Maggie's Turn (11 page)

Maggie laughed. This was crazy. Even thinking about trading in her brand new van for a slightly used Mustang didn't make sense at all. "I'll think about it," she told Jerry, but she didn't plan on giving it another thought.

It was late afternoon by the time Maggie and Bobbi had parked in Harrah's Casino parking lot and were seated in the dining room of the Forest Buffet on the eighteenth floor. The view of the mountains out the floor-to-ceiling windows was breathtaking, and the food was delicious. They feasted on seafood, steak, and a variety of other entrees, and loaded up on dessert as well. They were both famished from their long day.

"That sure was a beautiful car," Bobbi said, as they both sat, contemplating another dessert.

"Yes, it was," Maggie agreed, eyeing her cautiously.

"It was in really great shape for a 2009, too."

"Yes, it was in very good shape. It looked almost new."

"It think it was the GT model."

Maggie stared hard at Bobbi. "Are you getting a cut of Jerry's commission? You sound like you're trying to sell me that car."

Bobbi laughed. "No. I just think you'd have so much more fun driving around in that Mustang than in your mom van."

"Hey. I like my mom van. It's comfortable, it handles well, and it's practical."

Bobbi shrugged as she stood to get one more dessert. "Who wants to be practical? There's no fun in that." She threw Maggie a smile and headed back over to the food counter.

Maggie was too full to eat one more dessert, so she sat there, looking out the large expanse of windows at the incredible view. Practical. She remembered a time when she hadn't always been practical and had enjoyed spontaneity in her life. After spending years caring for her father and sister, going to college had opened a whole new world for her, giving her the freedom to be carefree and spontaneous, something she hadn't been able to do growing up. And after she and Andrew started dating, he said it was her impractical side that he loved so much. Her ability to drop everything at a moment's notice and pack up a picnic, or go for a drive, or even a midnight stroll on the beach. Somewhere along the line, she'd lost that spontaneity. Or, maybe she grew up and became responsible. She'd stopped looking for the fun in life and had become mundane and boring. Maybe that was what had caused Andrew to stop looking at her as the woman he'd fallen in love with, and instead just as his wife and the mother of his children.

As Maggie sat there, contemplating this, her cell phone vibrated. She looked and saw a text from Kaia asking a question about making lasagna. Maggie smiled. At least being boring had a few perks. Her daughter could count on her to know things like how to boil noodles and fry hamburger. She answered her, feeling happy to be needed as the practical mom that she was.

***

Andrew picked Kaia up from school, and they headed to the store to buy groceries. Kaia shook her head at him when they parked at the local grocery store. "What?" Andrew asked, perplexed.

"Mom always goes to Walmart first to buy most of the groceries, because it's cheaper. She only comes here to buy the meat, dairy products, and baked goods, because she says they're better here."

Andrew sighed. "Your mom has all the time in the world to go from store to store, but if we do that, we'll never get home in time to make lasagna. Besides, this store is one of our biggest sponsors for television advertising. It's always best to support our local stores instead of the chain stores."

"Okay, but that's not how Mom does it," Kaia said, as she stepped out of the car and followed Andrew into the store.

Andrew didn't care how Maggie grocery shopped. He was in charge now, and they were doing it his way.

Kaia grabbed a cart in the entryway and rolled it into the store, following her dad. She stopped at the apples and started carefully choosing apples to put in a plastic bag.

"Why are you scrutinizing every apple? Just grab a few and bag them."

"Geez, Dad. You have to look for bruises, holes, and broken stems. I don't want to eat a rotten apple," Kaia told him.

Andrew didn't reply. He just headed over to the lettuce and picked out a head. He didn't know the first thing about picking fresh fruit or vegetables. In truth, he didn't know anything about grocery shopping. Maggie had always done the shopping and cooking, and he'd never paid any attention to it.

As he picked out a bunch of bananas, Kaia shook her head at him.

"Now what?" he asked.

"They have lots of black spots. Pick ones that are just a little green at the top without all the spots. They'll be perfect in a day or two and last longer."

Andrew frowned but did as he was told. After placing the almost ripe bananas into the cart, he asked, "How do you know so much about picking fruit?"

Kaia shot a condescending stare his way. "I go shopping with Mom all the time. I'm not stupid, I see what she does."

"Why do you always go? Do you like shopping?" Andrew asked. It never occurred to him that Kaia went everywhere with Maggie.

"Not really. At least, not this type of shopping. But it's an occupational hazard. I can't drive yet, so I have to go everywhere Mom goes."

Andrew laughed. "Occupational hazard? What in the world do you mean by that?"

"Well, duh, Dad. I have to do whatever the grown-ups are doing. It's an occupational hazard of being a teen without a driver's license."

Andrew shook his head and smiled. "You know, you're a funny kid."

Kaia just rolled her eyes and walked past her dad with the cart.

After filling up the cart with a week's worth of fruit, vegetables, meat, cereal, and dog and cat food, they got in line to pay. Most of the checkout clerks and baggers knew Kaia either from her shopping there with Maggie or because a few were friends with Kyle. Andrew was surprised, and a little proud, that his daughter knew so many people. He'd always prided himself on being popular in town and he liked that his daughter seemed to be, too. He had a smug look on his face as he watched the computer screen total up their groceries.

"Hi, Kaia. Where's Maggie?" A young woman who was short and round wearing a smock over her clothes came up to the counter and opened a plastic bag to start bagging their groceries.

"Hi, Cindi. Mom's gone away for a while, but she'll be back soon," Kaia said, then asked how Cindi was doing.

As Andrew listened to the exchange between his daughter and Cindi, he watched the girl bagging his groceries. Her hands were small and wide, which made it a little awkward for her to pick up larger items to bag. Her round face was friendly and smiling, and she had almond-shaped eyes. Her hair was cut short, and she had bangs framing her eyes. There was no mistaking she had Down Syndrome, and Andrew wondered how Kaia knew her.

Kaia noticed her dad watching her, so she turned to him. "This is Cindi, Dad. Mom drives her here to work and sometimes takes Cindi shopping, too."

"Oh," was all Andrew managed to say as he processed the information. It dawned on him that Cindi was one of the residents of the group home where Maggie worked. He'd never really paid any attention to what Maggie did, or who she worked with, so this was a surprise to him.

"And bowling, too," Cindi interjected with a wide smile on her face, making Kaia laugh.

"Yes, and we sometimes go bowling together, too," Kaia said.

"Bowling?" Andrew asked, surprised. But then the cashier told him the total of the bill, and his attention returned to the computer screen.

"How much did you say?" Andrew asked the cashier.

"Two hundred and sixty-five," the boy said, and began helping Cindi bag the groceries.

Andrew frowned. Were groceries really this expensive? He looked over at Kaia, who shrugged at him.

"Told you," she said with a satisfied look on her face.

Andrew only shook his head and swiped his debit card to pay.

Cindi helped cart the groceries out to Andrew's black convertible and loaded them into the trunk and the backseat.

"This is a lot smaller than Maggie's van," Cindi commented, as she tried to make everything fit.

Andrew bit his lip and didn't say anything.

"Bye, Kaia," Cindi said, as she headed back to the store. "Tell Maggie I said hi."

Kaia waved and slipped into the passenger seat, as her dad got behind the wheel.

"Looks like Cindi and you know each other pretty well," he said, as he started the car.

"Well, yeah. I hang out with Mom when she works in the summer, and I go along when she takes residents shopping or out for activities. Cindi is a lot of fun."

"Oh, I didn't know that," Andrew said.

"What did you think I did all these years? Sit at home alone while Mom worked? She never wanted me to be home alone, so she brought me along. Kyle used to come along, too, but once he had a summer job, he stopped."

Andrew thought hard but couldn't remember having been told that the kids accompanied Maggie to work in the summer. He always went to work and didn’t worry about where the kids or Maggie were, or what they did. That was Maggie's job. Now, he wondered why he hadn't paid more attention.

After unloading the groceries and carrying them in, Kaia took charge and began putting everything away. "I doubt if you know where everything goes anyway," she told her dad when he said he would help. And she was right. He had never paid attention to where anything was stored. "You can feed Bear and fill the cat food bowls while I finish," she told him.

"Fine." Andrew found the canned dog food and opened one, then spilled the entire contents into Bear's bowl.

Kaia ran over and grabbed the bowl. "Only half a can. He gets half in the morning and half at night. And he gets dry food, too, in the other bowl." She started scraping food out of the bowl and back into the can, then found a plastic lid and capped it.

"What difference does it make?" Andrew asked, angry at being chastised by a teenager.

"Bear's getting too fat. Mom's limiting his canned food, and he eats diet dry food."

"Oh." Andrew walked over to the cat food bowls with a container of dry food. "Can I feed the cats, or are they on a diet, too?"

Kaia only stared at her dad with raised eyebrows. She looked just like Maggie when she looked at him that way. Andrew stopped being sarcastic and fed the cats.

"Maybe you should be in charge of feeding the animals so I don't mess it up," he suggested and was rewarded with a sigh.
Cripes, do all women sigh so much? Or do I just bring it out in them?

"I'll start making the lasagna," Kaia said, as she finished putting the groceries away. "Do you want to cut up the salad?"

"Do you think I can do it right?"

"Daaaad!"

"I'm just kidding. I'll do it." And they both began working quietly, side by side, in the kitchen.

***

After Maggie and Bobbi had eaten their fill, they made the trek out to her van and got in for the drive back to Reno. But as they passed the car lot again, instead of driving right past it, Maggie found herself pulling in and stopping behind the red Mustang.

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" Bobbi asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

"I'm just looking again," Maggie said, but as the words left her mouth, she knew that wasn't true. She really wanted to drive the Mustang again. And again, and again. Crap. She did want to buy it.

The two women stepped out of the van and stood in silence, staring at the car as the sun made its way down in the west.

"I really loved driving that car," Maggie said.

"It's a great car," Bobbi agreed.

"Is it crazy, wanting a sports car at my age?"

Bobbi looked over at Maggie. "At your age? I didn't know you were an old lady. Maybe we should be looking at a motorized scooter chair instead."

Maggie slid her eyes over toward Bobbi. "Ha, ha."

They stood a little longer, staring at the car.

"Red or blue?" Maggie asked.

"Definitely red," Bobbi replied with certainty.

Maggie turned to Bobbi, her expression doubtful. "But doesn't red just shout out 'midlife crisis'?"

Bobbi shrugged. "Well, isn't that kind of what this is?"

"Oh hell," Maggie said, and both women broke out in laughter. "Might as well just embrace it rather than fight it, huh?"

"Might as well," Bobbi agreed.

The door to the office opened, and Jerry came out, smiling wide. Maggie followed him back into the office to make arrangements to trade in her old life for her new one.

Chapter Twelve

Maggie was sitting cross-legged on the bed in her hotel room, looking at the pictures she had taken that day on her computer screen, when her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen and saw it was from home.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Maggie. I didn't wake you, did I?" Andrew asked.

Maggie looked over at the clock. It was ten o'clock her time, so that meant it was midnight at home. "No. You're up late. Is something wrong?"

"No, everything is fine here. Just calling to check on you."

This surprised Maggie. Andrew actually sounded like he was in a good mood for a change. "That's nice. How did the lasagna turn out? Was it edible?"

"How'd you know we ate lasagna?"

Maggie chuckled. "Kaia texted me a couple of times asking for directions."

"Oh, so that's how she knew how to make it. And here she had me thinking she was a super teenager, knowing so much about doing household things." Andrew laughed, a happy sound, and it made Maggie smile.

"Well, she is pretty adept at doing stuff around the house when she wants to be. So, did it taste okay?"

"Yeah, it was just like your lasagna. She did a good job. She even made garlic toast, and she allowed me to make the salad. We had a good dinner. It was actually fun."

Wow, Maggie thought. Andrew actually helped with dinner. She couldn't remember the last time he'd helped her make a meal, or even offered to help. "That's great. Kaia's a good kid. She can be a lot of fun when she isn't brooding. How did grocery shopping go?"

"Oh, it went fine. Kaia knew exactly what to buy. Groceries sure are expensive though. I guess I never realized how much it cost for a week's worth of food."