A Step Back in Time

So about the girls.

I decide to go to the store and get the ingredients for one of the dinners they loved me to make.  It is an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe my grandmother and then my mother used to make.  So simple. So yummy.  Flank steak, potatoes, onions, and butter cut into bites and baked into a folded over pie crust.  Yummo.

I was actually a little nervous to see them.

And when they finally knocked on the door, it was pure joy.  Abby had matured into a beautiful, poised, gorgeous co-ed with the same electrifying smile she'd always had.  And I would have barely recognized Moira if she had not walked in the door with her sister. She'd grown tall and willowy like Hil had, and her short little bob had been replaced with ironed-straight locks that hung below her shoulders. Her braces were gone, her face had matured and her smile was dazzling. I was choking back tears at the sight of them.

Abby was old enough to drink now. And had brought me a bottle of wine. I'd promptly opened it. She and Moira had Dr. Pepper. I didn't dare offer the driver a drink, though this is all new territory for me.

I introduced them to the cats. We laughed at their antics. We caught up on school, cheer leading, their cat. It was a tiny bit awkward at first. We didn't know what we were to each other now.

But eventually we loosened up (or I did, thanks to the wine) and we discussed the things in their lives that mattered to them. Friendships that had turned sour, problems on the cheer squad, boys that had come and gone from their lives. They were so grown up.

And then we got into it. The sad parts. The craziness. The dark secrets. The things I'd never known.

It started simply and innocently enough.

Em and Chuck had become parents. The irresponsible, self-absorbed nitwits were now responsible for an infant.  God save the queen.

Moira showed me a picture of the baby. A daughter. She told me her name (I've forgotten it, but it was like a little old lady name like Mabel.) I asked when she'd been born.  She'd been born during the hurricane.

Oh my God the damn hurricane again. Seems like my life was not the only one to have changed in an instant that week.

But we were only scratching the surface then. A discussion of Chuck and Em lead quite naturally to one about Sheila.  And of course, Endorra. And J.'s death. And the life leading up to his death. And the life they'd led when I was in J.'s life. The life they'd led that was a secret from me.

And here is where I drained the bottle of wine.