A New Kind of Bliss

by Bettye Griffin

“I can’t believe it. I mean, I can’t say I’m upset that you and Aaron broke up, but damn. Give a brother a chance, will you?”

  “Teddy, it won’t work. There’re hundreds of available women out there. One is going to be perfect for you. You probably need to think about settling down.”

  “I’m sure one day I will.”

  “What, when you’re fifty?”

  “Sixty-five,” he said with a grin. “Now stop worrying about me like you’re my mama.” He pulled me into an embrace. “I’ll miss you, Emily.”

  How fitting it was that the last thing I saw on my mother’s television before I left for the airport was a laxative commercial featuring Tanis, making a face and complaining about bloating discomfort before smiling and saying she was so much more comfortable now that she’d discovered No-Bloat.

  I flicked the remote control. It was time to go.

  I hadn’t really felt bad about leaving until it came time to say good-bye to Mom. We’d grown a lot closer, she and I, in the past year, and this time our relationship had moved to a different level than the one from my youth. I had lived with her as an adult, and my father’s absence had contributed as well. My parents had always been close, and I was happy to have been there for her, to have helped fill the huge void left in her life by his passing. I felt that our time together had given Mom a new respect for me as a woman, not just as her daughter, but as her equal. I was shocked when she pressed a check for twenty-five-hundred dollars into my palm. “Mom…you can’t afford this.”

  “Sure I can. My rent is lower than it used to be, thanks to you. And it’ll stay low even after I move. Your daddy took good care of me, Emmylou.”

  My eyes filled with tears at her using the name Pop used to call me.

  “That’s what I want for you, someone to take care of you” she said. Then she took my hands. “I’m proud of you, Emmie. It takes real courage to walk away from the type of life Aaron was offering because you weren’t completely satisfied.”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I knew her words were innocently chosen, but I couldn’t help thinking…if only she knew how close she’d come to hitting on the truth.

  “You’ve come a long way from the four-year-old who kept saying, ‘Look, Mommy, she has blue hair!’ when I ran into a friend from church on the street,” she continued.

  I remembered that day. My mother’s gray-haired friend apparently used one of those old-style rinses that gave hair a bluish tint. Mom had tried her best to get me to shut up, but I insisted on being heard. That had been nearly forty years ago, and we still laughed about it.

  “You take this check. It’s my way of saying thank you for moving back and helping me out. I enjoyed having you here so much.”

  I sniffled.

  “Now, don’t you go getting emotional on me. You can use this money to support yourself until you start working. If you get a job right away, you can put it toward your new car.” I’d decided against driving my Nissan back to Indy and sold it to one of my nephews. He was driving me to the airport. Mom had decided to stay behind.

  Just thinking about her made my eyes puddle up. When I went to embrace her, I broke out into full-fledged sobs. I felt like a child being left at preschool for the first time. Mom cried, too.

  “You have to fly out and visit me,” I said. “Spend a week. Hell, spend a month. If you can bear to be away from Henry that long.”

  “It’s not like that,” Mom objected. “Henry and I are just friends. We cook together.”

  “I know, Mom. I’m just glad you’re having fun.”

  It felt good to end on an upbeat note. I took one last look at The Big House, empty on this Sunday, the family all out in Sag Harbor.

  I felt no regrets. I knew I’d done the right thing.

  It looked like the flight wouldn’t be full. At check-in I impulsively paid fifty dollars to upgrade to business class so I’d get a wider seat with more leg room. I accepted complimentary headphones and leaned back comfortably into the leather seat, listening to an old-school R&B station. I closed my eyes when Lionel Richie’s soothing voice sang the lead on the Commodores’s hit, “Zoom.” I, too, felt convinced that happiness awaited me, and I sure hoped it was in Indy.

  Movement nearby made me open my eyes. A dark-skinned man with a shaved head was settling into the seat next to me.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Hello. I hope I didn’t wake you with my fidgeting.”

  “No, not at all.” He’s rather nice looking, I thought. I wonder if he’s married.

  “I promise you’ll hardly know I’m here.”

  “It’s not a problem.” I went back to my music.

  When we were airborne he pulled out a briefcase and began working, not with a laptop, but with a yellow lined legal pad. I couldn’t help noticing his bold strokes in black ink, a letter and number combination that looked like some kind of physics. This man was becoming more interesting by the minute.

  He put his head back, his chin raised and his eyes closed, deep in thought.

  When I heard him sigh I glanced at him, only to find him smiling at me. I returned the smile.

  “Are you going home or away from home?” he asked.

  “Home.” The simple one-syllable word gave me a wonderful feeling of contentment. I couldn’t wait to see my friends. “You?”

  “The same. My son was married in New York yesterday.”

  “How nice! Congratulations to you.”

  “Thanks.”

  I soon learned that his name was Michael Butler, that he was a chemical engineer, divorced with two grown sons. I decided he was probably a little older than I initially thought, maybe fifty or fifty-one. Here was a man who took care of himself.

  The flight went by very quickly, and before I knew it the flight attendant was announcing our descent and imminent landing.

  “It’ll be good to get home, won’t it?” Michael said after the wheels of the landing gear touched the ground and we barreled down the runway.

  My grin covered my entire face. “You have no idea.”

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you this, Emily. You have a lovely smile.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  “I was wondering…you did mention you sold your car before you left New York. May I offer you a lift home? We can stop along the way and have something to eat.”

  “That’s sweet of you, Michael, but a friend is meeting me at the airport. But if you’re willing to give me a rain check, I’d love to have a meal with you another time.”

  “That’s a promise.” He held my gaze. “Let’s make it soon. I want to see that smile of yours light up the room.”

  “I’d like that, Michael.” As I gathered my belongings, I thought how nice it was to have another shot at romance…with a man whose children were grown. Perhaps Aaron was just a pleasant interlude in my life that wasn’t meant to be permanent.

  Why shouldn’t my spirits be high? I was back in Indy, where I belonged. Mom was fine. Sonny and my nephews would take care of getting her moved into her new apartment, and if she had any trouble with anything all she had to do was call her grandchildren, who’d hightail it to New Rochelle to come to her aid. She was happy and thriving in her new community, and with the help of family and friends, old and new, she’d continue to do so.

  If Mom’s happy, I’m happy, too. After all, that’s how this whole thing started.

  A READING GROUP GUIDE

  A NEW KIND OF BLISS

  BETTYE GRIFFIN

  ABOUT THIS GUIDE

  The questions and discussion topics that follow

  are intended to enhance your group’s

  reading of this book.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  Emily’s siblings felt she was the best candidate to return to Euliss because she was unmarried. Other families sometimes burden those judged to be the most successful with things like paying for family reunions and funerals. Do you feel this is fair? Why or why not?

  Emily’s middle
name, Louise, came from her paternal grandmother. What are your feelings about giving a child an unfashionable name (Elmer, Sylvester, Gertrude, Mabel, etc.) in honor of a beloved relative?

  Emily’s disappointment in Aaron’s performance in the bedroom led her into Teddy’s arms. She felt reluctant to broach the subject with Aaron, worried that his limited sexual experience versus her more worldliness was too sensitive a topic. What would you have done in that situation?

  Do you believe that Beverline would view any woman Aaron brought home as a potential replacement for her daughter and express dislike for her?

  Did you empathize with Beverline’s predicament at all?

  Emily had been deeply hurt by her ex-husband’s duplicity, and she divorced him because of it. Yet years later, she found herself doing the same thing to Aaron, even though she wasn’t married to him. What are your feelings about her behavior and her efforts to justify it?

  Both Emily and her mother felt that Valerie, who was twenty-seven when she had her first child, had given up on finding a husband way too soon in favor of deliberate single motherhood. What do you think?

  Marsha did not learn her husband was not a legitimate businessman until well into their marriage. With no skills to fall back on, she chose to stay with him and risk the consequences, and she was left penniless after he was murdered. How do you think she should have handled the situation?

  Teddy told Emily he believed they would make a good team. She was skeptical of this. Do you feel he was sincere or, just as Emily felt, looking for someone to help with his rent increase?

  Are you, as a reader, content with the hopeful but undefined note upon which this story ended for the female characters? Would you like to know more about Teddy’s and Wayne’s relationships? (You’ll actually have to e-mail me with the answer to this one. Go to my website at www.bettyegriffin.com.)

  DAFINA BOOKS are published by

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  Copyright © 2009 by Bettye-Lynn Griffin

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  ISBN: 978-0-7582-6499-2