Page 9 of Coming Home for Fall 2
This seemed to get Callie’s attention. She rinsed off the next few dishes in silence.
“Look,” Mallory said in a softer tone of voice. “I’m not trying to be a jerk. I realize that of all the people in this family, I have the least amount of legs to stand on here.”
Her mom frowned at her. “Huh? Is that a saying?”
“You know what I mean. I get that this is probably ironic coming from me, since I’m also in need of a roof over my head,and I have many times in the past… But I’m worried. If you would just let me talk to her a little more freely—”
“Not yet,” Callie interrupted. “She’s still getting comfortable here, and she was so upset over the whole thing with your bedroom. When she found out that she was sleeping in your room, she thought for sure you were going to hate her for it. She was crying and everything.”
This gave Mallory pause. “She—she was crying?”
“Yes. Mallory, she’s young and scared and this is all very new for her as well. We need to give her more time. Once she realizes that we are good people who are going to help her no matter what, then we can start asking her some questions. If we pry into her private life too soon, however, I’m afraid we’re just going to make her shut down even more. You can understand that, right?”
“... I guess.”
Callie handed her the large mixing bowl. “I think you’ll feel better once you spend some more time with her.”
Mallory said nothing. She struggled to get a mixing bowl to fit on the bottom row. Her mom came over to help her, then clicked her tongue as she surveyed the way the rest of the dishes were organized. “No offense, love, but have you ever loaded a dishwasher before?”
“Rude!” Mallory replied, but she was laughing. “It’s fine. They all get clean anyway.”
“That’s not true.” Callie bent down and pried two sheet pans apart. “When the dishes are crammed in too close to one another, the water can’t get between them. We don’t have one of those fancy new washers. This thing is probably at least twenty-five years old.” She started to re-do the work her daughter had already done. “I’ll do it.”
Mallory shook her head and grabbed another beer from the fridge.
“I really think it would’ve been fine,” she said. “But if you’re dead set on doing it your way, I won’t stop you. If you need me, I’ll be in the living room with dad watching a bad shark movie.”
Callie laughed to herself. “You two and those movies. Oh—invite Sasha to join you, yeah? I think she has better taste than that, but who knows?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll invite her,” Mallory said over her shoulder on the way out of the kitchen. “But if she’s one of those people who talks a lot during movies, then I’mreallygoing to have a problem with her.”
*
Sasha politely declined their offer to watch the movie, stating she was tired and wanted to put Dot down before it got too late. Mallory was glad to watch the movie alone with her dad, like usual. They polished off four more beers between the two of them and laughed through the ridiculous ending of the ‘film’. When the credits were rolling, Mallory held her aching stomach and rested her head back against the couch.
“Brilliant,” she declared. “Five stars! Ten out of ten!”
“Ten out of ten?” her dad whistled under his breath. “High praise. I was going to give it a nine out of ten. Only because I totally saw the ending coming.”
“We always see the ending coming. These movies aren’t exactly original.”
“No, not in that one movie with those women in the shark cage!” he said. “I thought for sure they were both going to live. So tragic.”
Mallory shook her head. “Yeah, well that was just you being naive.”
“It’s more fun that way,” he said. “Next time, try not to guess the ending. It’ll enhance the experience, I promise.”
“We’ll see.” She picked at a loose thread on the couch cushion. Her dad turned the TV off but didn’t immediately get out of his lazy boy chair. “Hey, would it be possible for me to borrow your car in the next day or two?”
“Sure,” he said. “Where are you going?”
“I was going to see if Ariel would meet up with me somewhere halfway. I know she’s a good five hours away, but I want to see her before the holidays.”
“And by that, I’m guessing what you really mean is that you’re going to talk to her about Sasha.”
Mallory shrugged. “Would that be such a bad thing?”
“No,” David said after a moment of thought. “Although I probably wouldn’t tell your mother that’s what you’re going to do. Not that I advocate for lying to her, I just think she’d take it personally if you said you were going to meet up with your sister to talk about all of this behind your mom’s back.”
