Then comes son

Mom and partner have the stuff stored, in the garage. That is a neighborly duty, store a few boxes while the local friends move to new apartment. Son helps, next day son comes by, 'where is mom?' Gone, somewhere. 

I am deliberately avoiding any details of her life because I want to avoid these questions. I make it none of my business. No one helps, because fences make neighbors. We dunno when we help or not, these are ongoing issues. We get the son stuck with kindness of neighbors.  No one can afford the parent badge, there is no phone call to uncle, come by and pick up mom and the dog. They don't have that call, wiped out in the generational drug battle.

Keeping distance means being a regularity, so my behavior is always the same. If friend drops buy, nothing unusual, as if she were borrowing a cup o sugar. I don't want her freaking off to smoke the pipe, she is on the program, it seemed to work.  So, smart or not, the logical step is to stay out of the way, not to screw it up. These families caught, they mostly scare us straights that we don't know how to help. A nightmare all around.