One Year Ago… Part 21
My parents, PC and I had plans to go eat dinner tonight at a Cajun restaurant called Bayou. It was her idea. She told PC if he came back Labor Day weekend we’d all go eat there. She proceeded to tell me that because we went to the movies the night before and dinner, my dad had spent way to much money since we didn’t buy anything for ourselves so we weren’t going tonight. I just stared at her speechless. It was her IDEA… but whatever.
Finally I said, we didn’t ask you to buy ours, we were going to.
-Well you didn’t jump up there to do it so we just figured we had to buy yours.
-No, you didn’t give us a chance.
-Well we’ll only go tonight if you pay for your own.
-That’s fine, we never asked for you to pay for ours anyway!
Boy this had me fuming mad. It just hit me funny. First off my parents have never told me anything like this so I was completely taken off guard. And secondly, well there was no secondly because this was a first.
I went upstairs just floored and called PC to tell him, make sure he still wanted to go. Of course I got him all worked up just like I was.
So yeah apparently my mom was back on the not liking him. Who knows. Like I said she’s never done anything like this to me…
Well wouldn’t you know, by the time dinner time came around she “wasn’t feeling good” and didn’t want to go. She didn’t want us going either but my dad went in, changed his clothes looked at PC and me and said, load up, let’s go. We jumped in the truck, more fun than staying there with someone who didn’t want us around, or so it felt.
When the waitress brought the bill after dinner PC went to grab it and my dad beat him to it. They fought over who was going to pay for quite a while and eventually my dad won out. When we got back home PC kept going I would have paid. I was even going to buy your dads. I said I know, I don’t know. I’m not sure if that speech this morning was coming from him or her or them. I don’t know.
It was late enough when we got home that PC went ahead and headed home. When I went in the house my mom stormed into her bedroom. I looked at my dad with a huh look and he shrugged and said, “I don’t know.” Then I told him
-We planned on buying ours.
-Why are you making a big deal about that?
-Mom told me this morning we couldn’t go because you spent to much last night.
-That was coming from her, not me.
-Well she had both of us feeling like sh*t.
-I’m not sure what’s up with your mother but that was her talking, don’t worry about it.
-How can I not. Please let her know if she asks that we fought you for the bill.
-Don’t worry about her. Just listen to me.
-Okay.
When Sunday rolled around I asked PC if he’d like to come to church with me. He said absolutely what time do we have to be where? I told him Church started at 10am so if he wanted he could come pick me up or else I could drive to his house. He insisted on picking me up so I got up at 8:30 to start getting ready. He was there at 9am and I wasn’t ready. So he stayed downstairs talking to my parents.
The rest of the weekend we just spent time with each other doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that with naps along the way. He left to go home at a decent hour on Monday afternoon so he wouldn’t be on the road to late. Neither one of us wanted him to leave. It got harder and harder for him to leave. He had talked about quitting down there and moving home but nothing seemed to come about it and with the job market the way it was, it just didn’t seem feasible to do that.
Since he had been up here so much the last few weekends he had planned on staying down there the weekend of Sept 12, but on Friday (the 11th) I got a phone call first thing in the morning that his grandma was on her death bed. He was hauling butt to get back here so that he could possibly see her and he could be there for his mom.
I looked at the calendar that morning and realized it was 9/11. 8 years after the attacks on the World Trade Center. 2 years after my grandma passed away. And now there might be a new reason to remember that date and before he could make it back up here, they lost her. Everyone said she had a good life but of course they were sad. When I got off work that night I headed to his mom’s house. His mom had been at the hospital over 24 hours with her with no sleep and was exhausted. When I got there she had just woken up from a nap. I spent the evening with them. They had plans to go to the funeral home the next day. I asked PC if he would like for me to go. He looked at me funny and said I didn’t need to. He was going to go and support his mom. I said yeah but someone needs to be there to support you. “If you don’t want me to go, I won’t but if you’d like me there, please let me know where I need to be and when.”
While at the funeral home I got to meet more of the family. I went with them to visitation on Sunday afternoon and worked a deal out with my boss to attend the funeral on Monday afternoon. Work gave him 3 days bereavement so he headed home on Wednesday.
That Friday came some excellent news for me, anyway. He called me, said that he planned on putting in his 2 weeks notice and he was moving home. He’d be home for good October 10th.
…..To Be Continued……