Friday Morning, Cincinnati

Pip packed her costume and suitcases, ready to leave for Vegas for the Fall convention season.  Her schedule had arrived that morning and she was booked four nights a week with two daytime conference presentations, and she would be off on Sunday and Mondays, with an alternating Tuesday. The money was nice and it was a great change of pace from the museum.

“What happened to your Prince Charming man I was supposed to meet?” Roxanne asked her sarcastically.

“I think he dumped me.  So now, you’re stuck with me for the rest of your days, and you know what I am thinking, Mama?  I am thinking I’m going to sell this house, put you in a nursing home, and when you go through the money like I know you are going to, you will be on your own,” Pip said. “I deserve a better life than you have given me and you are not going to steal the one I could potentially have with your drunken, whorish bullshit.”

“You don’t speak to me like that; I’m your Mama!” Roxanne said, pulling a long drag from a cigarette.

“If you don’t like it, pack a bag and get out of my house.  I will be so much happier without you, those stinky cancer sticks, the smell of sour beer putrefaction in cans, as well as your sorry excuses for housekeeping,” Pip said. “I have put money in your account to last you the two months I will be gone. If you go through it, you are slap out of luck.  Best start learning now how to manage your money because when I get back, you are getting out of my house.”

“Persephone...you know to never let a man come between you and blood,” Demeter said.

“I’m not letting a man come between me and you Mama.  My life is. My desire to live freely and enjoy the money I work hard to earn is coming between us.  No more.  No more sapping my life force,” Pip said, closing the suitcase.

“It’s him! It this man filling your head with his highfalutin ways,” Roxanne snapped at her daughter.

“Mom, he dumped me. However, I am starting to see my own reflection a bit better, now and maybe he did shine some light on how unhappy I am in our current arrangement.  Mom, I will always love you as my mother, but you are toxic to my happiness, and I want to be free.  I plan to be free starting today,” Pip said, picking up the case.

“So you are just going to leave with things like this between us?”

“I am going to leave, and when I get back, I am finding you somewhere else to live.  You have worn out your welcome here,” Pip said, walking to the door. “If you burn the house down while I am gone, fine. I have insurance.”

She left the house, her mother’s voice calling in her ear as she climbed inside the paid shuttle car to the airport. If Michael showed up in Vegas, she would talk to him. If he didn’t show up, she would go on with her life.

“Dear Jesus, I am sorry for my fornificacious ways, but somehow in a month, I fell in love with that man. It was supposed to be a fling, but my heart wants a life with him,” she said softly with her eyes closed. She’d kept her eye on the news as Hurricane Harvey made landfall, nearly decimating Houston.  Pip’s concerns quickly shifted by the time she landed in Las Vegas from hoping Michael would make it to Las Vegas, to praying Michael would still be alive.

She arrived in the wee hours of the night, checking into the adjoining suite next to Zelda’s. It was too late to call her, so she sent a text that she’d arrived.  Instinct made her turn on the news to eye the devastation in Texas.  Tomorrow she would call him.  Maybe it wasn’t a blow off after all.  Michael was a responsible man.

Going back to Texas was the responsible thing to do.

I am an adult.  I can be responsible as well.  I am not going to allow my mother to ruin this for me or kill my relationship with this man. I’m not going to call him, though.  I have my pride.

****

THE WORST PART OF THE storm had passed, leaving Houston as a wet, soaked bog of a city filled with floating debris, poisonous snakes, and an alligator walking across the street. Grandma Lula spotted it after she made a stink about checking on her house, trying to get out the door.  Spotting the alligator strolling down the street as if it were going to the market to shop brought the old lady back into the house.

“Grandma, we can watch the news on my tablet.  The whole area where you lived is flooded.  You are not going to be able to live in that house again,” he told her, placing his arm about her shoulder.

“What am I supposed to do?  Live here with you?” she asked, her old eyes filled with tears.

“No, you don’t have to do that, but until we figure something out, Zelda is gone for nearly two months, so there is more than enough room,” he said softly.

“I’m not staying in this house with you and your fornicating redheaded she-devil either!”

“Persephone is working in Vegas as well for the Fall conference season.  She will not be here, but I am planning to go there once the water clears,” he said.

“Michael, are you planning to marry that gal?”

“I was...but just my luck she has a crazy Momma to contend with,” he said sighing heavily.

Lula placed her arm around his waist, squeezing him tightly. “Don’t let that stop you.  I wish I could go back and do so many things differently, but my life was hard. Feeding your Mama and keeping a roof over our heads was a constant struggle. I did things I swore would land me in hell, then I got lucky and got a decent job,” she said. “I gave my life to Jesus and never looked back.”

“Grandma, we are all imperfect.  You have to fall down in order to get back up,” he told her.

“Don’t use my words against me,” she said, pulling away.

“I’m not, but right now, we are all down and have to get on our feet, and I’m tired.  I want a nice girl to come home to and a couple of kids after I travel the world a bit.  I have worked my entire life taking care of Zelda and you, and right now, I am down.  Persephone makes me feel tall.  I stand tall when I am with her,” he said softly.

“I saw,” she said.

“Then you know where I am standing,” he said to his Grandmother.

“If she makes you happy, then be happy,” Lula told him.

“She does and Persephone is going to be a part of my life, but I am not going to bring her into my world if you are going to act ugly. If you force me to make a choice between the two of you, I will.”

“You would choose her over your own Grandmother?”

“If my Grandmother decides she can’t act right and wants to be rude, telling the woman her puppet is a conduit for Satan, then yes.  Yes, I will,” Michael said to her.

“Well, then.  You do what you feel you must,” Grandma Lula told him.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean I need to choose.  I am asking you to be civil and treat her with respect.  Are you telling me you are unwilling to do that?”

Lula said nothing as she went to the kitchen, looking for something to eat, her back to him and rigid as she opened the refrigerator. The heaviness in her heart was reminiscent of a similar conversation she had with her daughter before she returned home to a man that Lula knew was the devil incarnate.

“Be happy, Michael,” she told him. “Live your life and be happy.”

She had nothing more to say on the subject as he took a piece of cheese, a few crackers, and a bottle of sweetened ice tea to the guest room. Her Bible, the constant companion at her side, was flung across the room as she threw herself across the bed and cried. Her home was ruined, her relationship with her grandchildren shattered, and she cried for the loss of so much time. She mumbled into the bed covers, singing “Nearer My God to Thee” as the thought of not having her grandchildren in her life hit her hard.

“I can change,” she said. “I will change.”