One More for Christmas

Who said she couldn’t do Christmas? This, hopefully, would be all the evidence Samantha and Eleanor would need to see that she was genuine in her desire to spend the holidays with them.

There would be no recriminations. No mentions of the past. At least, not from her.

She was going to focus on the present and the future.

Her granddaughter.

Nerves fluttered in her stomach. Had she done enough?

There was just one more thing she needed to do.

Ignoring the throb in her head, she reached for her laptop.

Samantha

“Will there be cake?” Tab danced along, joyous, hand in hand with Ella and Michael as they crossed the street.

“Unlikely.” It was Ella who answered.

“Cookies?”

“Equally unlikely.”

“Nanna doesn’t eat?”

“She doesn’t eat sweet things.”

“Why?”

“Because not everyone does.”

“Why don’t they?”

Back and forth, back and forth, like a game of tennis. What? Why? When? How?

Samantha listened in awe as Ella tried tactfully to prepare Tab for the reality of tea with their mother. Where did her sister find her patience? Samantha adored Tab, but after five minutes of question tennis, she was done.

Enough, she wanted to yell. Time-out.

Her own deficiencies in patience made her wonder if perhaps she wasn’t cut out to be a mother. Did she even want children?

Ella was still talking to Tab. “Nanna’s apartment isn’t designed for children, so you have to be very good and very careful. No running around. No hiding.”

“Why?”

“Because you might break something.”

“Would that make her angry and shouty?”

Ella shook her head. “No. Nanna doesn’t get angry. I’ve never heard her shout.”

Michael was quiet, and Samantha wondered what he was thinking. This whole situation must be strange for him, too.

The conversation continued, back and forth until they reached the apartment building where Gayle now lived.

Samantha glanced at her sister and Ella gave her a weak smile. They were both thinking the same thing. That the last time they’d come here, the visit hadn’t ended well.

At some point they were going to have to discuss it. An explosion that big, particularly one that had caused a major rift in family relations, couldn’t be ignored forever.