“No offense, but I don’t think you know what it’s like in the real world anymore, Mom.”
“What are you talking about? I’m in the real world all the time.”
“Yeah, sort of. I wouldn’t exactly call yoga class and the pottery shop the real world.”
“I go other places too,” Jess said, even though she questioned the sanity of defending herself to a high school senior who was telling her about the real world—the one she had mostly only seen on TikTok. “I volunteer, I get groceries, and go to the mall, and drive your brother to school. I go to restaurants. Plus, I watch the news every day.”
“Yeah, but you don’t really see what goes on. It’s ugly out there.” Winnie’s phone pinged and, in an instant, she was lost to her mom, laughing at whatever someone had written to her. “I need to Facetime Jill. She’s having trouble with our math homework.” She looked up at her mom with her huge brown eyes. “Unless you need me.”
“No, you go. Thank you for the tea and the talk,” Jessica said.
Winnie scrambled out of the chair and disappeared down the hall and up the stairs. Just before she closed her bedroom door, Jessica heard her saying, “Hey, bitch!”
She rolled her eyes, hating how her daughter and her friends referred to each other as bitches. Maybe she really didn’t know what was going on in the world anymore. Maybe she had been sheltered. Years in the same safe little life with the same safe people. Maybe it was only a matter of ten short years and she’d be completely out of touch with what was happening out there, like her mom was. Struggling to use the next latest and greatest form of technology. Not understanding society’s new views on sexuality or which words you couldn’t use anymore. Of course it would happen to her. It happened to everyone.
Baxter pawed at her leg. When she looked down at him, he wagged his tail, looking slightly desperate. “Do you have to go out, buddy?”
He started in the direction of the door, then turned back to make sure she was following him. She rose slowly, grunting when she was halfway out of the chair. She called out for Noah, but he didn’t answer. She sent him a text.Baxter is ready to go out.
A second later, he replied:I’m on the toilet. Can he wait?
She was tempted to text back that she’d ask the dog how many minutes he could hold it, but she pocketed her phone instead. It was just so much easier to do it herself.
* * *
Jessica woke to the sound of a thump followed by Mike muttering, “Goddamn bed frame.”
She realized a little too late that lifting herself onto her elbow was not in the cards at the moment. Wincing, she laid her head back onto her pillow. “How’s your mom?”
The mattress dipped as Mike got in. “Not great.” He sighed deeply. “She looked so … old and frail. Her mouth is drooping.”
“I’m sorry, honey,” she said, managing to find his shoulder with her hand in the dark. She rubbed it until her own shoulder complained, then slid her hand back onto her side of the bed. “It must have been hard to see her like that.”
“Yup,” he whispered before clearing his throat. “But Dad got her there fast enough that they don’t think there will be any permanent damage.”
“Thank God for that.”
“I talked to Susan on the way home. Filled her in on what’s going on.” Mike’s sister wasn’t exactly good in high-stress situations. She was the queen of overreacting.
“How’d she take it?”
“Instant sobbing. Then right to blaming their lifestyle. She’s planning to go to the house tomorrow and clear out all the junk food. And clean their exercise room out so they can use it.”
“They have an exercise room?”
“Yeah, you know that one at the end of the hall? It’s filled with boxes?”
“You mean the storage room?”
“That’s the one. I guess there’s a treadmill buried in there somewhere and Susan’s all gung-ho to find it. As if they’ll use the damn thing.”
“Well, she probably just needs to feel like she can do something. Feeling helpless is the worst,” Jess told him.
“True,” he said, rolling onto his side to look at her. “She was hoping you could go help her tomorrow, but I told her you’d be down and out for a few days.”
Jess paused for a second, staring up at the ceiling. Irritation scratched at her chest. A few days. She knew her husband, and that was his not-so subtle way of telling her he needed her back to full-strength fast. Well, he could wish for that all he wanted, but her body was in charge now, and it was going to be a hell of a lot longer than a few days before she was back to full strength. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s likely going to take a while.”
“Oh, I know that. I’m not trying to rush you. I just wasn’t sure what you wanted me to tell other people.”
