“Why the long face, Andrew?”
Of course, the bane of my existence is back, as if today could not get worse.
“Leave me alone,” I mutter.
“What? What’s that? I couldn’t hear you.” He cups his hand to his ear. I am not in the mood for him. When I don’t respond, he plops down in the chair next to me. Swell.
I continue to ignore him. I’ve got too much on my mind to waste energy on him. I can’t believe Benj isn’t in Colorado. In one way, I’m relieved I don’t have to worry about him making it through a random tornado. That’s certainly one contingency plan we never practiced.
Then it dawns on me that even if Benj is safe, it doesn’t mean my parents are. I sit up quickly, frantically trying to FaceTime them. My mom answers after what feels like forever.
Unless she has some green screen background—which is way beyond her technological level—they’re not in Colorado either. “Um ... where are you?”
“We’re in Aruba! Benjamin bought us this trip. It’s a three-week Caribbean cruise. He said we deserved to get away while he was traveling.”
“Yeah, about that, Mom—”
“Oh, don’t start, Andi. Benjamin said he’d tell you when the timing was right. He was afraid you’d get all—well, you know how you get.”
There is no way to take this that isn’t insulting. But, since I’m my own worst critic, I have about a million things running through my brain that this could mean. I’m gonna need some clarification.
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Andi, you tend to be overprotective. A little too much. You’d get worried and try to fix problems that aren’t yours. Samantha and Benjamin are quite capable of handling this trip on their own.”
I don’t say anything. I certainly don’t tell Mom she hit it right on the nose about my reaction. “So, it’s probably not a great time for me to visit you in Colorado then.”
As I say this, the loudspeaker blares that there will be information about my flight in a few minutes. I see the look on Mom’s face. “Were you going to come out and see us soon? We’ll be back next week.”
I have a game in Birmingham next week. I send them my schedule regularly, but Benj is the only one who ever reads it. “I’ll have to check and see. Maybe soon.”
“Where are you now?”
For the first time since we had this emergency landing, I’m relieved. I don’t have to lie to her. “Wisconsin.”
“Okay, well safe travels. Talk to you soon. Hugs and kisses.” She air-kisses and then hangs up.
Well, this is just great.
