head upstairs to finish my routine. I fall back into bed
around 7:30 a.m. Before I fall asleep, I think a bit more about my unanswered
text message. The fact that I still haven’t sent him a response hasn’t slipped
my mind…for even a second…but I don’t know what to write.
And
I’m exhausted. Too exhausted to come up with a response right now.
SLEEP.
LIKE
A BREATH LATER, I hear Mom as she shuffles in to check on me. She tells me that
she’s going to take a shower and then go make breakfast. I just nod and move my
mouth into a little smile before she steps out of the room. As I close my eyes
again, I hear a masculine voice on the television discussing various breakfast
breads. Makes me hungry.
But
tired far outweighs hungry.
Back
to sleep. For a few minutes at least.
“AUNT CALLIE?”
Eyes
open again. I open my arms so Abby can crawl in beside me on the bed. She rests
her little head on my shoulder.
“Did
you find your phone?”
“I
did.” I run my fingers through her hair and hope that this conversation is
over.
It’s
not. “Why did you need it in the middle of the night? Did you have an important
call to make or something?”
Yeah…something
like that.
Fortunately,
before Abby can ask me anything else, Melanie shows up.
And
even more fortunately, Abby stops talking about my phone.
Thank
you, Abby. And God.
Melanie
tells us that it’s time for breakfast, and she helps both of us out of bed
(even though I roll my eyes and tell her that I am just fine doing it by
myself). Then we head downstairs.
Breakfast
goes okay. I manage to only consume a few hundred calories of fruit and toast
by blatantly ignoring the faces Mom gives me as I decline servings of eggs,
sausage, bacon, etc. Oh, and I also get a little unsolicited help from Jared’s
brand new girlfriend (of, like, a week—don’t know what happened to the last
girl), who has joined us for breakfast. She has some sort of concert to attend
tonight and, I guess, some crazy tight dress to wear…so she announces that she
is not eating all day today as she smiles and puts her hands on her grain of
rice-sized belly.
Mom’s
face when she made this little announcement was hilarious…she was all red, and
it looked like she had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from commenting. I
clamped my mouth shut too. And I kept my eyes away from Melanie and Mandy,
trying not to start laughing. I did risk a glance at Jared…and I swear there
was some annoyance in his eyes.
Maybe
Miss Size Negative Zero isn’t a future Mrs. Royce…
ANYWAY…I
made it through breakfast…and through the packing of all of my stuff (I was
forced to sit on my bed as Mom and my sisters fluttered around me and loaded my
suitcase. They did not, thank the Lord , suggest that I take the flowers
from the windowsill home with me. So Dr. Gabriel’s flowers are still diseasing
up my old room. I have spent quite a bit of time praying that Mom does not
catch any of his germs when she waters them…)…and through our goodbyes—and Abby
never said a word about my middle of the night phone investigation. Phew.
And
now I’m home, sitting in my own bed. Mandy is already at some sorority event.
Before she left, she asked me approximately three thousand times if I would be
okay alone tonight.
I
assured her that I would be okay. And I am.
Almost.
There
is a problem sitting on my hamper. Two problems are there, actually. Two
different pairs of pajamas that I slept in during the two nights he was
here. I haven’t touched them since I got back…but I also haven’t stopped
thinking about them or looking at them.
Well,
that’s not quite true. I have stopped looking at them to look at my phone a few
thousand times—as though looking at it might inspire me to come up with a
sendable text message. With each passing minute that I don’t think of something
to type, I get more and more annoyed.
I
have your license.
How
does he expect me to respond to that? I already know he has
David Sherman & Dan Cragg
Frances and Richard Lockridge