Hey, hey, did you hear? One of the temps have been calling in sick all week long. She says her back hurts and cannot get up. Then again, why was she caught standing dandy-fine at a bus stop on a day when she was supposed to be bedridden?!

I know, I know. Here is the story of why.

Picture a family comprising of mama-temp (minus papas) and her three jailbird children (one daughter, two sons). Not too long ago, both sons were released from prison. The oldest toughie rooms with the mama-temp, and begins the good behavioral parole phase of landing a job and bringing home some dough. Not a bad start; everyone is happy.

Oh, no, not for long though. The horseshoe bends their luck, and things begin to fall apart. The oldest toughie borrows mama-temp's car and is videotaped one night inside the car while two of his buddies ransack and rob a house. Oh, dear, now he is on the run.

Meanwhile, mama-temp's softie sickly son is released from prison to serve his parole in another city in the state. The instructions are clear - immediately report to his parole officer in the new town upon leaving the prison; do not wander off the trail. But mama-temp must see her baby, and what would one night's delay change. Apparently a lot. A pending arrest for violation of parole terms on the docks, this son too goes a-running. Without any money, without any friends, without any medications to treat his deteriorating health.

So both sons are on the loose. The softie sickly manages to even meet with mama-temp on occasion to get some money from her. We know, because mama-temp comes back to work with red wet eyes.

Yet, the bigger trouble lies with oldest toughie. He is no snitch, but coppers want to close cases. Videotapes are concrete proofs and this son is the only lead they have to the robbery. Investigate, track, and the police surround him when he tries to come by mama-temp's daddy's house one evening. With the cruisers and guns outnumbering the barking dogs of the neighborhood, the oldest toughie is finally apprehended from his hiding place on top of the roof.

Shame, shame, that is all you bring!

Mama-temp's sister and daddy raise their Bibles and hail Mary, Jesus, and Zeus before turning their backs on the infidels. There goes the good-old cheery holiday family get-together. And mama-temp becomes an outcast, with only her own children and grandchildren to depend on.

With no place to go, mama-temp secretly moves in with her daughter at the public housing she resides at. Remember, this is all hush-hush. No one must know that mama-temp is there. Who would want to?

Ah, so this brings the story back to mama-temp's absence from workplace. An "investigator" stopped by at the office the other day, huffing and puffing and threatening to blow down the building if we did not hand over all information regarding mama-temp to him. To make it official, he took out his star badge. Good job on cutting along the lines!

Fortunately, suspicious and reading beyond his true intention, [Big honcho] smacked him on the head to knock him down few pegs with reason. (And for a small lady, [Big honcho] carries a big punch!) And he left with merely the address of the temporary agency that we hired mama-temp from, but not before revealing the information that she had missed some car payments, and was wanted in the investigation involving her automobile and possible felony charges that awaited her if she did not come forward to cooperate.

Now, what?! Exactly who was this brute stranger? Was he just a repo-man, or did he have some other devious agenda in mind? Which agency did he represent? He never really said. Yes, the word gets around before the head can snap back in place.

Without mama-temp coming back, we can only surmise that it all relates back to oldest toughie's case and how she desperately wanted to avoid having to testify or aid in prosecution during her son's trial.

Well, whatever. We will never really know the full truth. And with a bit of melancholy adieu, we pack up mama-temps's contents to begin another round of temp truth or dare.