“So people just…give up their kids? Why would they do that?” Alice asked, looking distraught. “I mean I get that they’re addicted to stuff, but…”

Helena took Alice’s hand and smiled at me in apology. Alice was usually fine with things like drugs, but she hated anything that hurt children. She’d burst into tears several times after watching newscasts about sick children, and Helena looked sorry she’d brought it up. She tried to explain as gently as she could. “A heroin addiction is very hard to break, darling, not to mention incredibly expensive. Many do it to spare their children in whatever small way they can, before it gets to be too much. And of course, then you have those that simply cannot or will not look after their children any longer. It’s different for everyone.”

“I can’t even…that’s awful,” Alice said, sounding truly horrified.

I nodded in agreement. “It is, but Helena’s trying to help them, see?” I stood. “We’d better get going, baby, we don’t want to miss your appointment.”

We called goodbye to everyone and headed for the psychologist’s office, which was adjacent to the main hospital. Alice’s appointment was only supposed to be an hour, so I decided I’d take a walk over to the cafeteria and get some tea or something. I’d barely said goodbye to Alice and walked out to cross the parking lot when I saw Helena’s Hyundai pull up. She saw me and waved, and I jogged over to see what was going on.

“There was a call to the Center that a heroin-addicted mother is in labor. Since I was in the area I volunteered to come over and try to speak with Social Services about the baby,” she told me hastily as she got out of the car.

I had a million questions, but I figured I should let her do her job. “Good luck!” I called after her. She waved back at me and disappeared into the building. I continued on to the cafeteria and had my tea, and then I walked to the gift shop, which was placed not far from the maternity ward. I thought that was a pretty good marketing strategy, and browsed for a little bit until I looked at my watch and realized it was time to go get Alice and get headed to KCRW.