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Casey rose from the bed. “Well, don’t take too long. I need someone to block all the negativity,” and she laughed before leaving the room.
Alina remained frozen in position for quite some time after her sister left the room. Her mind strayed to Dereck. She needed to forget him, but his tall frame haunted her most nights. It didn’t help that she was carrying his child.
Her hand went to her stomach instinctively. “What am I going to do?” It was more a question for herself than the small fetus growing in her stomach.
Alina took out her phone then and sent a text to her best friend, Taylor, informing her of her safe arrival in Maryland. Then she put on her most sincere smile and made her way to the kitchen.
Her family home wasn’t very spacious, but her mother kept it neat and well-maintained. The sitting area which was on the first floor held three couches, one of which was a single. A marbled coffee table was at the center of the room and it still held the ringed mark Alina made as a child. At the far side of the room was a large potted plant that no one in the household could identify and a wall display of photographs and certificates. The dining area was separate from the kitchen though the room could only hold a single six-seat dining table.
Alina walked into the kitchen, grabbing an apron that their mother insisted they wear when cooking. She pulled her blonde hair into a messy ponytail to display the full features of her face
“What do you want me to do?” Alina asked her mother after washing her hands.
“Clean the fish,” her mother said while rummaging through the fridge.
Alina turned around, took one look at the fresh creature lying on the cutting board, and her stomach began to churn.
“Are you okay?” Casey spoke softly enough so that it wouldn’t reach their mother’s ears, which were inside the refrigerator.
“I’m fine. It’s just that I don’t think I can handle the fish,” she confessed with her hands blocking her lower face.
“Well, that’s fine. You chop the vegetables and I will do the fish,” Casey suggested and picked up the knife immediately.
Alina smiled at her sister. She appreciated her even more at that moment. “Thanks, Casey. You’re a lifesaver.”
The young women exchanged a look before their mother emerged out of the fridge with a stack of food items. “I can’t believe Alina is home. Now if only Jean would come home, I’d have all my girls with me.”
“Why?” Casey blurts out before even thinking. “It’s not like she would be in the kitchen helping us.”
The elder woman looked at her daughter with a scrunched forehead, eyebrows pulled together, and an upturned nose, causing Casey to become silent. The kitchen remained fairly quiet for the rest of the cooking process, with Alina and Casey exchanging snickers and looks with each other each time their mother corrected the way they did their task.
“And it’s perfect,” Laura said over the well-laid-out dining room table.
“Finally, we can eat.” Casey sat down and dove into the basket to retrieve a roll.
Laura scolded her daughter. “Where did you grow up? A barn? We have to wait for your father.”
Alina snickered while taking her seat and watching as their father also took his seat at the head of the table.
Conversation over the dinner table was tedious and journalistic. Her parents insisted on knowing every detail of Alina’s life, since she rarely called them. Alina and Casey spoke on the phone almost every week.
“The exhibition was a success. I even got a feature in the newspaper,” Alina said as she held her breath. Although she knew that despite her success in her field as an artist, her mother would never approve of her career. Laura would settle for nothing less than a doctor.
“Imagine what you could have done if you had gone into the field of saving lives instead of painting them,” her mother said.
“Can’t you just be happy for me?” Alina dropped her fork and tilted her head. “I never would have been fulfilled as a doctor.”
Her mother scoffed. “I’ve never heard of such foolishness. Since when is becoming a doctor not a fulfilling career?”
Alina lost her patience then. She simply was not in the mood for her mother’s criticism. She stood up, excused herself from the dining room table, and marched into her bedroom, making a note to slam the door hard. Just like when she lived in the home.
31
Dereck haunted Alina’s dreams and after several failed attempts at sleeping, she gave up on the task completely.
Sighing, she went to the window, observing the night sky as the partial moon tried to illuminate the darkness. It was a sight that always brought her solace as a child, but now it seemed to do very little to provide serenity.
In the city, during those sleepless nights, Alina would comfort herself with a glass of wine, maybe two if she was really worked up, but now, alcohol wasn’t even a solace.
