Page 17 of August
“Good. Are you going to talk to your sister?”
“No,” he said. “Mom, I just don’t know when we’ll talk and stuff. Like, we’ll both have classes, and I’ll have soccer. You know she’s going to be all over the activities there. And we’ll see each other on school breaks, but I see her every day now, and we were always in the same school before.”
“Maybe tell her that you want to talk regularly. Pick a night that works for both of you.”
“Yeah, I guess. What about Dad?”
“What about him?” Elisa asked as they arrived at the bedding section of the store.
“You’re here now, and he’s there. Where do we go for breaks? And what if Adele comes here and I go there or vice versa? I wouldn’t see her for months.”
Elisa hadn’t thought about the fact that they would be on school breaks and might choose to spend them with their father, which would mean she wouldn’t see them.
“We’ll figure that out. Just tell your sister that you want to talk to her at least once a week or whatever you want and that you want to text or something.”
“She’ll think I’m, like, attached to her.”
“No, she won’t. And she’s attached to you, too. You’re twins. That’s how it works. You know your aunt Annabelle and your father were inseparable when they were younger.”
“Yeah, but Aunt Annabelle lives in France now. They haven’t seen each other in, like, three years, I think.”
“Your aunt has her own life now, but that doesn’t mean they’re not close,” she said.
“Close? I don’t think Dad has mentioned her in at least a year, and they’re twins, too.”
“Honey, your dad has a lot on his plate. So does Annabelle.”
“So does Adele,” he argued. “And so do I. I have things, too.”
“I know you do,” Elisa said as she laughed again.
She watched her son take in the giant wall of bedding options until he found three different options in blue. Onlyone of them had been an extra-long twin size, and it was fifty dollars more than the one he’d picked out initially. Elisa could afford it, but if she didn’t find a job soon, she’d have to start cutting back on expenses after the kids left the house and hope they wouldn’t notice.
“Hey, Mom?”
“Yes, Arch?” she said after they got into the car.
“Have you ever thought about going back to school? Everything’s online now, so you could even do it from home. I know you had to drop out because of us.”
“No, Ichoseto drop out because of you two,” she said. “I could’ve stayed, or I could’ve gone back once you and your sister were in school, but I had a job, and outside of having the usual college experience at eighteen through twenty-two, which I can’t have now, the main point of college is to get a job, right?”
“Yeah, but you don’t have a job now.”
“Because we moved, and I’ve been getting us settled. I’ll get something soon.”
“Okay. If youdidwant to go back, though, Adele and I would think that’s cool. We could help you study when we’re home, if you want.”
“Oh, you could, huh?” she asked as she put the car in drive.
“Yeah. We talked about it when we were driving to Dad’s house. We feel bad.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad knocked you up, and you left school. He got to keep going, though, and you had to take care of us.”
Elisa put the car back in park and said, “Archie, I don’t regret any part of being your mom. Not one thing. I didn’thaveto take care of you. Igotto be your mom. It’s true that your father and I didn’t exactly plan to have you when we did, but I don’t regret anything. You hear me?”
He nodded and said, “Yeah, I hear you.”
