Andrew was working on an advertising campaign to run on the local television station when the phone on his desk rang. Absently, he picked it up. “Hello, this is Andrew.”
“Mr. Harrison?” the lady on the other end of the line asked tentatively. “I’m calling from Woodroe Middle School.”
This got his attention. “Yes?”
“Mr. Harrison, I’m sorry to bother you at work, but I tried your wife at both home and work, and she wasn’t at either place. I know I usually call her, but we had your number as an alternate, and I thought I should try you.” She stopped, sounding unsure. Andrew didn’t know why she was rambling on and wished she’d get to the point.
“Did something happen to Kaia?” he asked, starting to worry.
“That’s why I’m calling,” the lady told him. “She’s absent from school today, and you didn’t call in, so I thought I’d check on her.”
“Absent?” Andrew asked, confused. And what was this call-in bit about? What was he supposed to call in for? “Are you sure you have the right student?” he asked. “Kaia was perfectly fine this morning and went to school.”
“Did your wife drop her off?” the lady asked. “I know she always drives her to school.”
Andrew frowned. What was it with everyone knowing about Maggie driving Kaia to school? Did everyone in town know what Maggie did? “No, Kaia took the bus today. But what does that have to do with anything? She’s in school today. I’m sure of it. Just check again.” He was getting irritated. Didn’t this lady know he had important things to do?
“I’m sorry, Mr. Harrison,” the lady said firmly. “But Kaia isn’t in school today. She wasn’t in school yesterday, either. Didn’t you get the message I left yesterday at your home?”
“Message?” Andrew mumbled. “No, there was no message.” He thought back to the night before, and his mind began to spin. Kaia was home before him. And yesterday morning, he’d left for work before it was time for Kaia to catch the bus. Was Kaia skipping? He really didn’t think she would do such a thing, but who knew? Feeling like an idiot for not knowing where his own daughter was, he told the woman on the phone he’d get back to her and hung up. Grabbing his jacket, Andrew let the secretary know he was leaving for the day and took off for home.
Maggie was headed to Reno. She hadn’t really known that’s where she was going, but when she’d reached Salt Lake City, she had her choice of four directions: north to Idaho, south to Las Vegas, turn around and go home, or continue on Interstate 80 west to Reno. She knew no one in Idaho, didn’t care for Las Vegas, and certainly wasn’t going home. So, Reno it was.
She remembered the times she and Andrew had spent long weekends in the Reno-Tahoe area in their college days and how much fun they’d had. It was such a beautiful, romantic setting. She was excited to visit again.
While passing through Salt Lake City, Maggie stopped at turnouts beside the highway a couple of times to take pictures of the Great Salt Lake. She planned on stopping at the Bonneville Salt Flats farther down the road and taking photos as well. She was having so much fun, just taking her time and enjoying the sites along the way, and she was looking forward to spending a few days in Reno. She was especially looking forward to driving up to Lake Tahoe and taking pictures of the beautiful lake and the breathtaking views.
As she drove, a sense of peace fell over her. She didn’t understand why, but she felt she was finally heading in the right direction after standing at a stalemate for years.
Kaia felt very pleased with herself. She had Lance drop her off down the road from her house so the neighbors would think she’d taken the bus home. Neighbors are sometimes nosy. They’d probably tell on her. As she stepped inside the back porch, she was surprised to see Bear lying quietly in his corner, not begging to be let out. She let him out anyway and put him on his leash. Better safe than sorry. She didn’t want to be the one to clean up a puddle on the floor.
The house was dark. The late-afternoon sun had yet to find its way through the back windows. Kaia dropped her backpack on the kitchen floor and opened the refrigerator to grab a snack. She’d erase the school’s message from the answering machine as soon as she had something to eat, and all would be right in the Harrison household. The piercing would be pretty tough to explain, but she had plenty of time to think up a good story before her dad came home.
She grabbed an apple and was just shutting the fridge door when a shadow at the kitchen table caught her eye. Kaia screamed and her apple dropped to the floor with a heavy thud.
“Hello, Kaia,” Andrew said from his chair at the table. “Did you have a nice day?”
Kaia fell back against the counter, her heart beating wildly. “You scared me to death. What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” her father said. “The question is: where have you been all day?”
Kaia stared at her dad as she struggled to come up with a reply. She figured she could still con her way out of trouble. “What do you mean? I was at school all day . . .” she began.
“Don’t give me that,” Andrew said angrily. “The school called me at work today. Apparently, you’ve been playing hooky for the past two days.” He waited for a response from Kaia, but none came. “Well?” he asked, rising from the chair and stepping toward her.
Kaia didn’t know what to say. Maybe the less said, the better. She kept the left side of her face turned away from her dad, knowing that if he saw the piercing, he’d really blow up. But he continued toward her until he was standing over her.
“Well?” he asked again. “What did you do that was more important than school? And who were you with? I hope you had a good time, because I had to miss half a day’s work to come home and wait for you.”
Kaia bristled. It was always about work with her dad. “You shouldn’t have bothered,” she bellowed. “You should have just stayed at work. I’m fine, as if you care.”
“Don’t turn this around on me,” Andrew said. “You’re in big trouble, young lady, and you were caught. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you’re not going to be running around as you please as long as I’m in charge. Your mother may let you flit around . . .”
“Leave Mom out of this,” Kaia hollered. “This wouldn’t have happened if Mom was around. Mom cares what I do. She’s not as selfish as you are.”
Andrew stared hard at Kaia. “But your mother isn’t here, is she? If she cares so much, why is she halfway across the country and not here?”
Shock filled Kaia’s face. She saw her father’s expression change from anger to surprise, as if he regretted the words that had come out of his mouth.
“Listen, Kaia. I didn’t mean that. I know your mother cares about you. It just came out.” He reached over the sink and switched on the light to brighten the dark kitchen. Kaia backed away, turning her face.
Andrew frowned. “Kaia, hey, it’s okay,” he said, drawing near her. “Let’s talk about this calmly.” He gently touched her shoulders and turned her toward him. Something on the left side of her face twinkled in the light.
“You pierced your eyebrow?” he asked. “You pierced your eyebrow?” he said again, loudly. Andrew backed away and fell into the chair he’d left only moments before. “Oh, God, what’s next?”
The lights of Reno winked at Maggie as she drove toward the old downtown in search of a hotel. There were so many to choose from, tall towers lit up so brightly that the night sky was a rainbow of color. She followed the traffic through the famous Reno Arch that proclaimed “The Biggest Little City in the World,” then took a left, heading up to Circus Circus. Since she knew that hotel and casino was family friendly, she felt safer staying there. Silly of her to think that, she knew, but she’d been family oriented for so long, she couldn’t change that mindset.
The streets were bustling with people in the early evening. Even though late September usually meant fewer tourists in many places, Maggie k
new that Reno never slowed down. People streamed by at every intersection, crossing to the next casino, all hoping for the next lucky win. The town was alive with activity, and Maggie felt her spirits rise again after her long drive.
She found her way to Circus Circus and obtained a room on the sixteenth floor, where the view of the city was absolutely incredible. She was just working up the courage to join the throngs of people on the street when her cell phone rang. Seeing that it was Andrew, she took a deep breath and answered.
“Hello.”
“Maggie, you aren’t going to believe what your daughter has done!” Andrew bellowed.
Andrew’s tone immediately irritated her. My daughter? Yeah, as if he hadn’t had any part in her creation. “What is it now, Andrew?” Maggie asked.
“Your daughter’s been skipping school, that’s what. For two days she was gallivanting around the countryside with kids she barely knows. What do you think of that?”
Truthfully, Maggie was surprised. She knew Kaia was headstrong and fiercely independent, but she’d never done anything as rebellious as skipping school. Kaia was a good student and hung out with decent kids. But under the circumstances, she wasn’t entirely surprised that Kaia was acting out.
“Well?” Andrew demanded loudly, making Maggie pull the phone away from her ear and stare at it a moment. It seemed he said “Well” a lot.
“Well,” Maggie replied, “I’m not sure what you want me to do about it. You’re the one there. You need to handle it.”
“Well,” Andrew said snidely, “maybe if you were here, there’d be nothing to handle. Maybe if you were here doing your job, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
Maggie hated it when he said the kids were her job. The kids were his, too, though he’d never taken much day-to-day responsibility for them. Now, it was finally his turn to deal with them.
“Tell me, Andrew, how did she manage to skip school? If you were dropping her off and picking her up, there’d be no way for her to leave without you finding out right away.”
“I wasn’t dropping her off,” he admitted. “She was taking the bus, which is exactly what she should have been doing all these years instead of being babied.”
“That’s the problem, then. If you drop her at school, she won’t be able to take off. You’ll know for sure she’s in school. I know you have the time to do it, Andrew. You don’t really have to be at work until nine o’clock. Would it kill you to take the time to drive your daughter to school?”
“Wait a minute,” Andrew said. “Don’t blame me for her bad behavior. It’s not my fault she skipped school. I’m the one who is here, remember?”
Maggie wasn’t about to let Andrew make her feel guilty. She already felt bad about leaving, but she refused to take the blame for everything.
“Kaia is a good kid and you know it,” she said. “But sometimes good kids make poor choices. You can’t blame me for this.”
“Oh, but there’s more,” Andrew said angrily.
Maggie frowned. What else could have possibly happened that would make Andrew so upset?
“Your daughter pierced her eyebrow.”
Maggie sat silently for a moment, letting his words sink in: “Pierced her eyebrow.” That was it? All his anger was over a piercing? Of all the terrible things Kaia could have done, and he was mad about a piercing? Maggie couldn’t help it when laughter escaped her lips.
“What are you laughing about?” Andrew demanded. “Did you hear me? She pierced her eyebrow. The one thing you told her she couldn’t do.”
Maggie laughed harder at his indignant tone. Even over the phone, she could sense that Andrew was fuming. Finally, she calmed down enough to reply, “Honestly, Andrew. If the worst things Kaia ever does in her teen years are skipping two days of school and piercing her eyebrow, then I will consider us lucky.”
“What kind of attitude is that?” he insisted. “Don’t you even care what the kids do anymore?”
Maggie turned sober. Of course she cared about the kids, but what Kaia had done wasn’t the end of the world. “You know I love the kids. They’ve been everything to me these past nineteen years. But honestly, Kaia piercing her eyebrow isn’t that earth shattering. If that’s really what she wants, then fine. It’s done. Ground her for skipping school and start driving her there, and you’ll solve the problem of her ditching. Maybe, if you spend more time with her and Kyle, you’ll find out that they’re actually really good kids.”
Andrew was quiet for several moments. Finally, he said, “What’s gotten into you, Maggie? First you leave without telling anyone, then you act like what the kids do is no big deal. You aren’t the same person you were only a few days ago. What exactly is going on?”
Maggie sat down on the bed and thought carefully about what Andrew had just asked. “You know what, Andrew? You’re right. I’m not the same person I was a few days ago. You know why? Because somewhere along the way, I lost the person I used to be. I became what you wanted me to become and what the kids wanted me to become. And I lost me. You know what’s gotten into me? My true self. For the first time in almost twenty years, I’m finally back to being my real self—and I’m enjoying it.”
Andrew sighed. “Is this about finding yourself, Maggie? Are you having some sort of midlife crisis? Is that what this is all about?”
“You can call it whatever you wish, because I don’t care what you think. I’m feeling good about myself for the first time in years, and I’m going to enjoy it. You had your fling. Now, it’s my turn to have mine.” Maggie hadn’t meant to bring up his affair like that, but it just came out. Who was he to ridicule her for having a midlife crisis? At least she wasn’t sleeping with someone while the whole town watched and whispered about it.
“It always comes down to that, doesn’t it, Maggie?”
“Maybe it does, Andrew. Maybe it does.” Maggie clicked the button to end the call.
CHAPTER NINE
Andrew stared at his phone in disbelief after Maggie hung up on him. Kaia came into the room and asked him in a small voice, sounding contrite, “What did Mom say?” He really didn’t know how to answer her. It seemed that Maggie couldn’t care less that her daughter had pierced her eyebrow, so what was he supposed to do about it? He felt useless and inadequate, and he hated feeling that way.
At a loss as to what to say, he just quietly told Kaia to go to her room and do her homework while he made dinner, and that they’d talk later. But he never brought the subject up with her again. He wasn’t used to handling problems with the kids, and he was too worn out to argue with Kaia again tonight. They ate dinner in silence, and she returned to her room while he washed the dishes.
Kyle didn’t come home until after nine o’clock, but Andrew was too distracted to say anything about it. One problem at a time, he thought. After all, Maggie was right. Kyle was old enough to have a little freedom. Acknowledging that she was right was difficult for him. In fact, it had made him angry all over again.
Andrew decided he needed help if Kaia wouldn’t be riding the bus. Sitting on his bed, he grabbed his phone and called his mother, who lived just a few miles away from their home. He felt he didn’t have any other choice.
“Hello?” Marcia Harrison said. She still had a home landline but no caller ID, so she never knew who was calling before she answered.
“Hi, Mom. It’s Andrew.” The fact that Andrew had to identify himself said a lot about their relationship. He was an only child, so there was no one else who would be calling her “Mom.” But with Marcia, everything had to be formal and proper, and she expected Andrew to announce who was calling.
“Andrew? It’s late. Why are you calling me at this hour?”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I hope I didn’t wake you,” Andrew said. It was a little past nine o’clock, but he knew his mother went to bed early. Her days were packed with volunteering and attending local board and committee
meetings, so she started her days with the rising sun.
“I was just going to bed. What is it you need?” Marcia was curt and to the point, which didn’t go unnoticed by her son.
Andrew took a deep breath. He rarely asked his mother for favors, especially for help with the kids. Although she lived nearby, the kids only saw their grandmother three or four times a year, for holidays and birthdays. His mother had always had a busy schedule filled with volunteer work, but since his father had passed away ten years ago, she’d added even more activities to her load. Even at the age of sixty-nine, she showed no sign of slowing down.
“I have a favor to ask of you,” Andrew began. He hesitated, not quite sure how to phrase the next few sentences. His mother could be very critical, and he didn’t want to give her a reason to blame him for his predicament.
“Yes?” Marcia asked impatiently.
“Maggie had to go to Washington for some family matters, and I need help with Kaia,” he said.
“What on earth is Margaret doing in Washington again? I thought all of her family was dead.”
Andrew’s jaw dropped open—he was stunned by his mother’s harsh tone. “Well, her father and sister passed away, but her cousin, Cassie, and her family still live out there. She went to help her,” he said. Clearly, he should have thought this through a little better.
“Whatever for? Can’t her family do anything without her help?”
Andrew frowned. Even though he was angry with Maggie, he didn’t like it when his mother criticized her. “Her family is very close, Mother,” he said sharply, then caught himself and softened his tone. “Anyway, Maggie is gone for a week or two, and I was wondering if you would mind picking Kaia up from school three days a week and staying at the house with her until I come home from work.” He figured he wasn’t asking too much with only three days a week. The other two days, Kaia had tennis practice after school and he could pick her up on his way home.
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