Page 8 of The Next Of Us
Then, we realized her mom was wholly and entirely incapable of caring for herself in all but the most basic of manners.She didn’t want to leave her house, didn’t want to move in with us, and refused homecare.
Nadine spent as many nights at her mom’s as she did at ours in an effort to ease her mom into the necessary changes.The poor woman was lost, grieving, and ultimately not long for this world.
And in the midst of all that I, well, it did not bear thinking about.
Two hours later, I sat in the driveway and stared at the cabin.
I’d driven the road we’d traveled a hundred times before without conscious thought and ended up exactly where I wanted to be.If I was smart, I’d back out onto the road and head home.Instead, I turned off the ignition, pushed open my door, and got out.
With my hands on my hips, I studied the outside of the old A-frame.It had seen better days but was still solid as a rock.
If I closed my eyes just a little, I could see our kids playing in the yard with Max and my mom, my sister Audrey perched on the step with her latest manuscript, her dry commentary splitting our sides.
I could picture Nadine curled up on the porch, her head thrown back, mouth wide with laughter, hugging a hot cup of tea.Even if it was one hundred degrees outside, Nadine wanted her tea.
If I tilted my head just so, I could see the Christmas we crammed in here like sardines.Mom, Max, Audrey, Me, Nadine, seven-year-old Thalia, two-year-old Brandon, my dad, his wife to whom I would be forever grateful, and my fourteen-year-old brother, Isaiah.I huffed out a breath.It had gone surprisingly well until a massive bull moose made camp on the front lawn.
We gathered around the window.
“Would you look at that,” Max murmured.
“Incredible,” my mom agreed, leaning into his side.
I held Thalia up so she could get a better view.
Nadine stood beside me, Brandon in her arms, pointing at the moose.Brandon, his baby face all goobery, pointed and said, “Moooooo.”
Isaiah cracked up.“It’s not a cow, Spike.”
A blast of cold air and the loud clanging of pot lids tore our attention from the window.
Audrey stood on the front porch less than fifteen feet from the massive animal.
My mom gasped so hard she sucked half the oxygen out of the room.
“Fuck!”Max bellowed, scrambling like a cartoon as his socks failed to grip the wood floors.
Unfazed, her weight back on her heels, Audrey banged the lids together again.“Move on, moose.Move on,” she ordered calmly.
The moose turned to look at her just as Max made it to the door.Two seconds later, he’d hauled Audrey none-too-gently inside and slammed the door closed.
His chest rose and fell like a bellows as he stared at her, his hands on his hips.Finally, he stated, his face serious, “Audrey, that was a bull moose.”
In answer, she handed him the Polaroids she’d taken before she’d told it to move on.“I took these for you, Mymax.”
His mouth opened and shut but no sound came out as his eyes bounced back and forth between the pictures in his hand and Audrey’s serene face.
“We’ll talk later.”She patted him on the head then turned and walked away.
Max, his eyes wide, twisted around to stare at my mother.“That fucking camera is going to be the death of me.”
A raspy laugh shook my shoulders.
If I closed my eyes, I could imagine myself back in simpler times though they hadn’t felt easy at the time.Hindsight taught me neither the good times nor the bad lasted forever.But the one constant in my life since I was sixteen years old was Nadine.
My heart, once it chose, never faltered.
When I closed my eyes just a little, I revisited a past so full of sweetness it made my teeth ache.
