Shattered Dreams (17 page)

I walk into the kitchen and my mouth waters
from the delicious food. “Well, there he is,” my mother announces,
as she walks over to hug me. “We were beginning to worry about
you.” 

“
I’m sorry. I’m not that
late, am I?” 

“
No, Alec, you’re not. Mom
was missing you, that’s all,” my dad says as he takes a bite of the
homemade stuffing in a serving dish on the
counter. 

I walk over and hug my dad
before hugging my two sisters-in-law, Jill and Victoria, and my
very
pregnant sister, Cameron. I pat her
belly and ask, “How are you feeling?”  

“
Huge as a planet, and
miserable.” 

“
Sounds like you’re right on
track.” I smile.  

“
Ha ha, you should have
warned me. I blame you.” 

“
For what?” I laugh.
“
That
is not my
fault.” I say, pointing at her large protruding
belly. 

“
Not that, these,” she says,
as she raises her maxi dress for me to see her ankles. “I have
cankles and it’s all your fault. You and
you,”
she says pointing to me and
dad
,
“you should
have told me to expect these.” She looks from dad to me, then back
to my dad. 

“
Cameron, I told you to stay
away from salt.” My dad smiles and looks away before Cameron can
see it.  

“
Yes, dad, you did. However
you didn’t say it would cause me to have ankles that you can’t
see.” 

“
What are you talking about?
What’s a cankle?” I ask. 

“
I just told you, it’s a
‘can’t-see ankle,’ because your calf and ankle run together to make
a cankle.” She lowers her dress to cover up her feet. “That’s why
pregnant and obese women wear boots.” 

“
Cameron, if it makes you
feel any better, they go away after birth,” Victoria says
sweetly.  

“
Really?” 

“
Girl Scouts honor,” Jill
adds. “After the twins were born, mine went away. It doesn’t take
long for them to return back to normal.” 

“
That’s reassuring,” Cameron
says
,
walking away
from the kitchen island. “My father the surgeon and my brother the
doctor should have prepared me for this.” 

I hope she doesn’t talk
about hemorrhoids. Pregnant women usually get those,
too.
 

“
Would you mind taking the
food to the table, and Alec, would you go upstairs in the playroom
and get the kids?”  

The girls gather the beautiful serving dishes
of food while I run up the stairs to get the kids. “Who’s hungry?”
I yell.  

“
Me, me, me,” the kids yell
as they run past me. 

“
Hi, kids,” I yell as they
run down the hall. 

The giggles fill the hall. “Hi, Uncle Alec,”
they yell from down the hallway and I watch as Raelynn skips behind
them. 

Once we all hold hands and
Dad says the grace, we all sit down at my parents’ overly large
table. We put a child in between each adult to make sure they are
included in the conversations. It also assures they will behave
during dinner. We talk about Blake and Jill’s twins, Shannon and
Sean, turning four in a few weeks and about Cameron’s due date
nearing on Christmas Eve and the surprise the baby will be when
they finally learn the gender of the baby at birth. They chose to
not know the baby’s gender early. We also talk about Raelynn
advancing in taekwondo and about Dakota and Victoria’s son, Noah,
starting to walk.
 
 

During dinner we go around the room and we
each say one thing we are thankful for. It’s Shannon’s turn: “I am
thankful that my brother no longer pees in the bed.” 

Her brother Sean is next. “I
am thankful that we got to wear sunglasses into the turtle movie.”
We look over at Blake and Jill, and Jill adds, “
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
movie was in 3-D.” We nod in understanding. 

Raelynn adds, “I am thankful that Noah spit
up on his daddy and not on me.”  

After dinner we all help with carrying the
food and dishes into the kitchen, the guys go and watch television
and the girls stay in the kitchen putting everything away and
cleaning up. The house is an open floor plan and although you are
in the kitchen, you can still see everyone in the family
room.  

Mom yells into the family room, “Johnny, as
soon as the game is over, let me know so we can help the kids
decorate the Christmas tree.” My dad’s name is John and mom is the
only one who calls him Johnny. She does this only when she wants
something or when she believes he is misbehaving. 

“
Ok, dear, it won’t be much
longer.” 

It’s been a tradition ever since they have
had grandchildren: Mom and dad put the lights on the tree and have
all the decorations divided evenly for each grandchild to put on
the tree. I know Raelynn looks forward to it every year. This is
the first year we’ll be doing it without Molly. 

By the time the game is over, the kitchen is
cleaned and the tree is decorated, we carry our sleeping children
to our cars. We ate later this year because Molly’s parents wanted
to get Raelynn early. Normally we would eat Thanksgiving dinner at
2:00, but my parents wanted to wait for Rae to be here. We say our
goodbyes and I take the containers of food and lay them neatly in
the backseat. Mom always sends extra food home with me after I
visit. That’s probably why I visit a couple times a
week.  

Chapter Five: Blessings and Giving
Thanks

Emma

Mom and dad decided it would be nice to have
everyone over to their house for Thanksgiving dinner this year. We
each made food and combined everything to make a Thanksgiving
feast. After dinner and while Danny, Brice, and dad watch the
football game, Mom, Brooke, Cheryl, and I all decide this is the
first year we will shop on Black Friday. After Thanksgiving dinner
we all sit around the table and compare sale advertisements. The
kids are at one end of the table doing arts and crafts. Brooke
writes down all the items we want and where they are being sold at
the lowest price. We decide that we won’t mess with the one-hour
in-store sales. Too many people and not enough merchandise. We also
decide to meet up at my house at 4:00 a.m. and we will take Brice’s
truck; it’s bigger and can hold more stuff.  

Dad comes with mom so he can watch James for
me while we shop. My parents are a God-send, and I have no idea
what I would do without them. 

Once we fight the crowds,
traffic, and the extremely long lines, we return home and vow this
is the first
and
last time we will
ever
do that again. We joke that next year we will
break into the stores before they open and get what we want even if
it means risking a criminal record.
Brooke
and I did get everything on our list for the boys and I was even
able to pick some gifts up for Sara, Brea, and Angel for our work
Christmas party. 

Cheryl takes James home with her for a few
hours so I can hide all the gifts. I’ll pick him up before his
taekwondo class this evening. I’m looking forward to going, and I’m
not sure whether I like the class better than I like the thought of
seeing Alec again. He is always so nice to James and to
me.  

After everyone leaves, I hide all the gifts
in the spare bedroom closet and take a nap before class. Right
before I leave to pick up James from his grandparents’ house,
Brooke walks in.  

“
Where are you going?” she
asks. 

“
Um, taekwondo. Remember?
Every Tuesday and Friday for the past month,” I say, saying every
word very slowly so she understands them. 

“
Don’t be funny, where are
you going looking like that?” 

“
Looking like what?” I
should have known she would notice. I did apply some light mascara
and eyeliner. 

Brooke laughs, “I’m going to taekwondo, but
first, I’m going to put on makeup, curl my hair, and smell all sexy
for that sexy instructor.” 

“
I did not curl my
hair.”  

“
No, but you did do all the
other stuff. And what is that smell, Victoria Secret, Hello
Darling?” 

“
I like it, I wear it all
the time.” 

“
I know you do, but I
haven’t noticed that you’ve worn it to class before,” she says,
smirking. 

“
Well, I
do.” 

“
Come on, let’s
go.” 

“
Where are you going?” I
ask. 

“
I’m joining taekwondo. I
want to see what the sexy instructor is all about. I bet he’s got
moves and I want to see them. We need a law that requires all sexy
male taekwondo instructors not to wear shirts.” 

“
Brooke, stop it,” I say,
laughing, because she can be so funny sometimes. I follow her
outside and lock up the house. Brooke yells across the yard to her
house, “Come on, boys! Let’s go, and Brice, I’ll be home
later.” 

“
Walk over there and get
them,” I say. 

“
Nah, they can hear
me.” 

“
This really did use to be a
nice neighborhood,” I joke.  

The boys run across the yard and Brice waits
on the front porch for everyone to get fastened in the car. He
yells before we pull off, “Be careful, love you guys.” 

I yell out the window and wave and yell,
“Love you, too, forever and always.” Brooke and I laugh and he
probably thinks I’m crazy.  

We get James from my mom’s before we go to
class. As we pull up into the parking lot, I look over at Brooke.
“Brooke, do not embarrass me in there and I mean it.” 

“
Who, me? I wouldn’t dream
of it. Come on, boys,” she says as she gets out of the passenger
seat.  

We walk in and sure enough Brooke signs up
for the beginners class. She looks over her shoulder at me as she
walks into the changing room. I smile and wave when I see Raelynn
skipping down the long hallway. Her long brown braid moves up and
down with every skip. Raelynn’s hair always looks good; her mother
must fix it right before she gets here. 

She sees us and runs up to us. “Hi, Miss
Emma.” 

“
Hi, Raelynn. How was your
Thanksgiving?” 

“
Fine, we put up the
Christmas tree at grandpa and grandma’s house.” 

“
That sounds like fun.” I
kneel down so we are eye to eye. 

“
It was, but mommy wasn’t
there this year.” 

“
Oh, did she have to work?”
I ask.  

“
No, I don’t have a mommy
anymore.” 

Brooke comes out of the changing room and the
room quickly fills up with people arriving for the next group of
classes. I watch as Raelynn, James, Braden, and Briley take off for
their classes. Once they go into their assigned rooms, Brooke and I
go to the adult beginners class. “Where’s Mr. Sex on a Stick?”
Brooke asks.  

“
Who?” I ask, so no one can
hear me. 

“
You know, Mr. Kung
Fu.” 

“
It’s taekwondo; don’t
confuse it with Kung Fu,” a male voice answers behind
us. 

My heart drops to the pit of
my stomach as Brooke and I slowly turn around. Alec is standing
tall and confident just inches from us. I turn completely around
and bow, and he returns the gesture. Brooke stands there and says
nothing.
Good, that will teach
her.
 

“
I’m sorry, that was rude of
me. I didn’t mean to offend anyone,” she finally says once she
finds her voice.  

“
I may have been offended if
I didn’t hear the first part of your conversation,” he says,
grinning. And before I have a chance to say anything, he adds, “Are
we ready to get started? Your instructor had an emergency this
evening, so I’ll be filling in.” Alec winks. “Don’t worry, Emma,
James is in good hands.” Alec then shouts loud enough for the
others to hear, “First timers to the right of the room and everyone
else to the left.”  

We start right into our running and
stretching exercise and then we begin our routine of kicks and
punches. The girl from the front desk walks up to Alec and whispers
into his ear. He smiles and looks at me. He bows and the girl walks
out of the room. He walks up to me and smiles. “James is advancing
to orange belt, do you want to go watch?” 

“
He is? Can I? May Brooke
watch?” I realize how short and simple my sentences are, but I am
so excited that I am not capable of forming long, complex
sentences.
Not that I would use them,
anyway. I value clarity over complexity. 

“
Of
course.” 

Alec, Brooke, and I walk out of the room and
stand in the doorway of James’ class. The instructor looks at Alec
and Alec nods. My eyes fill up with tears and I can barely see.
“James Greyson,” a man says and James walks up to the front of the
room. James bows and then the instructor bows. They remove James’
yellow belt before replacing it with the orange one. Brooke and I
squeal and I cry at the same time. My nose tingles and I rub it to
get it to stop. James bows before taking his place in the front
row. We leave and Alec closes the door behind us and Brooke hugs me
tightly.  

“
Pictures, shoot, I forgot
to take pictures,” I whisper.