And We're Off

I knock on the door just to say I did, because I always do, even though I don't have to.

It is also a little warning shot across the bow. If Estelle wants to dive under the dining room table and hide, she has a little runway.

The dog barks up a storm. It is a nice distraction. It gives me something to say as I walk in the door besides, "God save my soul!" 

As I greet the dog, I can hear Charlotte's hairdryer. I am on my own. And then, as the dog comes to wag and inspect me, and I bend to say hello to him, Mom appears in the doorway from the kitchen.

I look up. "Hi, Mom." And I tentatively walk over and kiss her cheek. I lightly and impersonally ask how her drive north was.

So far so good. She doesn't recoil in horror and doesn't call me any filthy names. She also refrains from saying anything like, "Don't you 'Hi, Mom' me! I don't know who you think you are, but..."

No. She is somewhat subdued. At first I mistake it for coolness toward me. But I quickly realize that she is genuinely subdued. She quietly replies, "It was fine...but look."  I look up from the dog, who has brought me a toy and is looking for more attention.  She is taking off her glasses and brushing her hair aside.

And in doing so she reveals two black eyes.

Yep, two shiners. Break out the steaks. She has two deep, purple bruises beneath her eyes, and each eye socket is surrounded by a deep bruise in the precise shape of her eyeglass frames. It is clear that the frames were forcibly jammed into her face.

"You fell?" Please say yes. If she says that Bill hit her in the face with a brick 'by accident"when she did something stupid, I might just not be able to control myself and become irretrievably homicidal. She continues.

"I did. I stopped on the way up at the beach to see my brother and his wife, and Babs," (the other brother's widow) "and I stayed the night at Bab's house. You know she lives in the front house, still."

I pretend to understand whatever the hell it is she is talking about. It is immaterial on a regular day. Now it is just delaying the rest of the story being told.

"Well, the seagulls, you know..." and she's gesturing like they are flying up in her face.

"Oh, they startled you?"

She's shaking her head. "No."

And she starts her story from the beginning.

"Well, I was at Frank's, at first. In the house in the back. And you know he and his wife are big drinkers. And so we are all laughing and having a few drinks..."

Oh. I get it. It's going to be one of those stories.