Page 60 of August
“And how was it with Dad?” Elisa asked, trying to get to the point.
“I don’t know. He was gone all the time, like usual. He has a new maid, I guess,” Adele replied.
“Housekeeper,” Elisa corrected.
“Yeah, okay. Anyway, she’s cool. She’s a good cook.”
“Yeah?” Elisa asked.
“She made us dinner a couple of times and had breakfast for us in the morning. You still make the best pancakes, though, Mom,” AJ said to her as he shoved a few chips into his mouth.
“Oh, I do?”
“Yes. You do blueberries,” he said.
“She did chocolate chips. We don’t like chocolate chips in pancakes,” Adele added.
“Did you get to see your friends?” Elisa asked Adele.
“Yeah, a few of them. It was fun,” her daughter replied nonchalantly.
Elisa hesitated then because she didn’t want to put this on her children, but she needed to know how much of what Archie Senior had said was true.
“So, your dad talked to me the other day,” she began. “He mentioned that you two wanted to stay there until school started and maybe on your breaks.”
Adele looked down at her hands and said, “Mom, we love you.”
“I know that, honey.”
“We want you to have the life you want.”
“Yeah, Mom. We want you to be happy,” AJ added.
“But all of our friends are there. We’re missing things,” Adele said. “And when they all come home from school for fall break, they’ll all be there, and we’ll be here. We were just thinking that we could stay there with Dad and come here to visit you, kind of like the reverse of what we’re doing now.”
“And we’d still come see you, obviously,” AJ added.
“Dad said he told you that you could stay in the guest house,” Adele said. “I know you didn’t really like it before, but you’d be there, and we’d be there, and it’s only for our breaks. For Christmas, we could still come here for part of the time we have off. I doubt Dad really wants us there for Christmas morning anyway, but we could all do dinner together.”
“All? Meaning your father and the three of us?” Elisa asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe Mary could cook so that you don’t have to, and we could all just eat together,” Adele suggested, and Elisa knew she was just trying to soften the blow.
“Maybe,” she replied.
“You know we love you, though, right?” AJ asked.
“Yes, honey. I know you both love me.”
Elisa put her hand on the back of his head and rubbed the short brown hair there, just like she’d always done from the moment he’d been born with a small tuft of hair on the top of his head. Adele had been born with a little more, but not by much. Elisa remembered how small they were back then. Twins were always smaller than non-multiples, and she had known that going in, but seeing them for the first time after they’d been born, she had worried that they’d been too tiny and wouldn’t make it. The doctors had all assured her that they were fine, but Elisa was a mom and would always worry about her kids no matter what the doctors said.
“So, you’ll think about it?” AJ asked.
When she nodded, AJ hopped up and took the bag of chips with him as he left the room.
“Mom?” Adele asked softly.
“Yeah?”
