She arrived back home and the house was dark.She hated that Peter refused to leave a light on for her when shewas out in the evening. He would go to bed, not ever concerned thatshe made it home safely. She wondered if that would be different ifhe knew about the night she almost didn't arrive. After trippingand stumbling over some crap, cursing as she bumped her thigh on achair, she finally traversed the kitchen, Elizabeth finally made itthrough the dark to the stairs, sliding her feet along like a blindperson. Anger and confusion and hurt started to churn and brew inher head. She was horrified at her thoughts earlier in the evening.Part of her wanted to march into the bedroom, wake Peter's ass up,and take out her aggression in a physical manner.
But she didn't. She quietly and meekly turned asmall light on in the bathroom so as not to disturb Peter. Shesearched around in the dark bedroom for her pajamas and thenchanged in the bathroom. She extinguished the bathroom light, andcrept into bed, never disturbing the man with whom she shared it.She fell asleep, crying. Her dreams led her to an exotic setting,and let her unleash her passion with a man who was most definitelynot her husband.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: June 20,2012
Wednesday brought slight relief for Elizabeth,as she did not have to go into school right away. She still hadplenty more clean-up to do before closing her classroom up for thesummer, but there was no need for her to be out of the house firstthing. She did not shower before the children got up, insteaddonning sweat shorts and a tank top, much like the stay-at-homemoms favored. Her hair was in a ponytail and she had no make-up on.And it felt great. She wished every day could be like this, whereher focus could be on her children, and not on working. Sheleisurely made herself a cup of coffee while she got the kids theirbreakfasts. Because she had the time, she packed their snacks aswell, even though she normally made the kids do it. When they wereall trying to get out of the house in the morning, she needed thekids to be as self-sufficient as possible. Today, it didn't matter.She could take care of them. She could baby them for oneday.
Elizabeth had the TV in the living room on andwanted to watch one of the morning news programs. She heard themsay that author J.P. Devaney would be on, talking about his latestbestseller, "Hold Her Down." Elizabeth wanted to see what this guylooked like. Would she be able to see what Nancy was attracted to?Did John look like him? Because she wanted to take the kids out tothe bus stop and wait with them, she started recording the show andleft the house. Outside, the morning was already hot and steamy.She didn't envy the teachers who had to go into school today, butit was the last day. The kids were being dismissed early aswell.
The peace and flow of the morning madeElizabeth forget all of the unpleasantness of the last few days.She took her coffee out on the front porch and sat there for a fewminutes, just enjoying the sun shining and the birds chirping. Itwas a nice respite from the hustle and bustle that was her normallife. She took a few deep breaths and felt okay about the world.She was even in such a good mood that she called Agnes to check in,before Agnes could call her.
"Elizabeth, what's wrong? You never callme."
"Nothing, Mom. Just thought I'd check in. Ijust got the kids off to school for their last day."
"Were they excited?"
"Of course. I can't believe they'll be cominghome a second and a fourth grader."
"I know. It seems like just yesterday our kidswere babies."
Elizabeth tightened. This was why she didn'tcall her mother. Agnes always knew just how to step over the lineand didn't even realize she was doing it. "Yes, my kids are growing up too fast."
The emphasis was lost on Agnes, as it usuallywas. She prattled on for a minute, instructing Elizabeth on theimportance of structure and routine over summer vacation. "You needto keep structure for your kids. That's why their behavior is soterrible. It's because there are no expectations placed on them.You need to have a specific chore time set up daily where all ofyou do your chores. Including you. Maybe you can get your housetotally clean this summer for once."
"Thanks, Mom." Elizabeth snapped.
"What?" Agnes retorted. "I'm just stating afact. You're too busy to keep a good house. Too involved." She said it like it was a dirty word."Your grandmother would roll over in her grave if she knew howlackadaisical you are about cleaning. We cleaned our house top tobottom every week."
"Yes, Mother. I'm aware that I'm a horriblehousekeeper. I also understand that Mimi never worked outside thehome a day in her life, so it's really not fair to compare my lifeto hers."
"Well, you don't have to get so defensive,"Agnes gibed.
"Mother, you just insulted my parenting abilityas well as my housekeeping ability. You also said that mygrandmother would be very disappointed in me. What is not to getdefensive about?"
"Well, I don't need to hear this." And withthat, she disconnected.
Elizabeth stood up from her seat on the porchand walked inside. So much for her good mood. Leave it to Agnes toruin things. Elizabeth reminded herself that this was why she didnot call Agnes more. The TV was still on, which reminded Elizabeththat she had recorded the morning news program to watch. Her coffeecup was empty so she took it back out to the kitchen anddeliberated getting another cup. Her stomach was starting to churnafter the conversation with Agnes, so she decided to eat somethingfirst. She opened the fridge and looked at the offerings. Sheshould have her Greek yogurt with fruit and granola, but she didn'tfeel like it today. She shut the
