2
–
“a little longer”
-Essie-
Only once they were sitting in the warm, crowded dining room of the pizza restaurant stuffing their faces with supreme and pepperoni slices did Essie receive a text message from Maxine.
* Meet me outside my dorm at the Jamies building
8:30 pm
It was better than nothing.
Which was what they had come to expect.
Essie knew she could have made much better food or even baked a better pizza, but it was hot food after a long trip, which was always welcome. Leo’s chin was smeared with tomato sauce and ready for a shave, and he seemed caught up in his own thoughts as he swallowed a gulp of root beer. Julia had a hand on her chin as she engaged in a staring contest with her cell phone, the other hand holding a drooping, oily pizza slice. Her glasses looked like they needed a cleaning, but she would sooner clean her phone screen before them.
Ugh. Julia was such a teenager.
Essie tried to stay cheerful. She didn’t particularly like traveling, unless it was to see family. Her own family, to be precise.
When they were back home Essie naturally ran things, and the world felt comfortable and right. As much as she loved Leonard, he wasn’t great at adapting, and that meant that situations outside of the home—Essie’s domain—tended to become stressful. Especially when one factored in the sometimes-volatile attitude of Julia, who increasingly behaved like Essie’s ex-husband in too many ways for comfort.
Sometimes Julia’s aloofness mirrored the way Maxine tended to act towards her stepmother, despite the fact that Essie was Julia’s biological mother. But she tried not to take her behavior, nor Maxine’s, personally. Leonard let things get to him, but she rarely did, at least under typical circumstances. Refusing to cave in to worry, she thought instead about seeing Maxine again for the first time in ages, and the triumphant peace that would bring.
We lost our son.
She hadn’t expected that to come into her mind. That was the lament her friends Yana and Diego Velazquez had confided to her and Leonard several months ago.
They’d been hysteric. Could barely get the words out.
Their boy had gratefully taken their tuition money and then disowned them after a heated disagreement months later. On a phone call from his college apartment in Maryland, he had told them he never wanted to see them again.
Essie took another bite of her breadstick and rested her chin on her hands. She wouldn’t worry.
But she really did want to see Maxine.
The dining room had an air of freshness and fanciness, if not quite to genuine levels, and looked nicer than the oil-drenched food tasted. Seven round tables filled it, and a lone cleaning boy was getting to work picking up a red table full of dirty plates and used napkins. He was not working very thoroughly.
Essie tried not to spoil the night, being the only one of the three dissatisfied with the restaurant. Overpriced and noisy.
Casually she scanned the other customers: an overweight woman with short hair and too much makeup sat across from a wiry, pleasant-looking man with more wrinkles than seemed to match his apparent age, both barely touching their food. An elderly couple smiled and stared into one another’s eyes over spaghetti. A trio of healthy-looking women ranging from their early thirties to early forties was laughing together.
Essie looked to Julia, and then back at the people. To Julia again.
Then she realized what was off: there were no children anywhere. Aside from Julia, not a single person younger than twenty was present in the room.
This looked every bit like a family restaurant. It was rare to be in one where no children at all were present. Still, this was a college town.
“I wonder why more young families aren’t in town for Tour Week,” she said to Leonard, breaking the silence.
Leonard didn’t hear her. She repeated herself and he jolted to awareness and wiped his mouth before responding with a milquetoast, “Dunno.”
She sighed and stretched her jaw. She often engaged in such exercises to maintain her ability to smile. Beaming, she splayed her hands on the silky tablecloth and addressed the both of them. “Well, who’s ready to see Maxine again? It’s been a long time.”
“You mean because she stayed with her boyfriend’s family for Christmas? And during the summer?” Julia said, deadpan.
“Only this past year,” Leo corrected, his posture slack. “We saw her that first year.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve really heard anything from her,” said Essie. Her smile hung by a thread.
“Maybe she had a baby,” said Julia.
“Heaven help us,” muttered Essie, smile finally failing as she shoved her empty plate aside.
-Leonard-
The University drew closer and closer, cloaked in night. Leonard’s back ached from so much driving, but they had to see Maxine before the day was up.
The prospect of meeting her again brought up a whole world of thoughts for him—many strange and new, while others were all-too familiar. He pushed them all back, letting the fresh air flowing into the vehicle take precedent.
Lights burned in the windows of FDU, sparks suspended in air for all the darkness. Most of the university was rather old, and those buildings possessed a detailed, shapely quality of architecture seldom found in newer ones. One or two of them did look new, however, with smoother lines and sleeker, simpler design. Hedges and trees beautified the expansive landscape, but in the night, everything looked drab and bleak.
Leonard was struck with a sense of unease, and immediately he questioned it. He had spent so much time in school, himself. He believed fully in the value of higher education. How could he seriously be worried about his daughter spending too much time with her studies? He felt ashamed of himself, and yet the story of the Velazquez’s rebellious college student son echoed in his mind.
Why? This wasn’t like that. Maxine hadn’t disowned them. She never said she was angry at them, or gave a reason for her closed-off behavior.
This wasn’t like that.
They drove past the main campus all the way down to where numerous large buildings stood on the edge of school property: the dormitories, sleek and new, each with four stripes of windows along the sides, most of them still lit at this time. Understandable, even without considering it was populated by college kids, since darkness crept in rather early this time of year.
Reaching the Jamies Building, Leonard found a visitor parking spot and gave a timidly hopeful smile to Essie before climbing out of the car. This was it.
Deep breaths.
There, lit from behind by a streetlamp, was Maxine beside her boyfriend—a boy named Curtis who she’d met at school. They stood on the sidewalk, their features silhouetted.
Leonard’s baby, standing there. For real.
Maxine recognized the car and started walking up to them.
“Mom! Dad! Julia! So good to see you!”
Max…Maxine said that.
She was bathed in lamplight as she wrapped her arms around Leonard, causing him to stumble back with eyes widening. He barely had time to hug her back before she broke away and hugged Essie and then Julia.
The energy—she moved with such energy.
“Oh dear, look who it is,” she said with a cheeky grin as she gripped Julia’s arms. Julia stared back with wonder and laughed.
Maxine was paler than the rest of the family—she got it from Becky, her late mother—and was wearing a head of hair that Leonard had never seen before: cropped neatly to chin-level and bleached a very light blonde, almost white. Her face was somewhat long and her nose well-defined, like Leonard’s. Pretty eyelashes outlined her hazel eyes, and light red lipstick adorned her lips. The fall colors of her hooded sweater, combined with dark slacks, suited her well. She looked starkly beautiful, and yet so modest and mature.
It made Leonard’s heart skip a few beats.
“I’m so excited for you, Beanbag!” said Maxine.
“Oh, no,” breathed Julia. “Not that again.”
Maxine laughed and took a step back as Curtis came forward and nodded to the group. “Hey everyone. Welcome to Delton,” he said with a handsome smile on his round face that made Leonard feel inadequate. Curtis was half a foot taller than Maxine, white, with brown hair and blue eyes. His build was heavy, but his demeanor unintimidating except for a slight sharpness in his facial features. His head rolled casually as he spoke with chill demeanor. He wore a blue hoodie with the letters “FDU” printed proudly upon it along with the school’s mascot: Lylo the Fox, with fierce-looking eyes and fluffy ears.
Curtis put his hand forward to give a handshake to Leonard, and then Essie and Julia, confirming each of their names in turn. Leonard fought to keep his amazement in check.
“Finally, you all get to meet Curtis,” laughed Maxine.
‘Finally?’ You’re the one who didn’t even tell us about him. He remembered an awkward text conversation between him, Maxine, and Essie on the subject. Essie had tried to keep it positive. Maxine had ended up explaining that she was happy with Curtis and left it at that.
She clung to her boyfriend’s arm and smiled sweetly. “Especially considering we’re about to hit a year together.”
He smirked and faced the palms of his hands towards them. “I hope I meet your qualifications.”
Essie’s eyes became slick and her nostrils flared as she said, “As long as you’ve been taking care of her and appreciating her, I’m happy.”
Curtis turned to Maxine and they gazed at each other. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
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