November 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Jordan Graham is 28, Felix and Milo are 9, Maria Boone is 26, Jack Phoenix is 39, Sophie is 65.
“Whoa, look at all the bugs,” Felix said. “Mom, did you bring bug spray?”
“I’m hungry,” Milo whined.
“I told you to eat before we left the hotel. I paid for breakfast at the hotel. I’m not buying breakfast out here because you didn’t eat the breakfast I paid for.”
“Can we play on the playground?”
“We did not fly eight-thousand miles to play on playgrounds. Wow, thirty-dollars a night. I wonder what the ROI is on those?”
Colette got out her phone and browsed a few real estate listings. The apartments were small, but some of them were very stylish. Too colorful for Colette’s tastes, but she knew tourists loved color.
“And I need to pee,” Milo whined.
“I told you to pee before we left the hotel.”
Colette also needed to pee, which was annoying because she had peed before they left the hotel just an hour ago.
“One of them bit me,“ Felix said. “Are we gonna get malaria?”
“That’s what you got your shots for. You won’t get malaria.”
“Mom, I’m dying!”
“You won’t die, I said you’re vaccinated.”
“I’m dying of hunger!”
So they all peed again, and Colette found some pastries to snack on from a local street vendor, then she managed to drag the boys around to see a couple attractions, frustrated that all the attractions ruled “one at a time” for tourists. This was going to take all day, and she had not planned for this to take all day!
It was Thanksgiving today—in America, at least—but being overseas was absolutely intentional. Colette hated holidays. She hated times of forced togetherness. But the boys always got five days off school for Thanksgiving, and it felt a waste to do nothing. So she enjoyed traveling, especially in a country that didn’t celebrate all that thankfulness with the Americans. She could pretend the holiday didn’t even exist.
The weather was perfect, which she’d hoped for when she booked during Tomarang’s warm and dry season, just missing the summer rain and smothering heat.
They stood in front of another attraction that only admitted one at a time, reading a banner that announced a brand new safari park—real live animals and group tours!—opening in 2090. “Maybe we can come back?” Felix begged.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Colette answered. “Who knows what will be happening in 2090? Disappointment is life. Sometimes you just have to accept the best you can get.”
So they wouldn’t get their group selfie with the tigers on this trip, but an old lady offered to take their picture together in front of the sanctuary temple.
“Smile for the camera. Oh, how sweet you three are.”
Sweet, the old lady said. Looking at them in this snapshot of time, you could almost believe it.
After a long morning around town, snacking on all the snacks, they were too full to even worry about lunch. There were some comfy lounge chairs on the beach behind a restaurant where they had considered eating.
“This is bliss,” Colette said, enjoying the cool breeze off the water. But the sun was rather intense. “This is why you work hard, so you can come to places like this. Your father would never be able to bring you here.”
“He’s bringing us to Japan,” Felix said.
“Ha. I doubt that’s going to happen. You should be wary of your father’s promises. He doesn’t always follow through.”
Doesn’t usually, she meant to say, but she was feeling generous.
They were already off their lounge chairs and sat in the sand to shovel mounds into a castle. Milo whipped up handfuls into the air.
“Oh, please don’t. It’ll get in your hair and your pockets and then it’ll be all over the hotel rooms. I hate it when sand gets everywhere on the first day.”
“Can we hike those mountains?” Felix asked.
“No, we didn’t come here to hike.”
“Can we swim across that river?”
“No, you can’t swim in that river.”
“Yes, you can! Look, those guys are swimming in the river.”
“Ew, no, definitely not. I don’t know what’s in that water.”
“Dad would let us swim over there.”
“And your father would certainly have you eaten by a piranha. The hotel has a pool, you can swim there.”
The boys looked disappointed, and Felix joined his brother to play in the sand.
“Maybe there might be a snorkeling class. Doesn’t that sound nice? I’ll see if there’s a snorkeling class. Or a boat tour. Or, I don’t know. But we just got here. Can’t we relax a little?”
Silly question. They were full of restless boy energy.
“So, listen up for a minute, boys. Come here. Your grandma wants to see you. What do you two think about that?”
“Did we ever meet her before?” Felix asked.
“Of course you did. Like, once, when you were babies. She wants to spend some time with you.”
“Is she coming to Wisconsin?”
“I don’t know, maybe we might have to go to Seattle. We haven’t planned it that far yet.”
Felix shrugged. “Dad wants to spend time with us, too.”
Milo perked up. “Yeah! If we go to Seattle, can we stop at Sierra Nova and see Dad?”
Colette waved her hands in exasperation. “We’re not talking about your dad right now.”
“But why not?”
“Because your grandma is a little bit sick. Your father is not sick, he’s just selfish, and we’re finished talking about him right now. Never mind the whole thing. Just, never mind. It’s too hot in this sun. Let’s head back to the hotel.”
The weather was beautiful, but Colette felt in an unreasonably foul mood. She really just wanted to go back to the hotel and soak in a warm bath. The walking, the chafing, the sun, the heat and sweat and burning!
Above everything, she really needed to admit to herself that something didn’t feel right at all. As much as she wanted to end the evening with a fire-dancing show after dinner in town, she needed to find an 24-hours medical clinic in a foreign country. And what the fuck, if that married bastard gave her something really dirty.
She would be lucky to find out it was just a UTI from messing around in that filthy boiler room with unwashed hands. What a stupid idea. Fun, but stupid.
Here was a predicament. The hotel didn’t offer babysitting, but Colette also didn’t want to bring the boys to sit in the waiting room of a 24-hours clinic in a foreign country. You know the sort of people that go to those emergency clinics at night—gun shot and stabbing victims, overdoses, people spewing infectious disease. And, well, people who had whatever it was that Colette had right now.
“Are you sick?” Milo asked. “Do you have malaria? Maybe we need to call Dad?”
“No. Please, please don’t call your dad about this. It’s fine. It’s not malaria. I just need some antibiotics. And it’ll be nicer if you boys wait here. There’s a yoga class you can attend.”
“But you said we can’t stay without a babysitter,” Felix said, his wary eyes weighing up every rule she ever ruled for them. “That’s why Gabby comes over.”
“This is different,” Colette said. “You’ll have a yoga teacher. That’s almost like a babysitter. It’s like when you go to school.”
The boys looked at each other doubtfully.
“Just go to your yoga class, and don’t leave the hotel. If you’re hungry, charge some food to the room. I’ll be back before you know it.”
The guided yoga class was only thirty minutes long, and then it was over. Left to their own devices, the boys didn’t feel brave enough to defy their instructions. If Gabby had been here, things would have been different—and probably so much more fun!—but Gabby was eight-thousand miles away.
Colette called to check in, but her time at the clinic was not proving to be simple or quick. So the boys wandered obediently around the grounds of the hotel, finding comfort in the sky as they picked out some of the familiar constellations their dad had taught them when they were backpacking. What a marvel that they could be so far away under a sky that felt so close to home.
“It’s because we’re near the equator,” Milo said. “You can see both northern and southern stars here.”
“Okay, nerd,” Felix teased.
At the clinic, things were complicated. Maybe it was the language barriers, but the first three doctors Colette saw told her, “Everything seems to be in order.”
“Excuse me? No. Do I look fine to you? The swelling, the burning, the blood. Check again!”
Not that she really wanted to spend any more time laid out on this exam table with her feet in stirrups and strangers gawking between her legs. But no, everything was not in order and she insisted upon a second, third, and fourth opinion.
And, laid on her back with her legs spread open, she had all the time in the world to reflect on her poor life choices. Caught up in the heat of desire and desperation, should she have said to Sebastian, “Wait, first, let’s go wash our hands?” What a mood-killer! Hand sanitizer? Ouch! Latex gloves? Where even? But a latex condom on his dick would have been much cleaner than his hands were that night.
Dating was complicated and disappointing, and again she was reminded that it wasn’t worth the trouble. She would remain alone until she died!
Finally, a fourth doctor joined the party between her legs and confirmed what she already suspected to be true:
Urinary tract infection.
She closed her legs, pulled up her big girl panties, took her first dose of antibiotics, and returned back to her boys.
The little darlings had waited for her to eat their dinner. They were good boys, better than she deserved.
It had been a long and eventful day for everyone, and everyone was completely exhausted. Colette looked forward to going to bed with nobody but her shame and slaughtered pride.
Helping prepare Thanksgiving dinner at the Phoenix house was like a master class in cooking. They should have realized, really, and maybe Maria did, because she dove into the culinary lesson happily. Jordan had never given much thought to the “craft” before today—he cooked meat, and he was told he did it well—and he had certainly never been in a kitchen being micromanaged by three women at once. He couldn’t say he was having a ton of fun.
So they wouldn’t get their group selfie with the tigers on this trip, but an old lady offered to take their picture together in front of the sanctuary temple.
“Smile for the camera. Oh, how sweet you three are.”
Sweet, the old lady said. Looking at them in this snapshot of time, you could almost believe it.
———
After a long morning around town, snacking on all the snacks, they were too full to even worry about lunch. There were some comfy lounge chairs on the beach behind a restaurant where they had considered eating.
“This is bliss,” Colette said, enjoying the cool breeze off the water. But the sun was rather intense. “This is why you work hard, so you can come to places like this. Your father would never be able to bring you here.”
“He’s bringing us to Japan,” Felix said.
“Ha. I doubt that’s going to happen. You should be wary of your father’s promises. He doesn’t always follow through.”
Doesn’t usually, she meant to say, but she was feeling generous.
They were already off their lounge chairs and sat in the sand to shovel mounds into a castle. Milo whipped up handfuls into the air.
“Oh, please don’t. It’ll get in your hair and your pockets and then it’ll be all over the hotel rooms. I hate it when sand gets everywhere on the first day.”
“Can we hike those mountains?” Felix asked.
“No, we didn’t come here to hike.”
“Can we swim across that river?”
“No, you can’t swim in that river.”
“Yes, you can! Look, those guys are swimming in the river.”
“Ew, no, definitely not. I don’t know what’s in that water.”
“Dad would let us swim over there.”
“And your father would certainly have you eaten by a piranha. The hotel has a pool, you can swim there.”
The boys looked disappointed, and Felix joined his brother to play in the sand.
“Maybe there might be a snorkeling class. Doesn’t that sound nice? I’ll see if there’s a snorkeling class. Or a boat tour. Or, I don’t know. But we just got here. Can’t we relax a little?”
Silly question. They were full of restless boy energy.
“So, listen up for a minute, boys. Come here. Your grandma wants to see you. What do you two think about that?”
“Did we ever meet her before?” Felix asked.
“Of course you did. Like, once, when you were babies. She wants to spend some time with you.”
“Is she coming to Wisconsin?”
“I don’t know, maybe we might have to go to Seattle. We haven’t planned it that far yet.”
Felix shrugged. “Dad wants to spend time with us, too.”
Milo perked up. “Yeah! If we go to Seattle, can we stop at Sierra Nova and see Dad?”
Colette waved her hands in exasperation. “We’re not talking about your dad right now.”
“But why not?”
“Because your grandma is a little bit sick. Your father is not sick, he’s just selfish, and we’re finished talking about him right now. Never mind the whole thing. Just, never mind. It’s too hot in this sun. Let’s head back to the hotel.”
The weather was beautiful, but Colette felt in an unreasonably foul mood. She really just wanted to go back to the hotel and soak in a warm bath. The walking, the chafing, the sun, the heat and sweat and burning!
Above everything, she really needed to admit to herself that something didn’t feel right at all. As much as she wanted to end the evening with a fire-dancing show after dinner in town, she needed to find an 24-hours medical clinic in a foreign country. And what the fuck, if that married bastard gave her something really dirty.
She would be lucky to find out it was just a UTI from messing around in that filthy boiler room with unwashed hands. What a stupid idea. Fun, but stupid.
———
Here was a predicament. The hotel didn’t offer babysitting, but Colette also didn’t want to bring the boys to sit in the waiting room of a 24-hours clinic in a foreign country. You know the sort of people that go to those emergency clinics at night—gun shot and stabbing victims, overdoses, people spewing infectious disease. And, well, people who had whatever it was that Colette had right now.
“Are you sick?” Milo asked. “Do you have malaria? Maybe we need to call Dad?”
“No. Please, please don’t call your dad about this. It’s fine. It’s not malaria. I just need some antibiotics. And it’ll be nicer if you boys wait here. There’s a yoga class you can attend.”
“But you said we can’t stay without a babysitter,” Felix said, his wary eyes weighing up every rule she ever ruled for them. “That’s why Gabby comes over.”
“This is different,” Colette said. “You’ll have a yoga teacher. That’s almost like a babysitter. It’s like when you go to school.”
The boys looked at each other doubtfully.
“Just go to your yoga class, and don’t leave the hotel. If you’re hungry, charge some food to the room. I’ll be back before you know it.”
The guided yoga class was only thirty minutes long, and then it was over. Left to their own devices, the boys didn’t feel brave enough to defy their instructions. If Gabby had been here, things would have been different—and probably so much more fun!—but Gabby was eight-thousand miles away.
Colette called to check in, but her time at the clinic was not proving to be simple or quick. So the boys wandered obediently around the grounds of the hotel, finding comfort in the sky as they picked out some of the familiar constellations their dad had taught them when they were backpacking. What a marvel that they could be so far away under a sky that felt so close to home.
“It’s because we’re near the equator,” Milo said. “You can see both northern and southern stars here.”
“Okay, nerd,” Felix teased.
At the clinic, things were complicated. Maybe it was the language barriers, but the first three doctors Colette saw told her, “Everything seems to be in order.”
“Excuse me? No. Do I look fine to you? The swelling, the burning, the blood. Check again!”
Not that she really wanted to spend any more time laid out on this exam table with her feet in stirrups and strangers gawking between her legs. But no, everything was not in order and she insisted upon a second, third, and fourth opinion.
And, laid on her back with her legs spread open, she had all the time in the world to reflect on her poor life choices. Caught up in the heat of desire and desperation, should she have said to Sebastian, “Wait, first, let’s go wash our hands?” What a mood-killer! Hand sanitizer? Ouch! Latex gloves? Where even? But a latex condom on his dick would have been much cleaner than his hands were that night.
Dating was complicated and disappointing, and again she was reminded that it wasn’t worth the trouble. She would remain alone until she died!
Finally, a fourth doctor joined the party between her legs and confirmed what she already suspected to be true:
Urinary tract infection.
She closed her legs, pulled up her big girl panties, took her first dose of antibiotics, and returned back to her boys.
The little darlings had waited for her to eat their dinner. They were good boys, better than she deserved.
It had been a long and eventful day for everyone, and everyone was completely exhausted. Colette looked forward to going to bed with nobody but her shame and slaughtered pride.
———
4:00 am Tomorang, Thailand = 2:00 pm San Sequoia, California
———
Helping prepare Thanksgiving dinner at the Phoenix house was like a master class in cooking. They should have realized, really, and maybe Maria did, because she dove into the culinary lesson happily. Jordan had never given much thought to the “craft” before today—he cooked meat, and he was told he did it well—and he had certainly never been in a kitchen being micromanaged by three women at once. He couldn’t say he was having a ton of fun.
At least the nice thing about turkey is that once the prep work is done and the bird is in the oven, there’s nothing more to do but wait.
Inside, the ladies had been very delicate to skirt around their talk of periods and childbirth around him, stalling whole conversations on awkward pauses and coy, downward glances. He was an odd duck in this kitchen. Maria already had baby photos out on her phone, which was nothing he hadn’t seen already, but he figured the other ladies wanted to talk freely without a man in the room.
Finally, Sophie made the decision easy for him. “Sweetheart, you have done such a great job. But why don’t you go outside and play with the boys? And take some cookies out for everyone, too?”
It spoke to the young motherless boy inside him, which filled him with warmth and belonging in a way he couldn’t express and didn’t know what to do with. But he was also grateful for the permission to go, so he did.
Gender roles were strong in this family. Outside, the guys tossed a football first and then swung at some golf balls, hooting and hollering to cheer each other on. “But not the neighbor’s windows!!!” The kids climbed and played and mostly didn’t injure themselves. It was a perfect scene, movie-like even. Jordan had never experienced a Thanksgiving like this.
The first fall Maria worked at Coolidge House, only months after they first met, she heard that Jordan usually spent Thanksgiving alone and it broke her heart. His father was gone, and Colette liked to take the boys off somewhere foreign. Maria said, “I mean, my family is ridiculous—and I’m not even kidding about that,“ she pointed a finger at him for emphasis, “but nobody should spend Thanksgiving alone. It’s heartbreaking.” Then she quickly invited him to her family’s get-together. They were basically still strangers then, so, with a polite amount of overwhelm, he gently declined. She gave him her number anyway, in case he wanted to change his mind. He didn’t change his mind about going to Thanksgiving that year, but he did continue to text her.
It amused him now, two years later, that they would finally spend Thanksgiving together. The first of so many, it looked like.
After another hour, some of the ladies finally came outside as the ovens were set and the side dishes were chilled or kept warming for later. California was a wonder. The late afternoon was a comfortable sixty degrees with a soft bay breeze. In Wisconsin, they were surely buried in snow by now.
“Swing,” Maria said, already flying beside him with glee.
“I’m too heavy.”
“Nah, kids come big these days,” she said. “They make these things sturdy.”
So he swung with her in child-like wonder.
“But, hey, aren’t you sad not to be with your family this year?”
“Eh,” Maria said, shrugging as best she could while soaring through the air.
“They’re not as movie-like as this?”
“Uh, no. Not really. Not like this,” she said, planting herself back on the ground to lay the scene. “So, first, my dad and Mr. Thompson will be debating politics, which always gets heated but they swear they’re having fun and they’re still best friends. The Pendletons might be there, or not, depending on whether Lou and Jamie are together or not this year. This year, they are together. Lou is certainly being a punk in whichever way she can. Leo probably brought a girlfriend home from college, but we don’t know her because it’s a different girl every year. Jamie will probably ask the girl if they’re serious, and the poor girl will probably get her hopes up. But, no, Leo will dump the girl by spring and we’ll never see her again. Then Jamie and Lou will have a fight about whether they’re ever getting married, and Jamie will cry that they’ve been together since they were fourteen—which is true—and they’ll probably break up again for a couple weeks. But no worries, the break-ups never last. By the end of the night, Mom will complain about how the food didn’t turn out because she wants everyone to tell her it was great. And everybody will, but she’ll still be moody about everything and get overwhelmed on too much wine and start to cry. You’ll see, you’re coming to Christmas this year.”
Jordan smiled. “I can’t wait. I think.”
This year, we are thankful for a delicious meal enjoyed with good friends and family.
And Sophie saved her husband’s place at the table so she could feel close to his memory. 💞💔💞
Inside, the ladies had been very delicate to skirt around their talk of periods and childbirth around him, stalling whole conversations on awkward pauses and coy, downward glances. He was an odd duck in this kitchen. Maria already had baby photos out on her phone, which was nothing he hadn’t seen already, but he figured the other ladies wanted to talk freely without a man in the room.
Finally, Sophie made the decision easy for him. “Sweetheart, you have done such a great job. But why don’t you go outside and play with the boys? And take some cookies out for everyone, too?”
It spoke to the young motherless boy inside him, which filled him with warmth and belonging in a way he couldn’t express and didn’t know what to do with. But he was also grateful for the permission to go, so he did.
Gender roles were strong in this family. Outside, the guys tossed a football first and then swung at some golf balls, hooting and hollering to cheer each other on. “But not the neighbor’s windows!!!” The kids climbed and played and mostly didn’t injure themselves. It was a perfect scene, movie-like even. Jordan had never experienced a Thanksgiving like this.
The first fall Maria worked at Coolidge House, only months after they first met, she heard that Jordan usually spent Thanksgiving alone and it broke her heart. His father was gone, and Colette liked to take the boys off somewhere foreign. Maria said, “I mean, my family is ridiculous—and I’m not even kidding about that,“ she pointed a finger at him for emphasis, “but nobody should spend Thanksgiving alone. It’s heartbreaking.” Then she quickly invited him to her family’s get-together. They were basically still strangers then, so, with a polite amount of overwhelm, he gently declined. She gave him her number anyway, in case he wanted to change his mind. He didn’t change his mind about going to Thanksgiving that year, but he did continue to text her.
It amused him now, two years later, that they would finally spend Thanksgiving together. The first of so many, it looked like.
After another hour, some of the ladies finally came outside as the ovens were set and the side dishes were chilled or kept warming for later. California was a wonder. The late afternoon was a comfortable sixty degrees with a soft bay breeze. In Wisconsin, they were surely buried in snow by now.
“Swing,” Maria said, already flying beside him with glee.
“I’m too heavy.”
“Nah, kids come big these days,” she said. “They make these things sturdy.”
So he swung with her in child-like wonder.
“But, hey, aren’t you sad not to be with your family this year?”
“Eh,” Maria said, shrugging as best she could while soaring through the air.
“They’re not as movie-like as this?”
“Uh, no. Not really. Not like this,” she said, planting herself back on the ground to lay the scene. “So, first, my dad and Mr. Thompson will be debating politics, which always gets heated but they swear they’re having fun and they’re still best friends. The Pendletons might be there, or not, depending on whether Lou and Jamie are together or not this year. This year, they are together. Lou is certainly being a punk in whichever way she can. Leo probably brought a girlfriend home from college, but we don’t know her because it’s a different girl every year. Jamie will probably ask the girl if they’re serious, and the poor girl will probably get her hopes up. But, no, Leo will dump the girl by spring and we’ll never see her again. Then Jamie and Lou will have a fight about whether they’re ever getting married, and Jamie will cry that they’ve been together since they were fourteen—which is true—and they’ll probably break up again for a couple weeks. But no worries, the break-ups never last. By the end of the night, Mom will complain about how the food didn’t turn out because she wants everyone to tell her it was great. And everybody will, but she’ll still be moody about everything and get overwhelmed on too much wine and start to cry. You’ll see, you’re coming to Christmas this year.”
Jordan smiled. “I can’t wait. I think.”
———
This year, we are thankful for a delicious meal enjoyed with good friends and family.
And Sophie saved her husband’s place at the table so she could feel close to his memory. 💞💔💞
———
6:00 pm San Sequoia, California = 8:00 am Tomorang, Thailand
———
Colette thought she might take the boys on a boat tour, but there wasn’t one here. She wondered if there was scuba diving—not here, either. Beachcombing tour? Nope. At a loss for what to do with their day, she grabbed a coffee and sat to browse the attractions that were available, while the boys played on the playground.
Yes, it would seem, they traveled eight-thousand miles to play on playgrounds after all.
If nothing else, her medicine was starting to work and she felt fifty percent better already. She intended to enjoy the remainder of this trip as much as that was possible.
When they were traveling, the boys always took an interest in tracking time zones. “It’s dinnertime in America. Can I call Dad? I wonder if he even knows it’s Thanksgiving?”
Oh, Thanksgiving.
Colette had been trying to forget about it. But it would be rotten not to allow them to call their dad on Thanksgiving, wouldn’t it? As much as Jordan might claim otherwise, Colette was not rotten to her core—not all the way to her core, anyway.
“Can you keep it very short, please? International phone calls are very expensive. Share one call.”
They took Milo’s phone and ran off to call their dad.
Colette’s sigh was heavy as the price of international data rates.
It wasn’t a total surprise that she took the boys somewhere for Thanksgiving. It was something of a tradition at this point. They usually went somewhere expensive and luxurious. Disney was a favorite for the boys. Colette preferred Paris, where some of her cousins lived. New York City, Toronto, Cancun.
And he wasn’t jealous that she never invited him to join them. He would have been bored by the kind of trip Colette enjoyed. They all went together once. He and Colette bickered almost the whole time and she ordered him around like staff—get me a cocktail, carry these bags, fetch me an umbrella, this sun is too hot—while she sunned herself on the beach, and to be honest, he thought it was very boring.
But still, the call ended, and Jordan felt like the world was cracked in half and upside down.
With the Phoenix house as packed as it was tonight, his quiet space in the hallway wouldn’t remain quiet for long. Maria found him first. “How are they?” But when she saw his face, her smile dropped. “Oh, what happened?”
Before he could answer, a swarm of boys ran through the hallway and out the back door, their voices booming with merriment and boyish gusto. Not his boys.
“What did she say?”
This time? It was more like what she did. “Uh, she took the boys to Tomorang.”
“In Thailand? Can she do that?”
Jordan laughed at himself; he felt so stupid. “We don’t have an official custody order in place. She can do pretty much whatever she wants.”
“Oh,” Maria muttered.
He didn’t really want to talk about it. He was mad, but did he have any right to be? Maria watched him quietly, the feelings brewing over, the frustration, the shame, the anger. Colette always took the boys somewhere for Thanksgiving, but this year felt different. This felt deliberate. She flew right over them. He might have looked up and spotted their plane in the sky.
She took the boys to Thailand and she wouldn’t let them travel four states away to visit their father for a weekend?
“I guess she probably thinks this is fair. She let me take them to Canada last summer. Which is out of the country, too, technically. But… They flew right over us. They connected in L.A. They could have connected in San Sequoia instead. Or hell, I would have hopped on a train if I knew. I could have met them at the airport. I could have seen them for a minute.”
“I’m so sorry,” Maria whispered, looking at a loss. “What can we do?”
He didn’t want to talk about it. Not here, not with the voices of togetherness and festivity echoing from the other room, glasses clinking, laughter echoing. He wanted to get out of here, to be honest. He didn’t feel very festive anymore.
Then Jack found them in the hallway, too. There were two dozen people in this house and he wouldn’t be the last.
“It’s okay, really. I’ll see them in Wisconsin in a few weeks, anyway. That’s no time at all.”
It was too much time already.
“Hey,” Jack said. “You guys alright?”
Jordan was barely comfortable letting Maria into his thoughts—it was a work in progress. But new friends meant more people who cared about him, which meant more people who wanted to dig into his shrouded brain and decipher all the tangled mess that lay inside. You don’t want it, Jordan wanted to tell him.
But Jack still glanced between them, looking concerned. One thing Jack could know was this: it was not Maria that troubled him. Jordan would write that much on his forehead in bold marker. Maria was the only uncomplicated thing that ever graced his life.
“We’re great,” Jordan said. “It’s ex trouble. You know how it goes.”
No, Jack didn’t know how that went. His marriage had been nothing but delightful for almost twenty years.
Jack offered a sympathetic smile. “So, I know you don’t want to fight with her, but she sounds like the kind of woman who won’t listen unless a judge tells her to. You know my cousin, Steph? She went through something nasty with her ex a few years ago. I’ll get the number of the guy she worked with. He was really good. Time to lawyer up and get your fighting gloves on?”
Jordan wasn’t a fighter, but maybe sometimes there wasn’t a choice. He gave Colette a chance to play nice, but she only wanted war. As it usually went, Colette would get what she wanted.
———
Their last night in Tomorang. They had to visit the night markets before it was time to head back home.
Then Colette also stumbled upon the meditation room at their hotel. It was a lovely room, and it was a shame she hadn’t discovered it earlier. She had been so distracted and consumed with the disappointments of the week, it left so little energy for discovery. But if they had a few hours left before they had to catch their plane, then she would sit for a minute and listen to the fountain sputter and spit. So calm. So nice.
Then something felt different.
Wait, what? Her mind was a blank slate of endless possibilities, and she could become anything she chose. But what should she choose?
It felt like she had hacked her own brain, like she had taken control of her volatile mind. How did that happen?
Colette, you will use these powers for good! Do you hear us? Good!
Colette grins. “Did you just say I have powers???”
gameplay and notes:
So, part of Colette’s torment is my fault, because I sent her to three different healthcare redux doctors before I realized that RPO has its own “go to doctor” interaction to find what ailed her. Oops! Sorry, Colette! 😬
If you couldn’t tell, I wasn’t very impressed with Tomorang, lol!
I feel bad for the boys. They seemed to be with her on this vacation like by accident. She didnt spend time with them, not really, rather dragged them along. That UTI wasnt a punishment enough. 🙂
ReplyDeleteYet she feels like she’s giving them such a worldly and valuable experience, too. 😑 It’s a stark contrast in so many ways to the kind of vacation they had with their dad. I think the boys are old enough to start realizing that now. But maybe they’ll enjoy these kinds of trips more when they’re teenagers and can just take her credit card and run off and do their own thing, and she’ll do her own thing, and they won’t bother pretending it’s a profound bonding experience.
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