Gloria stood in the kitchen. This was her domain, this was were she felt the most comfortable, and where so many good memories had taken place. It was painted a light sage green, something new this summer. She had grown tired of the old peach color, and somehow as she had aged, she no longer liked the color as much as she had when she had first painted the kitchen a few years after they bought the house. She thought it brought out the warm honey color of the cabinets, which Greg had made for her the summer of their fifteenth anniversary. The house had come with white painted cabinets, that she had never liked, but had lived with until they were on their feet better. They had bought the house, an old fixer-upper as Greg had called it the year after they married, and the year before the first of the girls was born. The kitchen had been painted a bright yellow when they bought the house, and she had managed to survive in it until the year she was pregnant with Lori, and then it had to go! It might have been the hormones of being pregnant, or of having a two-year old in the house, but whatever it was, that year everytime she walked into the kitchen she had burst into tears. Finally Greg had brought home a couple gallons of a warm peach color paint and told her she was welcome to paint the room if she liked, but he wouldn' t be about to do it. That was the year that Greg's construction business had really taken off and he was working so many extra hours, but it had been worth it, they both agreed. At that time in her life, peach had been a favorite color of her's, in fact her bridesmaids had worn a shade of peach close to the one Greg had brought home, so she had spent the next week, while Jennifer was napping, painting the kitchen. Something about painting the old kitchen made it feel more like her own place, and that was when she had taken to the ktichen, it had from then on become her special place.
The windows had valances that she had made from old quilts she had picked up a flea markets. Shopping at flea markets was a warm memory for her. As a little girl growing up, her family didn't have alot of extra money, they never went hungry, but there wasn't much left for the extras of life. She and her mom would shop the local flea market once a month, and the things that her mom had been able to make from what she found at the market still amazed Gloria to this day. When he mom got sick her freshman year of high school, she had started doing the monthly flea market trips on her own. She would bring home things for her mom, and together they would make it into something more. It was on one of these flea market trips her junior year of high school that she met Greg. He was a strong, tanned and confident of himself, or at least that was her first timpression. He was looking at old caperentry tools, and she was looking at a quilt in the same booth. Somehow they started talking and by the time she left the flea market that day, she was in love. The material from the old quilts had been added to some ivory and sage material recently to reflect the new color scheme, but when she first made then, she had taken her favorite quilt blocks from some old quilts, stitched them onto a pure white fabric, then trimed it in a navy blue. Gloria had a unquie color sense, and when she was able to put colors together that most people wouldn't think of, but once you saw it, you wondered why you didn't think of it first. She had decorated the kitchen with the peach paint, the white cabinets and navy blue accessories, including some old pottery she had found on another flea market trip. The kids used to laugh at her flea market habit, but as they had grown older, and listen to her stories of growing up with her mom, a woman none of the girls ever got to met, they began to realize the meaning behind it. She no longer had to shop at the flea market, Greg had a wonderfully succesful construction business, and they were able to save money and pay for the girls college educations as they need, but she still went to the flea market once a month, more for the memories and the enjoyment now.
As she looked around the kitchen, she felt a sense of change. On any normal holiday, the girls would all have been perched at the bar talking about their lives and heloing with dinner. This year was different, and as much as she wasn't sure she was ready for it, her life was changing, her girls were growing up, and by the looks of things, she would be saying good-bye to one daughter sooner than she had expected. Jennifer was at boyfriend's, at least for now, house until dinner. Gloria had the feeling that after dinner, Eric would be pulling Greg off for a man-to-man talk and he would become much more than her oldest daughter's boyfriend. Her youngest daughter, Kelsey was upstairs finishing up some wrapping and talking on the phone to her latest flame, Robbie. She still couldn't get overthe fact that she was old enough to have daughter's with boyfriends. She still could remember her own wedding to Greg, and then the births of each of the girls, as though they only happened yesterday. Where had all the time went? It was days like this that she wished her own mother had been around to see the girls births, as it was she was extremly lucky that her mom had managed to hang on until the wedding. She had been so sick, but she was not about to give up without seeing her daughter married and safe. The wedding had been all she had talked about in those last few weeks, and although Gloria had done all the sewing of her own wedding dress, she had sewn it on the machine right there beside her mother's bed, so that her mother could oversee all the details. Just five days after the wedding, Gloria's mother had finally sucumbed to the cancer that had tried for almost four years to take her life. Every year, her anniversary was bittersweet, yet she knew that her mother had died happy. It had always been her goal to she that her children were happy and safe, and she had lived to see Gloria, her youngest, married and that was what she had needed.
Gloria had just put the dressing in the oven when the phone rang. Dinner would be ready in about a hour, they were just waiting on Lori now. Why had she waited until the last possible minute to come home? Something was going on there. Lori was the middle of her daughters, but they had never had all those "middle child" problem that so many people tried to tell her about. She was a good student, had gone to a special week of college last year on Spring Break, and then had started college early, the week after high school graduation. She probably shouldn't worry, but Lori had not called much this fall, and she had been keeping to herself, she had even broken up with her long-time boyfriend right before leaving for school. Then there was this visit, her very first visit home since starting school, and she had waited until the last possible minute to come home. She had been off school for a week, but kept saying she just couldn't come home yet, something she needed to do there. It just didn't add up, it wasn't normal Lori behavior.
"Hi Mom. We'll be there in about an hour, I can't wait to see the family. This is going to be great."
"I am glad you landed safe. Do you need Dad to pick you up, and your sisters are dying to see you. Wait, did you say we? You have someone with you?"
"Sorry mom, this is a bad connection, we'll talk when I get there. Love ya, bye."
She slowly hung up the phone and wondered at what her daughter had not said in that conversation. Someone was with her, but who, and why wouldn't she say who. She knew that her girlfriends were always welcome, they always had been. In all the years that the girls had been growing up, they always hung out here, they were always welcome, even on holidays an extra girl or two could be found at the house. So why didn't she say who was with her. She thought about the friends that were attending college with Lori, but Jannie and Denise were already home, she knew because they had phoned the day before. Maybe it was someone she met at school, and she tried to remember any names Lori might have mentioned, but couldn't.
Her husband, Greg walked in the room."Was that the phone I heard?"
"Yes, Lori landed safely and is on her way. Guess who is coming to dinner?"Lori clicked the phone shut and closed her eyes. She had about an hour, then it would all be out in the open. How would her parents react? She had played this scene over and over in her head, and yet she could never figure out the ending. She was pretty sure they wouldn't throw them out of the house, and she was pretty sure they were going to be upset, but just how upset was the question. Oh well, nothing she could do now but relax and enjoy the ride home. As she rode along she thought about the past year.Last Christmas she had been a happy high school senior. She wasn't a straight A student by any means, but she got good grades and was on the honor roll. She and Tyler and been dating almost a whole year, and she had thought they might be the real thing. He was a senior too, and played on the football team, but he was by no means the dumb jock, he got good grades and they had talked about attending University together. He had given her a locket for Christmas, which she still wore only he didn't know about it. Funny how much wearing that locket still meant to her now. It was a reminder of what had been, maybe it held the dreams of what could have been, but there had been times this past year that holding onto that locket had given her the strength to endure. She was going to need that strength now.No, things had not went well that spring, it wasn't his fault, but there was no way she could tell him that. She never did have the courage to tell him anything. She tried to tell him it wasn't his fault, and that he was still a good person and that she still cared for him, but how can you do that all the while you are pushing them away from you. No, to tell him would mean that she would have to face all that had happened that spring, and she wasn't ready to do that, even now, riding home knowing that she was going to have to account for at least some of this past year, she wasn't sure she was ready or that she was doing the right thing. No that wasn't true, no matter what her parents thought it was the right thing to come to them with it now, probably should have done this sooner, she thought, but she wasn't strong enough then. Was she really strong enough now? Only time would tell.Greg looked at his wife, they hadn't played the guess who's coming to dinner game in awhile, at least not with Lori. Their house was the place to be when their kids were growing up, so it had become a game betwen them to figure how which friend which girl was bringing home. He had loved that game. To him it meant that he had done right by his girls, he was the kind of father that he wanted to be, that his old man had not been. Odd time for the game now he thought, but when he looked at his wife again, the worry on her face told him it was real this time, not just the same old game."Glory, are you saying that Lori is bringing someone with her home?" Greg asked.
"I think so," Gloria replied, "at least she said we are on our way." Gloria sighed and then she walked over to Greg and allowed him to wrap her in his arms, "She left for college as soon as graduation was over, and she hasn't come home since. All her friends have called asking about her, and so I know she hasn't been keeping in touch with them either. Something is going on, and I don't know what it is." Greg held his wife and listened. They had talked about this before, but he had always brushed it off as Lori spreading her wings and needing some independence, it was her freshman year of college, it would be ok, but as he held his wife in the kitchen, waiting on Lori to arrive, he just knew that it was more. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought he always knew it was more. Lori had never bveen that type of girl, even last year when she was dating Tyler, she was always so open and honest with them. She had always let them know where she was and what they were doing, although she probably kept some secrets, he had never worried about her until after Spring Break. Yes, Spring Break, that is when Lori had changed. He just kept telling his wife it would be ok, he had to, he was the father, the husband and he had to be her rock. Now though, something was about to change their family forever, and he had no idea what it was or even how to deal with it. Would he be able to handle, or would he become his father? No, he would not let that happen. He had spent his whole life trying to do things differently, to be a bigger man than his father and no matter what was coming home with Lori, they would handle it, and he would be the good father, he would make Glory proud of him.
Sunday January 1st, 2023
1 year ago
