living on my own. I know how to cook, and to clean, and to take care of my apartment and do all the laundry. That said, I'm definitely not doing all of it. Weren't you all on some sort of chore schedule I could work with? The idea is to let things be normal for you as much as possible."

It was nice to see her smile. She wasn't happy--it wasn't like a quick platitude was going to solve all her problems--but apparently it had struck a chord with her.

Hopefully it stayed with her.

"For the record, everyone is going to help out. I'll... I don't know, make a chore chart or something. Because there's no way I'm going to be able to do the cooking and cleaning and laundry and all that for a dozen people."

More then a dozen, actually.

"So everyone's going to chip in and do something." Whether or not it was equal was going to be a whole other mess, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

"Oh, don't worry," Angelo said with a laugh. "You guys not being able to help won't be concern. If I try and do everything myself I'll probably fall over dead."

Her suggestion about interviewing the kids was a good one, and Angelo scratched his chin. He sort of had his own answers for how things could work, but he thought it would be nice if he asked her instead of just providing his own solutions. Maybe she'd come up with something good. Maybe she'd come up with the same answer he did, and he could give her the credit.

"And what if no one wants to do a specific task, like the toilets?" He asked.