“No, no, I should wait until we get home.”
“Really,” Carol insisted, eyes fixed on the road. “I’ll be dying of curiosity if you don’t share, Aunt Maria. In fact, I’d been thinking about calling Mom back tonight. Did she mention that she called me the other night? Around midnight too.” She shook her head. “I’m still processing that one.”
“She didn’t mention it.”
Now the car got quiet and uncomfortable again. Did Maria have any idea what kind of allegations her sister had made against her?
“Well, Mom said some pretty harsh things,” Carol confessed. Determined to get to the bottom of everything, she decided to be forthcoming. “It was a little disturbing, actually, and I’ve been hoping to clear the air with you.”
“Yes, of course. By all means.”
Now Carol spilled the beans, relaying her mom’s mean accusations.
“Oh, wow.” Maria exhaled loudly. “That’s a lot to dump on you.”
“I just want to know if any of it’s true. I know my mom. She can be a real drama queen, and she’s good at guilting people ... or throwing big pity parties for herself. Believe me, I took her words with a grain of salt.”
“Well, some of what she said is true. I did leave Rosa and Pop to get married. But good grief, I was twenty-seven then. And Rosa was almost seventeen. I thought it was about time she started taking care of herself. I’d done it for most of her life. And I hate to admit it, but I might’ve spoiled her. I guess I felt bad about her not having a mother.”
“You didn’t either.”
“Yes. But she was so much younger. I tried to make up for it. I didn’t even go to college, although I had a small scholarship to a school nearby.” Maria sighed.
“Sounds like you really put your life on hold.”
“I felt family should come first, but the truth is that Rosa started getting pretty rebellious as a teenager. She fought with me over everything. I honestly thought she’d be happier with me gone.” Maria looked amused. “Well, until she figured out all the housework involved in caring for a home. I’d tried to break her in gradually, but expecting her to help out always started a big fight. I got tired of it.”
“Who could blame you?”
“I blame myself some. If I’d been harder on her earlier on, maybe she would’ve learned to help out at a younger age. Although our father was always stepping in to protect her, saying she was too young for chores. He babied her even more than I did. But I always wondered if Rosa’s life would’ve gone more smoothly if I’d done things differently.”
“You were still a kid too,” Carol argued. “How could you expect to know all that?”
“I suppose. But I always told myself I’d do it differently if I had kids. And that bit about our father being an alcoholic . . . well, I never saw him drink more than an occasional beer with a friend. As far as I was concerned, he was a good parent. If anyone is responsible for Rosa’s less-than-desirable upbringing, it’s me. I really didn’t make a very good mother.”
Carol didn’t know what to say. Maria probably would’ve made a wonderful mother. Much better than the one Carol had endured during her own childhood.
“Anyway, I just thought you should know your mother is not very happy with either of us right now. She made that crystal clear with me.”
“Yeah. Me too.” She shared about Mom’s displeasure with Carol putting the kibosh on the Bahamas. “But that was my choice and how she reacts to it is her problem.” Still, Carol was surprised that her mom had called Maria. Hopefully she hadn’t been too hard on her sister. “And by the way, I love being here with you in Michigan. I wouldn’t trade the Bahamas for this.”
“Really?” Maria sounded truly surprised.
“Absolutely. And just for the record, I think you’d have been a wonderful mom.”
“And I think you must’ve been an ideal daughter—especially since you’re a perfectly delightful niece.”
Carol tightened her hands on the steering wheel. “I doubt my mother would agree with you on that.”
“Rosa rarely agreed with me on anything.”
“That’s her misfortune.”
“Well, I’ll be keeping her in my prayers.”
“Yeah.” Carol nodded slowly. “Me too. At least, I’ll try.” She was relieved her aunt was so quick to forgive her sister, but she knew it was going to take her more time. Perhaps because she had more to forgive.
****
