Chapter 41

After the whole fiasco with Dennis, things had become so strained between me and my mother that I never moved back to her house. Thanksgiving came and went without the family getting together. I had dinner with Leah’s family and her in-Iaws while my mother spent the holiday at her sister Fran’s house in Wisconsin, so Leah told me. I wasn’t even sure if my mother and Dennis spent the holiday together. Leah didn’t say and I didn’t ask. Christmas came and went the same way.

I remained camped out at Leah’s until I moved to my apartment. But my mother and I did manage to start speaking again before I moved. I was the one who broke the ice, albeit at Leah’s insistence. I went to see my mother one day when I knew she’d be home. She was sitting in the living room reading a book when I walked into the house and she didn’t seem at all surprised to see me.

“Leah must have told you I was coming,” I said as I sat in an armchair across from her.

“She did,” she said, closing her book.