California’s Cruel Custody Law

A 13-year-old finds herself trapped by her government’s rule of law.

Allie Harwell is almost 13 years old, I have known her since she was 9. I was her teacher once, but I don’t do that anymore. Time passes and so do most of the faces. There are some kids, though, like Allie, whom you don’t forget.  
In any case, Allie is nearly 13, not old enough in the state of California to drink or drive or vote. And not old enough to have any say-so about where she lives—that is, which of her divorced parents she lives with. In California they split her up, pretty much half and half, regardless of what’s going on in the two places she lives. 
For a long time now Allie has been worried about things that a kid her age should not have to worry about. She worries for instance about what her mother brings into the house. Her boyfriend Javier, for instance.  
Kristina Harwell is late thirties, Javier is mid-twenties or so. Mom is a late-thirties dropout—she has dropped out of most everything she ever started—and works part time these days as a hair stylist at a place called Kuality Kutz. Javier is not currently employed. No one will accuse either of them of careerism, but is that enough in common for a relationship? 
Not long ago Allie’s mother brought Javier home, again—they’d split the sheets, then made up, which was something that had happened before, and probably would again. Allie was not overcome with joy to see Javier again—she did not much like the way he had been studying her lately—and was not overjoyed to see that her mom had also brought home a handgun. “What’s that for?” said Allie, meaning the gun. They both already knew what Javier was for. He feels at home here and had already walked into mom’s bedroom.  
Mom local rolled her eyes and put the gun in the top shelf of the front closet. “For protection,” she said.  “Duh…”
They say Duh quite a bit at the Harwells’s.  
READ MORE:http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/11/california-s-cruel-custody-law.html