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God, she missed Jonathan so much. He’d know exactly what to say to cheer her up. He’d be able to understand, because he had issues with his parents too. His eyebrows would draw together like a fuzzy caterpillar and he’d blink those long lashes at her as his eyes softened in sympathy. Even if he couldn’t solve her problem, he’d make her feel better, just by listening.
But Esther had lost Jonathan. She’d pushed him away. The only person she could talk to was Eric, and he was already harried enough. He was the one telling her not to do the thing she wanted to do.
There was one potential solution to her mother’s problem that Esther had yet to explore. Something she knew Eric wouldn’t approve of.
Their father owned a couple of rental houses. He might be convinced to offer one to their mother at a discounted rent. It was a long shot, but maybe he’d do it for Esther’s sake. If she explained that she and Eric were at their wit’s end, that she was stressing herself into an early grave, maybe he’d agree to help them out.
She let the idea sit for a few minutes, rolling it around. Then she gave in and called her dad.
“Esther?” He sounded surprised when he answered the phone. No wonder. She almost never called him. They hadn’t talked in months.
“Hey, Dad,” she said, pacing around her apartment.
“Is everything okay?” It wasn’t a holiday or anyone’s birthday, so of course he’d assume she was calling because something was wrong. Because she needed something. Which she did.
She was treating her dad like her mother treated her. The realization made Esther feel even sicker.
“Yeah,” she lied, “everything’s fine.”
“What is it? You can tell me.” Even her absentee father could see through her lies. She’d meant to start out by asking how he was doing and pretending to be interested in his life, but that was out the window now.
“I, um…I had a question about those two rental properties you own. In Fremont.”
“What about them?”
“Do you still have them?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t suppose there are any vacancies.” She knew it was a crazy pipe dream as soon as she said the words out loud. The two properties only had eight units between them. What were the odds one would be available? Much less that her father would be willing to let her mother live there.
“What’s this about?” he asked, impatient for her to get to the point.
“Mom’s losing her apartment.”
“Oh. Of course.” His voice had gone flat. He was already distancing himself, the way he always did when the subject of her mother came up.
Esther barreled on, even though she knew it was hopeless. “She’s having trouble finding a new place in her price range, and I was just wondering—hoping, really, that you might be able to rent her one of your properties.”
“I doubt she’ll be able to afford the rent.”
“I thought maybe you could give her a discount on it…” She chewed on her lower lip as she waited for his answer.
“Esther.” His voice was even flatter now, like a penny left on a railroad track. “I can’t do that.”
“You mean you won’t.”
“I have renters in those properties with leases. I can’t break them.”
“Okay, but—”
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”
And there it was. Why had she ever thought there was a chance this would work? Her father would never go out of his way to help her mother.
“Dad, please,” she said, making one last Hail Mary. “I’m asking you to do it for me. Eric’s been trying to help her find a new place, but they haven’t had any luck. She’s got to be out by the end of the month. We’re desperate.”
“Listen, pumpkin…” It grated on her that her dad still called her pumpkin, like she was nine. Not so coincidentally, that’s how old she was when he last spent any real time around her. “This is your mother’s problem to solve, not yours, not Eric’s, and definitely not mine.”
