About a year later, Liza and herfriend Jenna, both home from their first year away at school, wentto visit Jack and his friends. Liza, as had been her habit allfreshman year, drank excessively, and draped herself on some randomguy, one of Jack's fraternity brothers. The presence of alcohol inher system heightened her behavior, always desperate for any sortof male attention. She ended up making out with him, much toJenna's disgust and Jack's apparent anger. After she had kissed therandom friend, Jack was obviously angry and refused to speak toLiza. Apparently, he had had other plans for Liza. Irony of allironies. It was the last time they spoke.
CHAPTER ONE: October 4,2010
Most days Elizabeth Zurlo felt that her lifehad somehow swallowed her up. She no longer knew who she wasinside. The external forces in her life defined her whole being.She was Peter's wife, Mrs. Zurlo. She was Teddy and Sydney's mom.And at work, where she was a preschool special education teacher,she was Miss Elizabeth. A lifetime ago, she had been known as Liza,but no one called her that anymore. Despite this wide array oftitles, Elizabeth no longer knew who she was inside. Her life was achaotic mess, running from one place to another. Trying desperatelyto balance the demands of motherhood, running a household, beingpersonal assistant to her ever-forgetful husband, and taking careof her students' needs. There were simply not enough hours in theday to do all this and care for herself as well. It was hard tobelieve that one can be burned out by the age of thirty-four, butthat is exactly how Elizabeth felt. Burned out, used up, empty. Shewas in desperate need of a recharge.
She sighed as she filled out the dry-eraseboard for the month. It was already the fourth of the month, andshe was behind, just putting the new month out now. It was only thesecond month of school and she was behind the eight ball. She waspainfully anal as she color-coded the activities for the family.Feeling that if she could neatly organize her life on the board,then it would fall into place in reality. Black for her, red forPeter. Blue for Teddy and purple for Sydney. A little orangepumpkin on Halloween. Slowly, square after square became filled in,until there were only about five empty during the entire month.Dance lessons. Piano lessons. Baseball. PTA meetings. Dentistappointments. Work meetings. Birthday parties. School projects. Noschool next Monday. This was Elizabeth's life, month after month.There would be no break, no recharging this month. She copied theinformation to the calendar from her ever-trusty iPhone, knowingfull well that no one in her family ever looked at the calendar.But still, she tried, knowing the key to a smoothly runninghousehold was clear communication.
She turned away from the calendar and noticedthe crumbs all over the floor. She plugged the vacuum in and did aquick sweep of the kitchen. She parked the vacuum in a corner ofthe kitchen, carefully moving the cord out of the way. Peter hatedthat she left the vacuum out. But he was too passive aggressive tohave an actual battle about it. When he noticed it, he would carryit down to the basement to get it out of the way. Elizabeth used italmost every day to clean up after Teddy and Sydney, and after thecats, and after each meal. She would turn around, looking for thevacuum, only to find that Peter had helped her by "putting itaway." Predictably, she would then lose it and start yelling athim. Anyway, Elizabeth had no desire to repeat this fight yetagain, but did not want to carry the vacuum up and down the stairseither. It was another thing that made Elizabeth tired. And it wasonly Monday morning.
Elizabeth yelled up the stairs to the kids andthey came barreling down, pushing and shoving. Each one wanting tobe first. "Stop guys," she warned.
"Mom, he pushed me!" Sydney whined.
"Did not, you cut me off!" Teddy replied,shoving his sister. A few more jabs were thrown while the pairdescended the stairs.
"ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!" Elizabeth yelled."Someone is going to get hurt!" The shoving continued. "SIT DOWNNOW!"
Elizabeth started slamming cabinets and dishes.She saw Peter coming down the stairs, and couldn't miss the dirtylook he gave her. He hated her yelling, but he never lookedat why she was yelling, onlythat she was. She turned herback, took a deep breath, re-arranged her face to something moreresembling calmness, and turned back to face her children. Anythingto avoid conflict this morning. While Elizabeth busied herselfgetting her children breakfast, she noticed Peter standing in frontof the calendar. Wonder of wonders, he even seemed to be looking atit! Then, as if guided by the hand of God, Peter picked up the redmarker and Elizabeth was dumbfounded. Never in the five years sinceshe had been using the board had Peter ever written on it, save arandom phone number here or there. It finally gave Elizabeth aglimmer of hope on a gray, October Monday morning. A smile startedto spread across her face.
That was, until Elizabeth saw what Peter hadwritten. "You're going out of town this week? Again?"
"Yeah, project meeting in Michigan. They needme to go over what we’re doing here and help set up the facilityout there, so they can start testing."
"Oh." She couldn't even muster fake enthusiasm.She let out a defeated sigh. "How long do you think you'll begone?"
"I leave tomorrow morning, and they hope tohave me back by the following Tuesday, but you know how itgoes."
Elizabeth sighed again and pasted yet anotherpleasant look on her face. At
