Monday morning and Kari had picked up Jordan from Faye and Benny’s, and was driving him to school.  He had stayed at their place Sunday night, too, because they had attended a concert at church that didn’t end until very late, and since Kari had not yet made it back in town, he opted to stay the night there.  But now Alex was back in New York, Kari was back in Apple Valley, and life was trying to get back to normal.  If there was any such thing anymore.

And Jordan, her usually chipper son, seemed down in the dumps.  “You didn’t tell me how you enjoyed your weekend,” she said.

“It was okay,” Jordan said as joyless as he could possibly have said it.

“You went to church last night?”

“And that morning and afternoon too.  Is there ever a Sunday when Auntie Faye and Uncle Benny don’t go to church?”

“What was the sermon about?” Kari asked.

“Treating people right,” Jordan said, and then he looked at his mother. “How did he treat you?”

Kari knew exactly who the he was.  “What kind of question is that?”

“How did he treat you, Ma?  Did he treat you right?”

“Yes.  Of course he did!  He always does.  Why would you ask something like that?”

“Did he ask you to marry him?” Jordan asked.

Kari frowned.  “Marry him?  Jordan, what are you talking about?  We’re still trying to get to know each other.  What’s wrong with you, boy?”

She glanced at him as she drove.  Not enough to get a good read on what he might have been thinking, but enough to tell he was upset about something.  “What is it, J?” she asked him.

Jordan exhaled.  “I saw something online,” he said.

“About what?” she asked.

“About Alex.”  Jordan looked at his mother.  “And his fiancée.”

Kari’s heartbeat began to quicken.  “Don’t you believe everything you read online.  There’s nothing but lies on the internet.”

At first, there was silence.  Then she couldn’t help herself.  “What did you read?” she asked.

“I heard he bought this big diamond ring for Natalie Corman.”

“Natalie Corman?”  Kari was stunned.  “The actress?”

Jordan nodded.  “She says she and Alex are going to be married.  Married, Ma!  And she’s very beautiful.  I mean, she’s very, very beautiful.”  He looked at his mother again.  “How are we going to compete against that?  We drive a Toyota Tercel.  We live in a tiny little house.  We’re barely getting by!”

Kari pull up to the drop-off station at Arapaho Middle School.

“How are we going to compete against her?” Jordan asked again.

“We aren’t going to compete against any one,” Kari said firmly, although her heart was hammering.  “We won’t have to.  Whatever she said just isn’t true.”

Jordan stared at her.  “How can you say it’s not true?”

“Because it’s not true, Jordan, that’s how.   You hear me?  It’s not true.  Alex wouldn’t do that.”

“You’re always telling me you barely know him, you’re still trying to get to know him, but yet you’re going to believe that lady is lying?  Why would a big-time actress like Natalie Corman lie, Ma?  That’s crazy.  It’s official, she said.  I saw the ring, Ma!”

Kari could see the pain in his eyes.  And she was in so much pain herself she didn’t know how to comfort him.  But she did know this: there was nothing neither one of them could do about it now.  “Don’t you worry about that at all,” she said to her son.  “You hear me, Jordan?  Don’t worry about that.  You go to your classes and get your work.  You do like that preacher said and treat everybody right.  God’s got this.  We’re good.”

Jordan looked at his mother.  She was always putting on the brave front, no matter what.  But he knew she was hurting.  That was why he didn’t want to tell her when he first saw it on the internet late last night.  But he knew if anybody was going to tell her, it was only right that it would be him.

Although it was like the most uncool thing ever to his friends at Arapaho Middle, he reached over anyway and hugged his mother.  She deserved happiness more than anybody alive, if you asked Jordan, but she was always the one who never ended up with any.  He gladly hugged her neck.

And Kari gladly received the hug as she fought back tears.  Jordan was the only example she had in her entire life that turned out to be a home run, with no ands if or buts in the bargain.  Jordan, when it came down to it, was all she had.

And when they finished hugging, she managed to smile.  “If you’re good,” she said, “as I know you will be, I’ll cook you your favorite spaghetti tonight.”

Jordan tried to smile but he was too much of an emotional child.  “Okay, Ma,” he said, gathered up his bookbag, and got out of the car.

But as Kari drove away, she was angry.

“Damn!  Damn!  Damn!” she said out loud as she drove; as she gripped the steering wheel and hit her palm up against it.  She didn’t know if any of what that actress said was true, but that wasn’t the point to her.  She fell for some guy who still had mess to clean up, and now her son was in as deep as she was.  Now Jordan felt as hurt as she felt.  She dragged her own son into this shit when she swore she’d never do that again!  That was the worst part.

But it was more than that, too.  She even had Alex risking his life, over and over, because of her stupid decision when she wasn’t even eighteen, and with a dead man’s baby no less, to hook up with a bastard like Vito Visconni to begin with.  What kind of sorry-ass, can’t-do-anything-right piece of crap she really was?

But even Kari knew, as she drove further and further away, that she was only lashing out at herself because that news Jordan had just unloaded on her hurt.

Bad.