Home to Harmony

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Anger spiked in Christine. Do not yell. Stay calm. “Excuse me, Aurora, but you have no idea what I’ve been through with him this last year.”

“I see what I see.”

Christine made herself count to ten—twice. “You promised to back me up with him.”

“I am backing you up. I told him to follow the rules.”

“And urged him to drive a car without a license.”

Aurora shrugged. “It’s summer vacation. He’s away from his friends. Give him a break.”

“A break? I had to beg the principal not to expel him. He’s got schoolwork he has to do if there’s any hope he can rescue enough credits to be a junior. Plus, we agreed to therapy. Real therapy, not crackpot tips from Doctor Mike, who got his doctorate from Wacko State University.”

“Doctor Mike is a great guy.”

“He’s a joke. Now I have to find someone in Preston.”

“Anything else I did wrong?”

“Since you asked, I don’t like David in such a faraway room. The last thing he needs is more freedom.”

“You weren’t much older when you left home, you know.”

“You think that was a good thing?” It was the loneliest she’d ever felt.

“It was what you wanted.” Her mother rocked back and forth.

She so much wanted to yell, but she kept her voice level. “I was a kid. I didn’t know what I wanted.” Aurora hadn’t even tried to stop her. Christine had hung back for a good hour before buying her bus ticket, secretly hoping Aurora would come to get her. But Aurora had let her go. Just like that.

“I will not leave my son to struggle on his own.”

“Like I did you?” Aurora said. Christine was startled to see hurt flicker in her mother’s brown eyes. “It was your life, Crystal. Holding you back would have made me a hypocrite after all I preached about choice and self-determination.”

“Sorry, but I was your daughter, not a political statement,” she said fiercely. Bitter hurt rose from deep within her. Maybe Aurora loved her, but it wasn’t any love Christine recognized—then or now.

Aurora didn’t speak for a long moment and when she did, her tone was softer. “All I know is that my folks tried to lock me in and it made me desperate to escape. I did, but I had a weak moment when I found I was pregnant. The best thing they ever did was not let me back in. It made me stronger. That’s what leaving did for you. It made you independent.”

Not even close. Christine had been lost and scared and lonely until she’d latched on to Skip, a life raft in rough waters, she’d thought…until he dumped her into the deep again.

But that was old news. She’d learned and grown, so what was the point in rehashing it? What mattered now was David. “David’s growing up too fast. He needs to catch up with himself.”

“It’s the nature of kids to break away.”

“It’s the nature of kids to change their minds on a dime.”

Her mother sighed. “You were always so sure you were right. You had these pictures in your head of home, family, work, life, and nothing ever measured up. You wore me out.”

The feeling’s mutual. But saying so would not help. “All I ask is that you don’t undercut my authority with my son and—”

Aurora bent forward and coughed, holding on to her chest, her face tight with pain.

“Are you all right?” Panic surged inside Christine. She’d let her anger show and it had upset her ill mother. “Can I get you water? A pain pill?” She felt sick. She’d picked a fight with a fragile woman, not the hard-as-nails, blunt mother she’d grown up with. Shame on her.

“Stop that. My stitches burn when I cough, that’s all.”

“I didn’t mean to agitate you. I’m here to help and—”

“I said stop it, dammit. I’m not dying. I’m fine. Better than ever.” Aurora pushed up from her chair and stomped toward the door. Reaching it, she hesitated, then turned around. “Hell, that’s not how I meant that to go.”

She lifted a hand as if to reach out to Christine, then dropped it. “So…just…good night then,” she said, disappearing without waiting for Christine’s response.