Today's Reading
"Where's your sandwich?" he asked as she turned away.
"I'm going back for it," she said, even though she had no intention of having peanut butter and honey. It was easier to play along than explain. By the time she brought back her coffee to sit with him, he wouldn't remember.
Then as she went up the porch steps, her phone rang from her pocket. Planning to ignore it, she peeked at the caller ID to see it was Jewel. And since her daughter rarely called, she answered.
"Hey, Jewel," she said pleasantly. "How's my favorite girl?"
"I'm your only girl, Mom. But I guess I'm okay."
Honey heard the terseness in her daughter's tone. "So, what's up?"
"It's Cooper. I'm getting worried."
"Well, Cooper is almost fourteen. It's natural to be a little concerned.
But she's always been a good girl." Honey poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table, tracing a finger over the wood grain. This old oak table once belonged to her grandmother, right here on this very same farm.
"I'm worried about the new friends Cooper's been making."
"Oh, new friends?" Honey felt a spark of concern. She'd worked in a middle school for twenty years, long enough to know that new friends could be good...or bad.
"You know how kids are, Mom. How influential peers can be at this age."
"Yeah." Honey sipped her coffee.
"Especially to a girl with low self-esteem."
"Since when has Cooper had low self-esteem?"
"Since her best friend Molly dumped her and started talking smack about her."
"Oh, that's too bad." Middle school girls could be so cruel.
"So Coop started hanging with these new friends, and I don't like to judge anyone, but they seem pretty rough. I think their parents totally ignore them."
"That's not good."
"And school lets out on Thursday." Jewel's tone was desperate.
"And you're worried about her being unsupervised for the summer?" Honey brightened. "Why don't you send her up here to visit? I could actually use a hand."
"With Dad?"
"Well, him...and farm work and lots of things." Honey looked out the window to where the lavender field was just starting to green up, but the weeds were greening up too. And then there were the pumpkins that hadn't been planted yet...She doubted CT would be up to it this year. "I'm positive we could keep her busy."
"And out of trouble." Jewel let out a relieved sigh.
"And your dad would love having her around."
"Tell me the truth, Mom. How is Dad?"
Honey stood, phone in one hand and coffee mug in the other, and went to look out the back window. CT was still sitting peacefully at the picnic table, peeling his banana. "He's okay. Well, for him, anyway."
"But the illness. How is he handling it?"
"Oh...the same as before. He forgets things. Overreacts to things. Tires out pretty easily. Not much has changed since the last time we talked.
Only perhaps..." She bit her lip. "A little worse." Okay, that was an understatement. But why worry Jewel? She had her hands full single parenting a teenager and running a struggling business in a less than stellar economy. "How's the art gallery doing?"
"About the same as the last time we talked," Jewel parroted her. "Not so great."
"Maybe with summer coming it'll pick up?"
"Look, Mom, I have an idea." Jewel's tone was suddenly lighter. " What if Cooper and I both come back to Oregon? We can help with the farm and spend some time with Dad while he can still remember our names."
...
