* * *
That night during dinner, I asked my folks what the plan was for Thanksgiving. I should have seen it coming, but I guess, I always hope for something that won’t happen with them. It was a good thing I asked toward the end of dinner, because I immediately lost my appetite after receiving their answer.
I brushed my teeth, changed into my nightshirt and climbed into bed. I called up Patrick, “Hi.”
It was really good to hear the voice of someone who cared, right about now. “Hey, Liz! Can you come to the party? Are you staying home?”
Am I staying home? Hmph. “Yeah, I am. So, I’ll be there.”
He pulled back on his enthusiasm and was empathetic, “If you don’t want to, I understand. There’ll be a bunch of people you don’t know. They’re all family and friends, so you’ll be safe. I promise, you’ll have fun. Trust me.”
Trust him. He was the only person I completely trusted. “I do. That’s not it…”
“Did they not want to let you go?” Confusion was setting in.
“That’s not it…exactly.” How do I explain it? Do I want to relive it? I pulled the covers over my head and curled into a ball. I held the phone close to my ear and lowered my voice even more. “My parents…”
“What happened?” It was almost like he was afraid to ask. I didn’t blame him. I was almost afraid to say.
“Basically…my dad has some business trip early next week. My mom is going with him because she always wanted to go to Toronto. They are going to make a vacation out of it. Go up this weekend and come back next Sunday.”
He hesitantly spoke, “And you’re not going?”
“No…”
“I don’t understand why you’re not going.” He sounded very confused.
I didn’t want this to get to me, but it did. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. “Well, first they claimed that I had school and didn’t want me to miss it. Why couldn’t my mom just fly out after my dad’s meeting when I was done with school? Who knows. Then they said, ‘Look at the trouble you got yourself into in San Francisco. Imagine what could happen if you came to Toronto. You’re staying home.’”
He was speechless. The only sound I heard was rustling in the background.
I tried to harden and disconnect myself. “So, I guess, it’s more important to them to go on vacation than to spend Thanksgiving with me. Whatever.”
“I’m sorry.” He managed to get out.
Then I turned angry. “Oh, and get this…then they said my 70-year-old grandmother was going stay and babysit me. Just in case of an emergency. That’s when I started to lose it. How was she going to do anything if there was an emergency? She can’t drive. She lives in one of those old-folks apartments where they have a button to push if they need help. I’ll wind up watching her and making sure she doesn’t die in her sleep or something. I was able to talk them out of that.”
“How?”
“I turned their own logic against them. My grandma plays bingo twice a week downtown. Her apartment complex has a senior shuttle bus that takes them to and from. It’s one of their activities. If she came here, I’d have to take her. To downtown. At night.” I sarcastically laughed. “Yeah, that’s what changed their minds. They didn’t want me going downtown at night. A 70 year-old woman downtown at night was acceptable. Me? Not.”
I thought about the bright side of it all. “At least I won’t have to deal with them for, like, nine days. I’ll get the house to myself. So, I guess, I’ll get my own vacation, after all.”
“That’s a good way to look at it.” There was a tinge of relief in his voice.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” I felt bad.
“What do you mean?” The rustling had stopped.
“You don’t have to rush over here and see if I’m okay.” At that moment, I knew what to give him.
“I… I wasn’t going to.” He rushed to say.
“Hey. Truth.” I reminded him.
“You’re right. I was about to.”
I knew it.
“But if you need…” He immediately corrected himself. “Want me to. I can be there in a few.”
“No, it’s okay. Unless you want to check up on me.” I teased him.
“If you say you’re okay, then I believe you.”
I was feeling a little better, so after we were done talking, I got up to work on his present. I went to my desk and rifled through the drawers until I found some card stock paper. I started working on a design for the card I wanted to make in Photoshop.
It would be about the size of a business card. I took one of the pictures of the giraffes we saw at the zoo and digitally cut out one of them and placed it on my design. I did the same with a picture of the penguins. I centered one vertically on each side of the card. In the middle of the card, I simply wrote in a scripted font:
I promise.
For the other side of the card, I put the giraffe and penguin on it and wrote:
To think and try not to over think.
To breathe, but not hyperventilate.
To try to envision the best, and not dwell on the worst.
To call you when I’m in trouble.
To not do anything permanent on a situation that might be temporary.
I played with the formatting until I liked the layout. I printed it on a marble grey sheet of card stock. Thank goodness, my printer had the ability to print two-sided on a sheet. I was glad to not have to mess with putting the sheet upside down, right side up or whatever. I cut the card out of the sheet. I took one of my small blank note cards and on in the inside wrote:
Patrick,
Thank you for everything.
Always,
Liz
I put the card I made inside and sealed the envelope. This was a good way to end my day. I didn’t feel like the whole evening was emotionally bad. I went to sleep looking forward to tomorrow and giving it to Patrick.
Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) Page 46
