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27
Vince
I can hardly believe what I’m seeing.
Jewel goes to her handbag and takes out a piece of paper and twenty dollars, and hands it to John.
“I’ve made some calls,” she says. “As a veteran, you are entitled to stay there”—she gestures at the paper—“until you get back on your feet. The address and all the information is there. They have a room for you. You should go now, and don’t ever come back. I won’t know you.”
John looks at me and back at my Jewel. Something in me wants to flatten him for the crime of casting his eyes on her.
“Not even gonna give me a ride?”
I shrug.
Jewel crosses to the door and opens it, clearly waiting for him to usher himself out. “That’s what the twenty dollars is for. I already called you a cab.”
As soon as he leaves, I lock the door, storm to her bedroom closet, drag out a suitcase, and start filling it with her clothes. When I zip it up and start to haul it off the bed, I hear her scoff.
“Vince, what are you doing?”
“You aren’t staying here by yourself. You can’t live with me until things are resolved with Max’s custody issues, so I’m moving you in with Shelley and Barry.”
I hear her giggle and put my hands up in surrender, waiting for her to tell me what’s so funny.
“Not that,” she says, nearly doubled over in what looks like adrenaline-induced mirth. “I’ll need more than those things, maybe?” I plop the suitcase flat on the floor and unzip it. And then I see what I’ve done. I’ve shoved all her lacy underthings into the suitcase and nothing else.
I’m looking at a pile of pretty, sexy pieces of satin, lace, spandex and…whoa…some patent leather.
I scratch my head. “I see your point.”
28
Jewel
The most difficult day of the year arrives, and with it a cold front signaling a change in the seasons. My mother’s birthday.
I slip out early from Barry and Shelley’s house, before anyone else is awake. Their family has been so gracious to me and I don’t want to burden them or anyone else with my gloomy mood today.
I’m not afraid to stay at my apartment, but once Vince informed them of the circumstances, they were just as insistent as Vince that I stay with them.
I’ve previously arranged to take today off from work, but told no-one except for a very understanding Headmistress Moody. Since I became an adult, today is the day I spend alone every year; a day I visit all the places I remember visiting with her.
On one of Mom’s posthumous birthdays, I included my sister in this ritual. Then the next year, my sister declined. “It’s no good dwelling on the past,” she’d told me.
First I take a long walk in the park, where she used to take me and my sister to play. I walk around the lake a few times, then sit and watch the ducks. Later, I make my way to a breakfast restaurant she once took us to, and order her favorite foods. Then I drive by the preschool where she worked, and then past her church. Finally I stop at her favorite grocery store and roam around aimlessly. I check out of the store with a cart full of nonperishables, makeup and feminine hygiene products, which I then drop off at the women’s shelter. I’ve also grabbed a bouquet of mums from the floral section of the store, which I keep.
My last stop is the cemetery.
As I approach her gravesite, it looks like someone else has already been here. My stomach lurches and I pray it’s not John.
Up close I see that it’s a small bouquet of daisies, tied with a pretty pink ribbon. John would never come here, let alone think to bring her flowers.
I close my eyes and concentrate on my breathing as the tears come, feeling grateful for whomever it was who left these flowers.
A startled gasp escapes me when a small hand suddenly slips into mine. Upon opening my eyes I see Max staring back up at me, looking worried.
“Max,” I breathe, “what are you doing here? You should be in school!”
