Western Junction. (Chap. 2)

CHAPTER TWO

It’s difficult. When you’re the Valedictorian, everyone looks to you as the figurehead of the class. But, what happens when they all expect you to go off to a University and do big things with your life, when in reality, you’re staying at home just like the majority of the others. There’s no real fantasy to the idea, and so, when I am asked of where I’m going and I say that I’m attending the local community college the parents and fellow classmates reply with a sullen “oh”. They all do the same. First the “oh”, then a pause that seems to drag on for eons, and finally a “weren’t you accepted into other schools?”.

I feel as though my reply is so scripted that I won’t even look into their faces anymore as I stare off into space and in a monotone voice say that “I did, but I wanted to stay home for a while before leaving. My parents would just miss me too much.”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell them the true reason. That I wanted to stay home to be with my mother. To care for her in what were now her worst days in terms of health. She was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago, after going through chemo she never truly looked the same. She often wore a red bandanna like Rosie the Riveter to hide her bald scalp. The bright red completely contrasted against her sickly pale skin. In the right light, you could see the blue of blood vessels along her cheek bones and near her eyes. Her hands were frail and we didn’t let her pick things up anymore, for fear that her tiny frame would just snap in half.

So, here we were, sitting at the dinner table, the day after my graduation. My dad made a tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes for us. As I poured syrup onto my smaller stack, my mom sipped on the straw of a vitamin smoothie. She kept beaming at me. “I just can’t believe it. I feel so old.”

“You’re not old mom, I’m the old one.” I grinned.

“That’s true, I really wish I could have been there yesterday.” She frowned a little.

“It was so boring though, mom.” Cameron complained.

“Yeah, it really was. I think dad was jealous that you got to stay home.” I took a bite of my pancakes.

My dad was in the kitchen, shoveling some bacon onto a plate. His head poked out through the arch of the doorway. “What are you guys saying about me?”

“Nothing.” I stuck my tongue out.

“Fine. No bacon for the graduate.” He shuffled back into the kitchen.

I sprinted after him and quickly grasped for a few bacon slices and stuffed one in my mouth with a triumphant laugh.

“Hey, no rough housing.” I heard a low voice come from the other room. It was such a familiar voice but I couldn’t exactly tell who it was. Peering into the dining room, I saw a tall and sturdy build of a man. The only thing that gave away his identity was his signature Brooks mop of a haircut. His dark curls jutted out in every which direction, save for a small slit for one of his eyes. He pushed away his hair and I could see the semblance of my brother, Damien.

“Damien!” I cried out with food in my mouth and ran to hug him, chucking the bacon in my hands onto my plate in passing. He easily picked me up and swirled me around the room in his arms. “Little Lilly, mi hermana. I’ve missed you so much.”

As he let me down I gave him another hug. It had been almost three years since I’d last seen him. He was off in Spain teaching English as a Second Language. We would chat on webcam now and then, but it just wasn’t the same.

Cameron and I were never too close, I felt as though we were always competing with each other, be it over grades or the seat in a car. With Damien and I, there was a big enough age gap that he was my best mentor and friend when I was little.

“Hi mom,” Damien smiled. I looked to mom, she was still seated. One hand covered her mouth as she cried tears of

joy. Slowly, she got up and walked over to him. He embraced her tightly yet gently. “I love you.”

Between tears my mom whispered back, “I love you too.” They stood hugging each other for several minutes. My dad was in the door frame of the kitchen, standing and staring at Damien, dumbfounded.

When Damien finally let go of mom, he walked over to Cameron and tousled his hair before going up to our dad.

My dad grinned, “Damien.” They did that thing that guys do. You know, the start off shaking hands, hug each other, then slap each other on the backs thing.

Sometimes I’m really glad that I’m a girl, I feel like it would be really annoying to go through all those motions just so that people are sure of your “manliness.”.

“So what’s for dinner?” Damien glanced over at the dinner table.

“Ah, I always knew that if you were to ever finally come home it would be during dinner time.” My dad laughed.

Damien put a hand to his solid chest,. “A growing boy’s gotta eat, right?”

My mother reached out for his hand. “Right.” She walked him over to the closet door where we kept extra fold up chairs and he pulled one out and placed it right next to mom’s chair.

We all sat in silence, with only the sound of the crunch of bacon. My mom was smiling wide and her eyes were like tiny slits on her face, it reminded me of the portrayals of the happy Buddha. She once told my dad of how much she wished that she could have just one dinner with her whole family before she died. My dad and I hated when she said such morbid things, but we knew that in saying it, she was trying to prepare herself should the cancer take control of her. So there we all were, eating chocolate chip pancakes, and she was as happy as could be. None of us spoke, just allowing her to revel in it. Finally, she broke the silence by asking Damien how Spain was.

He grinned from ear to ear. As he spoke, my brother’s mouth moved a mile a minute. It seemed as though he hadn’t been able to speak English in quite some time. “It was fantástico! You must see Spain, all of you guys. It was gorgeous there, and my kids,” he laughed, “my kids were hilarious. This one boy, Jorge, would slack off all the time and bring in dulces- candy- every day and every day I’d have to tell him that me wasn’t allowed to have food in class and he would say ‘pero señor, lo necesito para aprender’, which means ‘but sir, I need it to learn’. Then I told him that I would only let him eat his candy if he said that phrase in English. All of a sudden, he started hitting the books, I always saw his hand in the air, ready to answer a question. I spent only three years with those kids and they’re practically fluent in English.”

My mom beamed. “You must be proud. So now you’re back?”

“Very proud.” His steel blue eyes looked into my mother’s. “I’m back because I wanted to see you, mom. I’m thinking about doing another three years in Costa Rica, but I want to spend this summer with family. ”

We continued to talk about Spain, Yale, and me graduating, until we realized that it was getting dark out. My mother slowly got up and walked over to the couch in the other room to wrap an afghan around her wiry arms. Walking back to the dinner table she grabbed Damien’s plate and kissed him on the forehead. I stood up and helped her take the dishes back into the kitchen. As I washed the chocolate chip remains off of them, she enveloped me in a hug, the afghan surrounding us like an enormous cloak. “You’re such a good girl,” she whispered. Then she kissed the top of my head before returning to the dining table to sit with Damien.