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Gram and I were in shock. Then I came to my senses and joined her at the sink getting as wet as she was already. I didn’t know what to do any more than Mom did. Gram was the voice of reason. She joined our party at the sink getting soaked as well. “Abby,” she shouted, “get under the sink and turn off the water.”
I ducked down and opened the cabinet doors where the main valve to the kitchen was and turned the faucet to off. I stood and looked at my mother who had mascara dripping down her face. Her hair soaked. Her clothes clinging to her slender frame.
Drops of water were rolling in a stream down the glass windowpane behind the sink. I looked behind me at Gram. She didn’t look much better than Mom. I didn’t put on make-up so the only difference between us was that I didn?
?t have black streaks running down my face.
Gram burst out in laughter.
“Mom, this isn’t funny.”
“Oh, it is, sweetheart.”
“What the hell is going on?” My Dad asked. His face was hilarious. He kept looking around as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Something broke in the kitchen sink. Water was spouting out of it,” I explained with so much excitement that it irritated him. I decided to be quiet.
“I’ll call a plumber,” he said.
“Tyson, it’s Thanksgiving,” Mom said her voice showed her concern. We would be taking someone from their family today.
He hesitated at the door. “Kat, do you want to not have water today?” His tone was harsh. I thought something more was going on here than the broken water faucet.
She shook her head no.
He left without saying another word.
I turned to my mother. I was under no illusion that my parents were perfect. I knew they fought. What parents didn’t? They just tried to keep it under wraps when they argued with each other. I thought I would prefer that on occasion they would just shout at each other and shatter the illusion that they were faultless which I knew that they weren’t.
I looked at Mom who was watching the doorway where Dad had disappeared. A sadness had taken over her face. Mom was always positive energy and never gloomy. I reached out and touched her arm. She turned to me slowly. “What Abby?”
“Are you okay?”
She nodded but I knew that she wasn’t.
See, this is the reason we weren’t like Gram and me. If something was bothering Gram, she told me. As much as I shared with her, she shared with me.
I glanced over my shoulder at her trying to tell her without communication that we weren’t close because of this lack of sharing our feelings. The street ran both ways.
“Abby go ahead and go to the Coopers. I don’t know if we’ll even have Thanksgiving dinner.”
“But Mom…”
“Just go,” she snapped at me. “You’d rather be with Cal anyway.”
That hurt. I never said that. I had asked if I could go over there sometime today. In the evening after dinner. Never did I put his family first.
“Fine,” I said. “I’m going upstairs to dry off.”
Gram gave me a sympathetic look, but it didn’t matter. Not anymore. I ran upstairs to my room slamming the door shut behind me.
I changed my clothes. Then I texted Cal again.
I can come over if you still want me.
I went to my dresser and grabbed the hair dryer to blow dry my wet hair. The girl in the mirror stared back at me. Today I decided I wanted to wear my contact lenses. I wanted to be somebody other than the nerdy girl even though Cal didn’t look at me that way when I wore my glasses.
My sweater was warm in the house. Mom liked to keep the house warm and wear less clothes. Dad liked to complain about the electric bill. I began to see some of the cracks in their marriage and I wondered if they were truly happy or just existed for Tyson and me.
