'Sit down,' she told him, and then began bringing out the food she had prepared.
'Oh, Ma! Wow!' He gazed at the platter of fluffy scrambled eggs with both bacon and his favorite sausage links. 'French-bread French toast!' He began filling his plate after grabbing first at the tall glass of cranberry juice and swallowing it half down.
Nora refilled it and sat down to join him. She smiled, pleased as he shoveled the eggs into his mouth, his eyes lighting up.
'You put cheese in them!' he exclaimed.
'You like them that way,' she replied, helping herself to a teaspoon of eggs, two sausage links, and a piece of French toast. 'There's soft butter and maple syrup for the French toast, J. J. Eat, and then we'll talk. I've got stuff to tell you before you take off.'
'What's up?' he asked her.
'Eat first- talk later.' She smiled, hoping he'd assume she was going to give him the usual back-to-school speech. When they had finished Nora suggested that they sit in the den where the fire was going.
'Yeah, the house has been a little cold, I've noticed. Have you had the furnace checked, Ma?' he wondered.
'I've had to keep the thermostat at sixty-eight during the day, and sixty-five at night,' Nora told her son. 'Your father isn't paying for the oil anymore, and I have to watch my pennies. You should have told me you were cold, J. J.'
'I just wore more clothes'- he grinned-'but Jill sure bitched. She's gotten used to a North Carolina climate, I'm made of sterner stuff, Ma. Now, what up? You saw my first-semester grades. I've done great, and I promise I'll keep up the good work. Honest! I'm not even going to consider pledging a frat until next year. I know I'm a legacy at Dad's old house, but that's the one I'm not interested in, seeing how Dad turned out.'
There was no easy way to do this, Nora thought bleakly. 'The divorce settlement has been agreed upon in principle,' she began. 'I'm signing the papers tomorrow, J. J. Your dad is going to give me alimony for the next five years. Not much, but I'll be job hunting by spring, and so I'll manage. In five years' time I should be able to do without any help from anyone, don't you think?' She smiled at him. 'And, honey, we've gotten your dad to pay for your dorm room until you graduate. You'll have to pay for your own meal plan, and if you want to move off of campus, he won't pay, but since you're on the soccer team, and on scholarship, I think you'll want to stay in the dorms.'
'The house?' J. J. demanded to know. 'He's selling it, isn't he?'
'Yes,' Nora admitted. 'I just don't have any option there. But Rick got me forty percent of the sales price. There's no mortgage on it, and Rick says I'll probably end up with almost four hundred thousand, honey. It's not bad. Really.'
'When do we have to be out?' J. J. asked her.
'The house goes on the market April first,' Nora said, 'but Rick says I'll probably have at least two months after a sale before it closes, to move. Jill has said she'll come and help me pack, and you'll be here too.'
'Where are we going to live?' he said low.
'I don't know yet, honey, but I'll tell you what. When you come home for your spring break, we'll go looking together, okay? It won't matter to Jill. She's hardly home at all anymore. It'll be fun. Just you and me. I know after next summer you'll probably be staying up at State, or going somewhere else for a job or an internship, but you'll always have a room at your ma's place. Wherever it is.' She put her arm about him, and gave him a hard hug.
'I hate him!' J. J. said fiercely.
'No, honey, feel sorry for him,' Nora told her son. 'He's growing old, and he can't face it. It's unlikely Heidi is going to stay with him till death do them part. Your father is going to end up alone one day in spite of everything he has done and everything he has. But we'll always have each other, J. J.'
'I'm glad I didn't go to see him while I've been home,' J. J. said. 'He called and asked Jill and me to go. She went 'cause she thought she might convince him to pay for her other two years at Duke Law. She was really pissed when she got back.'
'Because he wouldn't,' Nora said softly. 'I did try for her too, you know.'
'Serves her right,' J. J. muttered, 'kissing up to Dad and his bitch.'
'Honey!' Nora chided her son gently.
'Well, it does,' J. J. said angrily. 'Why the hell is Dad treating you like this? All you ever did was be exactly what he wanted you to be, and do everything he wanted you to do. I can still remember those parties you used to hostess for Dad's clients and partners when Jill and I were little. They all loved them. They all thought you were great. What happened, Ma? Why doesn't he think you're great anymore?'
'His needs have changed, honey.' Nora tried to explain it to her son, although she wasn't certain she really understood it herself. Jeff was having one whale of a midlife crisis. 'I don't fit the profile anymore of what he needs, or thinks he needs, now. Heidi does. I'm learning it isn't unusual for men his age to do this. Particularly men in positions of importance or power within their career arenas. Suddenly the wife who provided the backup and support while they were climbing the ladder of success is no longer the wife they want. They want someone young and intelligent because they think it makes them look younger and smarter.'
'I'll never be like Dad,' J. J. said stonily. 'When I marry it's going to be forever.'
'I hope it is, honey,' Nora told him. 'It used to be like that.' She stood up. 'You had better get your shower. Your bags are all packed. I'm taking you and Maureen to the bus in just an hour.'
J. J. arose, and putting his arms about his mother, he hugged her hard, planting a kiss on her cheek. 'I'll always love you best, Ma,' he said.
'Best of your parents is flattering, honey,' she said, 'but love the girl you marry one day best of all, and above all other women. That's the way it should be. And if it is that way, then your wife and I will always be friends and never jealous of one another.'
Releasing her, he ran off to take his shower, returning forty minutes later smelling of soap, shampoo, and too much aftershave. He was wearing his best worn jeans, a flannel shirt with an Irish sweater over it, and his favorite leather work boots. His hair was wet.
'You can't go out with wet hair,' she scolded him. 'Use the dryer in my bathroom. You've got time before we have to go.'
Grumbling, he returned back upstairs, and when he came down again his hair was dry, and slicked back with some kind of goop he used. 'Better?' he demanded to know.
'Better,' she said, resigned as she watched him slap his favorite baseball cap, brim backward, on his head. She couldn't convince him that he would ruin his hair with that damned cap on his head all the time. She picked up the car keys from the bowl on the hall table. 'Let's ride, Clyde,' she said with a small smile.
He picked up his two duffels. 'You get everything in here, Ma?' he asked.
'Everything you left out, and some other stuff you forgot,' she told him as they walked to the car in the driveway. She popped the trunk, and he tossed his bags inside.
Joe came staggering across the street with Maureen's matching luggage, his daughter followed pulling another suitcase on wheels, and Carla carried a shopping bag that Nora knew had sandwiches, chips, goodies, and juice boxes for the long bus ride. The luggage was all loaded up. Hugs and kisses all around, and Nora got into the car and drove her son and neighbor's daughter to the bus station. Reaching their destination, J. J. and Maureen were out of the car quickly, waving and calling to two other kids they knew, who were obviously returning to State today as well. Then he unloaded the trunk.
'You don't have to wait, Ma,' J. J. said. He wasn't embarrassed yet, but he was going to be if she didn't take the hint and go.
How long until she saw him again? Nora wondered, struggling with herself not to cry. 'Give me a hug and a kiss, honey,' she said, and he did.
'Bye, Ma. I'll call you tonight, okay?'
'Call early,' Nora said. 'I'm going to bed right away. Tomorrow is going to be a bitch of a day for me. Before eight, okay?'
'Sure,' he said, and turning away, he joined his friends as they gathered up all their luggage and began loading it on the waiting bus.
'Bye, Mrs. Buckley,' Maureen said, giving her a quick kiss. 'Thanks for driving me down here.'
'Have a good term, Mo,' Nora told the girl. Then she got into the car and drove away. She tucked the car
