“Will you two quit flirting,” Aaron joked. “Let's go see Mum.” Jane and Peter laughed, and the three of them headed into the parlour.
“Sit yourselves down boys. Your mum's upstairs. I'll let her know you're here.” Jane turned on her heel and left the room quickly.
Aaron and Peter sat facing each other in the wing back chairs placed at opposite ends of the parlour. A small cream coloured couch sat between them. A large antique grandfather clock stood in the corner behind the chair Aaron was sitting in, its ticking the only sound in the room.
After a few minutes, Peter broke the silence. “You did hear your aunt say she was fine, right?”
Aaron smiled, “Yes, but I won't believe it until I see for myself.”
Another moment of silence fell between them. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, it was Aaron's turn to break it.
“You know, Peter, I can't help but wonder…”
“What?” Peter looked at Aaron.
“Well you can always settle down with my poor aunt, I'm sure she wouldn't mind. I think you two would make a lovely couple,” Aaron joked.
Peter picked up the small pillow tucked in beside him and launched it at Aaron. It was a bad shot that missed him all together, but managed instead to knock a picture frame over on the table beside him.
“Ahem… must you boys always resort back to your childish behaviours whenever you come home?” A woman chided as she stepped into the room, a smile slowly spreading on her face.
“Mum!” Aaron said as he stood up from his chair and walked over to greet his mother. He put his arms around her. She had never been a large woman and, in fact, was the exact opposite of her older sister, Jane, but now she felt frail in his arms. Consequently, Aaron was afraid to give her too much of a hug.
“Come now, Aaron, give your mother a proper hug. I promise I won't break,” she whispered in his ear. Aaron carefully tightened his grip on his mother. She was right, she didn't break.
“See, I told you,” Kate said after Aaron pulled away. Aaron could have sworn his mother was much taller when he'd seen her two weeks ago, now it seemed as though she'd shrunk.
“Your turn, Peter,” Kate said with her arms outstretched as she looked at the young man standing beside her son.
“Hello, Mother Kate,” Peter said as he hugged and kissed Kate on the cheek. “You look as lovely as ever.”
“Ah Peter, how is it some beautiful, young woman hasn't stolen your heart yet?” Kate asked.
“To tell you the truth, Mum, I think someone has, although she isn't so yo –”
Peter delivered a sharp elbow to Aaron's side, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence. Aaron laughed, rubbing his side. Kate looked at both with a bewildered expression on her face.
“Don't mind your son, Mother Kate, he's just being facetious. I have, in fact, been seeing someone.”
Aaron raised his eyebrows; it was definitely news to him. He looked at Peter, who gave him the 'I'll tell you later' look.
“Good for you. Does she have a sister you could introduce to this one?” Kate asked Peter, pointing her chin in Aaron's direction. Aaron looked at his mother, her eyes though a little duller, smiled at him.
Before Peter could respond, Jane came into the parlour and announced that dinner was ready.
“Shall we?” Kate said to the boys, linking both her arms through theirs and leading them to the dining room.
When dinner was over, the four retired to the parlour to catch up. Aaron looked at his mother with a discerning eye. They hadn't spent a moment alone, but he wanted to reassure her that the only reason he'd been away all week was due to business and not because of her illness. He hoped he would be able to find the time that evening. It wasn't long, however, before Kate began to show signs of weariness.
“Aaron, Peter, I'm so glad the two of you could come…” she sighed as she placed her hand on Aaron's knee, “but I am thoroughly exhausted and must retire for the night.”
“Of course, Mum, I'm sorry we kept you up so late.” Aaron looked at the grandfather clock. It was only half past eight, a full hour earlier than he thought. Last time he was there, she had stayed up with him until half past nine.
“You will spend the night of course?” Kate asked as an afterthought.
Aaron intended to spend the night; in fact he and Peter had discussed staying until Monday as they both were free, providing of course his mum was feeling up to the visit. In any case, they had each packed a small bag for the few days, leaving them in the car, just in case. Aaron wanted to spend as much time as he could with his mother and reassure her that he would be there for her. After all, there was no telling how much time she had.
“Of course we're staying; we're free the entire weekend. If it's not too much trouble, we'd like to stay until Monday morning.”
Kate smiled and looked at Aaron and Peter. “Trouble! Of course not! I am thrilled that you will stay until then.”
Aaron could see the relief wash over his mother, and it seemed her whole body relaxed. He could tell that she was worried about him, and he was glad he was there to put her mind at ease.
Kate reached over and hugged Aaron, her thin, arm reaching across his chest, pulling him near. Aaron leaned towards her. It was all he could do to keep his tears back. She was dying, and he felt powerless.
Six
Pulling into my driveway, I looked into my rear-view mirror, half-expecting to see the stranger behind me. Having spent the drive home thinking of him, imagining him following me; while at the same time trying to shake him from my mind – it was all a little unsettling. The bizarre thing was I could still sense his eyes on me, as though they left a mark. Despite my repeated attempts to push the encounter from my thoughts, something kept forcing me to reflect on it. After several minutes and still no satisfying answer, I gave up and finally got out of my car.
Housework was the next thing on my to-do list, and contrary to the appearance of my home, I despised it, avoiding it whenever possible. My friends, however, laughed at my complaints; instead, accusing me of being a closet 'neat freak'. They agreed that neither had ever seen anything out of place, even when dropping by unexpectedly. Of course, as a minimalist, there wasn't a great deal to put out of place. Knick-knacks weren't exactly my thing; the less stuff, the better. Unless of course you counted dust bunnies, for some reason or other that seemed to be the only thing I collected.
The cleaning occupied my mind, though occasionally, I found myself thinking of the stranger, unable to shake the feeling that there was something familiar about him. By mid-afternoon, my housework was complete, the memory of my encounter had faded, and the only thing on my mind was relaxing. Plunking down on my couch, a sigh of relief escaped from my lips, and my muscles relaxed. My mouth curled into a satisfied smile as contentment washed over me. My surroundings were finally clean and organized.
Before I could get too comfortable, the phone rang, startling me. It wasn't very often that it rang, my friends preferred to contact me on my cell, nonetheless, three times in one day was most certainly an oddity. I swiftly made my way to the kitchen before voice mail picked it up, as the possibilities as to whom the mysterious caller might be, ran through my mind.
“Hello!” I said pulling out a kitchen chair from under the table and hoping the caller wasn't a telemarketer.
“What are you doing tonight?” An enthusiastic voice asked.
“Hey, Amanda!”
Amanda and I had met in elementary school and since then we'd been best friends, and as such, supported each other in all matters of emotional state – good and bad. At the age of seventeen, my father died in a scuba diving accident, and Amanda was there for me. She was my confidant, who helped me through trying times with my mother and my failed relationships.
When Amanda married Jake almost two years ago, I was her maid of honour. Now she was six months pregnant with their first child, and she asked me to be the Godmother.
“Do you have any plans for tonight?
” Amanda sounded as though she already had something in mind.
“No.” I briefly thought of the book I'd been reading.
“Good, because Jen and Linz are free, too, and since it has been awhile, I thought we could get together. Please say you'll join us, it wouldn't be the same without you.” I heard Amanda take a breath. When she was excited about something, she spoke so fast she sometimes forgot to breathe between sentences.
I laughed. “Okay, I'm good for tonight. When and where?”
“We thought maybe your place?”
“Sure, we'll order take-out. You can all stay over, too, if you want.” I was glad I had spent the afternoon cleaning.
“Perfect. I'll call the girls and get back to you.” Amanda hung up.
While I waited for Amanda's call, my friends came to mind. It would be nice to see them; it had been weeks since we were all together in one place. They were all so busy with their lives moving on, and I wondered how close we'd remain in the coming years. There was a time where we were inseparable. It had only been during our college years that Amanda, Jennifer, a close friend since high school, and I had gone our separate ways. Yet we made a point of seeing each other every chance we had and would often vacation together. Soon after graduation, I was fortunate and started teaching full-time, which was where I had met Lindsay. Amanda and Jennifer instantly fell in love with her, and our trio became a quartet.
Last May, Jennifer married, and in a few short months, it would be Lindsay's turn. With marriages and babies on the way, my life felt like it wasn't moving forward at all. Albeit, I had my career and a home, there was still that missing piece. I was happy for my friends, but envy tainted it.
The phone rang, and I grabbed it quickly. “Hi!” I said, anticipating Amanda's voice.
“Hey! It looks like we're all set. We'll be there between five and five thirty.”
“Perfect, I'll see you when you get here.” Amanda had already hung up.
Amanda was the first to arrive at 5:15 with chips in one hand and a gift bag in the other. She was a good four inches shorter than I was, and her blond hair, cut to a chin length bob, bounced along with her when she moved. She walked into the house, kicked off her shoes, and gave me a hug, which was a little difficult considering her protruding belly.
“What's that?” I asked.
Amanda pointed to her belly. “This is a baby,” she said and laughed, “and these are chips.” She held up the bag in her left hand.
“You're funny! I meant the gift in your hand.” I reached for the gift bag, but Amanda snapped it out of my reach and hid it behind her back.
“Oh, it's nothing; here you can have this.” She handed me the bag of chips.
“Thanks,” I said taking the bag from her hand. “Seriously, did I forget something?”
“Don't worry, you didn't.” Amanda winked.
Before I could ask any more questions about the gift behind her back, the door slowly swung open. Jennifer let herself in with Lindsay trailing behind. Each of them had their contributions, but they too had gifts in their hands. Jennifer tucked a lock of her long, dark hair behind her ear as she kicked off her flip-flops and hurried over to hug Amanda and me.
“Oh, it's so good to see you both at the same time,” she said, handing the gift she'd brought to Amanda. She then proceeded over to the dining room table where she set down a bottle of wine and began searching for wine glasses.
I turned my attention to Lindsay, who was bent over unbuckling her sandals, her curly, auburn hair falling into her eyes. She swept it away with her free hand, then grabbed the items she'd set on the floor and stood up.
“This was such a good idea,” Lindsay said, hugging me and then turning to hug Amanda.
“Yeah, I thought so, too. So what have you got there?” I asked pointing to the gift-wrapped package.
Lindsay ignored my question and handed over two movies. “I brought a romantic comedy and a drama; I hope there's at least one here you haven't seen.”
“Thanks.” I looked down at the movies in my hands, inspecting them and reading their brief descriptions. “No, I haven't seen either of these. So are you going to tell me…” I looked up before my question was finished; Lindsay was heading toward the dining room with Amanda waddling close behind her.
“Oh, I give up!” I sighed and joined the others. “So how does Chinese sound?”
I headed into the kitchen to place the order, suspicious of my friends' unusual behaviour. When I returned to join the group in the living room, they were all whispering, suddenly becoming quiet as they noticed me.
“Okay, what's going on? You are all being way too secretive.”
The girls looked around at each other with smiles on their faces before looking back at me.
“We wanted to wait until later, but since you're being so paranoid, we'll do this now.” Amanda was the first to speak. “We wanted to show you our support. Besides you're going to be leaving us for the entire summer.” She pouted.
I looked around the room at each of my friends and smiled. “You are the best friends anyone could have,” I said, trying to keep the emotion from my voice. “You all mean so much, but you didn't have to bring gifts, being here is enough.”
“We know, so sit down and open them up,” Jennifer said, patting the spot on the couch beside her.
Sitting among my friends, Amanda handed me the first gift. I reached into the bag, pulled out a wrapped object, and removed the layers of tissue paper, revealing a beautiful pewter picture frame. I stared at the photograph in the frame and gently traced a finger over the image, a thoughtful smile on my face. It was a picture of my father with Amanda and me standing on either side of him.
“Remember, that was the day we left for –” Amanda began.
“Hang on; hang on, everybody smile.” Jennifer had placed her camera on the table, and all of us quickly gathered and smiled, while the camera flashed and snapped a picture.
“Okay, go on.” Jennifer said, grabbing her camera.
“That was the summer we went to Colorado,” I continued wistfully, the memory of that day becoming as vivid as if it was just a few months ago.
“It was the first time I went on vacation with you.” Amanda interjected.
I chuckled at the memory that crossed my mind. “Your mother was so worried; she took this picture of us, just in case anything happened.”
“Yup! Then she took about five more pictures of me while you and your parents waited in the car. I thought you'd just give up and leave without me.”
I laughed. “Nah! It would have been a waste of a plane ticket.”
“We had such a great time.” Amanda briefly laid her head on my shoulder.
“We did. Thank you so much for this Amanda, the picture is great!”
“Sometimes remembering the past can be painful, but you can find a lot of joy there, too,” Amanda said and gave me a hug.
“Where's Jen?” I asked as I noticed she was no longer in the room.
“I'm sure she'll be back soon,” Lindsay answered with a strange look on her face. Before I could question any further Jennifer reappeared carrying her gift bag.
“Okay, time to open my gift,” Jennifer said, holding her bag out toward me.
“Where were you?”
“Open it,” Jennifer said, avoiding my question.
There was something suspicious about her smile as I took the gift from her hand. A tuft of pink tissue paper peeked out from the top of the bag and once removed, the gift came in to view. I reached in and pulled out another picture frame. I began to laugh, turning the frame around so everyone could see. Inside was the picture Jennifer had just taken of the four of us.
“Oh! So that's where you were.” Her previous whereabouts had now become clear.
“Yup! As soon as I snapped the pic I went into your office, loaded the memory card into your printer, and voila, instant memory, nothing like the present.”
“That's a great picture of us. Thank you! Okay, I sense a
theme here. Lindsay, I am very curious, so hand it over.”
Lindsay placed her gift in my outstretched hand. I tore off the wrapping paper, crumpled it up, and set it on the coffee table. Again, it was another frame, only there was no picture.
“This frame represents the future, and since we don't know what the future holds, I have left it empty. Maybe someday you'll put your wedding picture in it or…” Lindsay reached over and touched Amanda's belly, “your first child,” she said and smiled at me. “Whatever you choose, I'm sure it will be great.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at my friends. “Whatever my future holds, I know one thing for sure, the three of you will always be in it.”
Throughout the evening, we took turns talking about our plans for the summer as we ate and drank. Listening to my friends, I was genuinely happy for all of them and their futures, but I couldn't help but feel a little sad that my future didn't seem as clear for me.
When my turn came, my trip and the excitement of it all was at the top of the list, followed by a recitation of my brunch with my mother, and her suggestion that I should go on a blind date when I returned. In recounting to my friends about the events of the day, my collision with the stranger came to mind once again.
“Something kind of weird happened to me today,” I began. My friends looked at me with anticipation, as my words seemed to grab their immediate attention. “After brunch, I walked right into this guy while trying to avoid stepping in a pile of dog crap.”
“Eww! I hope you missed it.” Amanda scrunched up her face. “Who was he? Did you know him?” she continued.
I shrugged. “That's the weird part, I'm pretty sure I don't, but his eyes were so familiar. They were really deep brown, almost black, and our eyes locked for a moment and it felt –”
“What?” Jennifer interrupted, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“It felt like he was burning me with them. I had to look away, and then we smacked heads.” I absently rubbed my fingers over the tender spot on the top of my head. “But then,” I continued, “he asked if we knew each other, and I really had to look at him. I really don't think I know him, but it was like I knew his eyes, and it creeped me out. I spent the drive home afraid he'd follow me.”
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