Page 142 of Head Room
DAY FIVE
WEDNESDAY
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
The day wasdreary and cold, only the way a rainy June day can be, when everything inside you says it should be bright and sunny and warm.
And, no, I wasn’t reacting to the fact that my mother and Tamantha wielded the wedding prep whip.I’d promised them both my entire attention for this day.
First, thanks to my sending Mom to the supermarket, we had a leisurely start to the morning.
Dad spent that time with Zeb in the garage next door.Talking tools, I guessed.
Tamantha and I had a slow-motion breakfast, sitting on stools on the living room side of the kitchen peninsula.I read the parts of theIndependenceI hadn’t gotten to yesterday.She read something on her device.
Possibly a paper produced by scientists who once worked for the National Institutes of Health.She has eclectic tastes.
That ended when Mom arrived with enough supplies to cover months-long gatherings for a dozen weddings and we had to help unload and find places to stow all of it.
While Tamantha helped, I also was aware of her absorbing every nuance of our interactions.Beyond Tom’s sister, she did not have a great deal of first-hand experience of extended family banter.
When Mom rested a palm on the top of her head in passing, Tamantha snuggled into it like a preening cat.
“I don’t think I understood a word that woman said, but I’m persuaded she’s brilliant,” Mom said of Penny.
Dad turned his head to look at her fully.“I’ve got to meet this woman.”
“Oh, yes, you do,” Mom said.“We’ll send you grocery shopping next time to make sure it happens.”
As he turned away, she winked at me.
Next time?I had nowhere to put this time’s bounty.
He turned back quickly and Mom didn’t smooth out her expression quite fast enough.“Hah.I saw that, Cat.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she fibbed.
“That little licking-the-cream smile of yours that says you think you’ve set me up.”
“Duper’s delight,” I murmured, stowing a giant jar of peanuts in the cabinet over the refrigerator, where I likely would forget it for as long as I lived here.
At the same time, Mom said, “Set you up?By suggesting you meet a fascinating woman?”
Dad looked from one to the other of us, clearly debating which to respond to.He raised one eyebrow to Tamantha, inviting her vote.She giggled.
A sound so appropriate to her age that it made my heart ache a little.
Dad focused on me.“Hey, I didn’t know you knew that.”
“Why wouldn’t I know about duper’s delight?”I hadn’t taken courses from behavior analysts, but I knew about microexpressions.
“Didn’t think you listened to Van Morrison.I guess kids your age—”
Kids my age.Have I mentioned I love my dad?
“—are rediscovering his early songs.Brown Eyed Girl, along withHave I Told You LatelyandMoondance.Interesting you know that newer release,Duper’s Delight.A giveaway smile...something’s not right.Like that, too, though apparently he’s a difficult character.”He sighed.“Goes like that sometimes, doesn’t it?You connect with the music, not the person behind it.”
Someday I might tell him I had no familiarity with any of the songs he’d mentioned.
