She’d been down this road before.
ChapterTen
Hope, 1990
It was a scene.
“This is not fair.” Hope was nearly yelling. She never yelled at her mother. Her mother did the yelling. Her father was quiet.
He was no ally. He did what Mother wanted. Whatever that was, without question. Placating Mother was his full-time job.
She was expected to do the same.
“We will not pay for culinary school. Period. That is not a path to a stable career, health benefits, nothing. You will wind up waitressing. You have good SAT scores and excellent PSAT scores. And you want to waitress?”
“There is nothing wrong with waitressing, number one. Number two, I want to be the chef. I want to run a restaurant. It’s completely different.” She’d applied and been accepted to the Culinary Institute of America in New York. It was no small feat, getting in, and she’d done it!
“Oh, listen to her, Perry. She’s going to run the restaurant.”
Her mother made Hope sound like she was an idiot. A child.
“You just said I had good test scores. I’m smart enough to do what I want to do as a career.”
“But too stupid to know you’re being ridiculous. How many tips do you think you need to earn to cover culinary school out of state and rent? Oh, and how are you going to get to New York, the car? Because that car your dad bought is staying here. Perry, your daughter, is playing pretend.”
Her dad had said it was a birthday present. Her parents had never once even driven in it. But now, it wasn’t hers the minute she tried to strike out independently with it.
Her mother was mean, straight-up mean. She was using everything she could think of to control Hope. She always had.
“Honey, the University of Cincinnati is very nice. We met there.”
Her father was trying to smooth it all out. To mollify her mother. He was going to light his pipe now. His stupid pipe. He could fiddle with that and ignore everything else.
As she predicted, he did just that. It was over. It was settled. She didn’t have a thing against the University of Cincinnati, except it wasn’t what she wanted to do.
She had no ally.
“Fine. Fine. I’ll wear what you say, go get the degree you say, say what you say, and have a boring, stupid life just like yours.”
It was harsh, Hope knew, but she was livid.
“So dramatic. Perry, someone better warn Meryl Streep. The best actress of the year is in our rec room.”
Her mother was mocking her. She couldn’t be in the room with her for another minute.
She ran up to her bedroom. She was going to slam her bedroom door. But she knew that would mean her mother would run up here after her. She’d hammer away at Hope until she got the last word.
No, she didn’t slam the door. She shut it. Quietly. She balled her fists until her arms shook. Hope felt pent-up anger. There was a fight in her that had nowhere to land. She knew, in a fight, her mother would win. Her mother was the master, Hope, the obedient puppet.
She looked around her room. She wanted to rip down the INXS poster, knock over her stupid Caboodle, and pull down the balloon valance over her window. She wanted to tear the place up.
But Michael Hutchence didn’t deserve her wrath.
Her powder blue phone sat on her nightstand. Aha! She’d act out her rebellion with a phone call.
She crawled over her bed and picked up the receiver. She watched as the dial rotated back. Over and over and over.
“Hey, hi. Can you pick me up?”
