Chapter 15
Jones gripped the wheel as they pulled into a spot directly in front of his parents’ house along the street.
If Mistletoe Meadows had a bad side of town, this would be it.
It hadn’t been terrible growing up, and that thought hadn’t really occurred to him until he had grown up and moved out of the house.
Still, there was no yard to speak of. And the houses on either side were right next door. He could reach out his window and touch hands with the person who lived beside him.
Sometimes he’d lie in bed and wonder how in the world they’d made the houses. How had they gotten them so close? How did they manage to put them up without even enough room for scaffolding on the outside?
Regardless, they’d done it, and they built a house that had been able to stand for his entire lifetime so far, anyway.
At least his parents had stayed together. A lot of kids had gone through divorces or been raised by single parents. Shuffled back and forth. It had been hard for them. Although, some of them acted like it was normal. For them, it was. It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
“Are you okay?” Amy asked as she got out of her car and shut the door while he walked around.
“I’m fine. It’s never pleasant, no matter how much I’ve accomplished, it never feels like it’s enough, or maybe it feels like it’s too much. I don’t know. I just know they’re not going to care, and I don’t know why I do sometimes.”
He hated that he still wanted his parents’ approval, even though they never really seemed interested in him. He’d have thought he’d learned by now, but it seemed like it was something that was hardwired into kids to want their parents’ love and approval.
“Because you love them. Love them, and no matter how they treat you, you’ve always been kind to them and good to them. Far better than they deserve,” she said, coming along beside him and, after a pause, tentatively slipping her hand into his.
That made him smile. He liked this new dimension to their relationship. He was sure about the way it was going, sure they were doing the right thing, but it was still new and a little tentative, on both of their parts. He thought they were probably going to be rushing things a bit by getting married so soon, but nothing said that they had to change anything about the relationship before they were ready. They would just have a marriage certificate between them. He intended to talk to Amy about that too. Not that he minded kissing her, because he didn’t, and he thought about it pretty much all the time now, but even though he was thinking about it, it didn’t mean that he was ready to shift gears and take off in an entirely new direction. He felt like he just wanted to ease into it. And he was pretty sure that was how Amy felt too.
They walked up the porch together, her fingers tight around his, whether she was scared, nervous, or trying to give him strength, he wasn’t quite sure. Maybe it was a combination of all of it.
He was sure his parents were home; their car was out front. They shared one, since his mom was able to walk to work at the local dollar store just down the street. That was when she decided to work. She’d been hired and fired from there at least four different times, and in the meantime, she worked as a bartender, at a drugstore, and as a part-time babysitter, which kind of scared him. Not that she had ever abused him, but her apathy toward children didn’t tend to make him think that she would make the best babysitter. Of course, she’d raised him and he hadn’t died, so maybe he was judging her too harshly.
“You ready?” he asked, feeling like he’d already said that in the car, but maybe he just needed one more second.
“Let’s do this thing,” she said, giving him a smile that projected confidence, and he appreciated that about her.
He opened the door, calling out, “Mom! Dad! It’s Jones,” as they walked in, and he carefully shut the door behind them.
The TV blasted, and the house smelled faintly of cigarette smoke, although he couldn’t remember his parents ever smoking. It had smelled like that for as long as he could remember. Perhaps from the people who lived there before. The carpet was the same that he’d grown up with, and maybe that was where the scent came from. His mom wasn’t a terrible housekeeper, although she didn’t do any more than was strictly necessary.
“Mom? Dad?” He took a step in the entryway and leaned in, looking in the living room. There were steps up to his right and a hall that went back to the kitchen. It was a bigger house than the apartment he lived in right now over the garage of his clinic, but every time he walked in, it seemed smaller, even though there were no children here since he’d grown up and moved out.
They kept their eyes on the TV set until he said one more time, maybe a little bit louder, “Mom? Dad?”
“Jones? And that’s Amy,” his mom said, peeling her eyes away from the TV, a little bit of interest lighting her eyes. He wasn’t sure if his dad’s eyes flicked to him or not.
“Duffy. Look away from the TV. Jones is here.”
His dad grunted, but he did what his wife asked.
“Is there something going on?” she asked, and he felt a little bit bad. Did he really visit that seldom?
“Amy and I are going to get married this week.” There. He got the news out, and he noted that his dad didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised, and while his mom’s eyes might have flickered, she nodded.
“Well, that’s great. Congratulations.” She nodded again and didn’t seem to know what else to say.
His dad had gone back to staring at the TV, despite the fact that the sound was turned down.
“So yeah, if you guys want to come to the wedding, you can.”
“Oh? When is it?” his mom said, lifting a shoulder. “I’ll have to check my schedule at the dollar store,” she said, without giving him a chance to answer.
“We were thinking about doing it Monday afternoon. Around six, after Jones gets off work.”
“Oh. Okay. Yeah, usually I work Mondays, but yeah, I’ll try to make it if I can. Duffy?” She looked at her husband.
He grunted.
“Can you make Jones’s wedding?”
“I don’t know. If you go, I’ll probably go too.”
This whole conversation was so awkward. His parents seemed to care, but not too much. Or something, he wasn’t even sure. He was embarrassed. He knew that when Amy told her mom, she’d practically flip out and want to start taking control of all the decorations and everything, but she’d back off when Amy asked her to, and the whole family would be happy and begging them to take a little bit longer so everyone could make plans and help out, but they’d understand why they didn’t want to and... His parents just made it so that he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go on and tell them about the money and about sharing the day with Amy’s sister. Amy would let him say whatever he wanted to. And if he decided not to tell them some things, she wasn’t going to loudly remind him or tell them herself. She would trust his judgment. Even if she thought he should say more than what he was.
He appreciated that about her .
“I’ll check my schedule and see what we can do. Six o’clock should be fine, if your dad gets off at three. And I might be able to trade with someone, but if I can’t, I hope it’s really nice,” she said, nodding and smiling at Amy. “I’m sure you’ll be a beautiful bride. Do you have a dress picked out?”
“No. I’ll probably just wear something from my closet. It’s not going to be very big.”
“Oh. Okay,” his mom said, seeming more surprised that Amy wasn’t concerned about her dress than she was that they were getting married in a week.
There was an awkward silence as Jones tried to figure out something else to say.
“How have you guys been?”
“Good. We’ve been good,” she said, smiling at him, then her eyes drifted to the TV. He felt like he was interrupting something. Although, with electronics now, he figured they could pause it at the very least. But from the changing light that reflected against the wall and their faces, he could tell that they had only muted it.
“Well, I guess I don’t want to take up any more of your time. It looks like you’re watching something interesting,”
“Oh, we are. It’s this really fun talk show, and this guy’s going to find out that his wife’s been cheating on him and his son isn’t really his. I can’t wait to see what they’re going to say.”
“All right. Well, I’ll let you get back to it then.” He felt embarrassed that his parents would rather watch a talk show than talk to him. “I’ll see you guys maybe Monday?”
“Maybe. We’ll try to be there, honey. Nice to see you, Amy,” his mom said.
Jones sighed and walked back out to the foyer, opening the door for Amy, and they both stepped out into the clean, fresh air. It always felt like having a noose release from his neck, getting out of that house.
“Stepping out of there always feels like freedom,” he said softly .
“I’m sorry. Every time we talk to them, I feel so uncomfortable. Because I know they’re just hurting you, and I can’t do anything about it.”
“There’s a lot of pain in the world, and we can’t do anything about a lot of it.”
“I know. But that doesn’t change the fact that I want to, you know?”
“Yeah. I understand,” he said, knowing what she meant.
She laid her head on his shoulder for just a moment, and then they walked off the porch and to the car, with him opening the door for her and her getting in.
There probably wasn’t much to do about his parents, other than keep trying, but it was hard not to get discouraged. Still, he could try not to let that happen in his own family. He was determined that that would be the case.