Returning Pride (7 page)

All the other kids turned and looked at the small boy who had freckles that crossed every part of his nose. His face soon matched the redness of his curly hair.

He stood and said something Allison would never forget.

“It’s a character because you drew it funny.” All the kids laughed. Sean quickly sat down with his head hung in shame.

“Hold on class. Sean is right. Take a look.” She quickly walked to the end of the chalk board and drew again, this time taking care to not accent her features comically.

“
Can you see the differences?” The kids all just stared at her.

Then a little girl with blonde curly hair that was tied up in a tight pony tail raised her hand.

“Yes, Mckenna.”

“How did you do that?” She asked.

“Years of practice. Now let me show you what makes these two different.”

By the end of the hour, Allison had discovered a new love. The children in her class had not only shown her she could teach art, but they had shown her that life was fun. Since her return home, she’d been caught up in a whirlwind of doctor meetings and her mother’s moods. She had smiled and laughed more in the last hour than she had since returning home.

Walking into Tanya’s office she had a huge smile on her face and her mind was made up. She was going to take the teaching job. She was going to be a middle school art teacher, she laughed inwardly.

Three days later, she thought really hard about backing down. Leaving the house had even become a task since her mother had another “episode,” as she had started calling them. Thank goodness she had calmed down before Mrs. Evans had arrived. Then her car had acted up at the town’s only stop sign, causing everyone who had been outside and downtown to look over at her after the loud backfire. Of course, she had stalled it trying to quickly leave. She had to wave off the old men who were approaching from their permanent residence of twenty-odd years, outside the old barber shop.

To add to her day, she had to spend more than five minutes getting the two Simmons sisters to stop arguing. They had been fighting over whether Jenny’s painting of a flower was that of a daisy or if it was just a weed like Julie, the older of the twins, was saying it was.

She had enjoyed when Eric Everett had shown her his painting of his gray cat. It not only looked like a cat, but he’d actually listened to her instructions about how to draw the back legs and had done them correctly.

Allison had been debating whether she wanted to be a school art teacher or to go back to the city and deal with all the art critics she so desperately hated. She came to the conclusion that the kids were easier to deal with at this point in her life.

It had been a long day; her head ached, her feet ached, and her back ached. How could so many little kids cause so much destruction? By the end of the day, her art room had looked like a large tornado had pushed through it.

The weather had been nice and warm for days. However, now the light rain that was falling was nothing more than a burden to her.

Parking her car in the drive, she was looking forward to a nice hot bath, maybe a glass of wine. Turning the door knob, she discovered the front door was locked. Taking out her keys, she unlocked the deadbolt. Only to have it snap locked again.

“Mother!” She could hear her on the other side of the door. “Mother, it’s Allison,” Turning her key again, she tried the door handle, it was locked. She unlocked it, just in time to hear the deadbolt lock again. Laughing to herself, she tried a fourth time, only to have it happen again.

“
Mother! Let me in!” She wasn’t finding this funny anymore. Every time she would unlock the deadbolt, the door handle would lock. Then when she unlocked the door handle, the deadbolt would be locked quickly.

“I know who you are. I’ve told you before, you can’t have any of it,” The deadbolt slid home again.

“Mother, please let me in. It’s wet out here and I’m tired.” When her mother didn’t respond, she sat on the front steps, protected from the rain under the small overhang.

Pulling out her cell phone, she messaged the only person she knew could help calm her mother down.

Waiting for his reply seemed to take forever. Finally he messaged, “I’ll be right there.”

Iian had the day off and since there were men at his house installing his new carpet, he’d decided to swing by Megan and Todd’s place. He had made his famous chili earlier to take to their guests at the bed and breakfast. He enjoyed cooking meals for the guests and usually stayed on for lunch.

He liked visiting with Megan, but it was really the kids he came to see. He loved spending time playing with little Matthew and Sara. Matthew was a shy little thing around others, but Iian brought out the monster in him. He liked to wrestle in the yard and play with little cars or trucks he always bought for the boy.

Sara was his precious diamond, as he liked to call her. Her chubby one-year-old cheeks just called out to be kissed and snuggled with. She giggled and smiled when he tickled her, and when he left for the day she gave him sloppy kisses that left a soft spot on his heart. So after enjoying another great visit with his family, he headed home to see how the progress was going.

Walking into the place just as the rain started, the smell hit him full force: paint, stain, and new carpet. Smiling to himself, he headed up the stairs. Looking into Todd’s old room first, he saw the carpet was already done. The plush Berber floor and fresh off-white paint made the room look brand new. Seeing that his old bedroom was also done, he headed into his father’s room. He really had to start thinking of it as his room, someday.

There were two guys picking up small carpet clippings. He could tell that they hadn’t noticed him yet, so he stood in the door and just looked. The room was three times the size of his old bedroom. On one wall was a large archway leading into the master bathroom, which hadn’t been used in years. The glass-walled shower sparkled since his sister had come over and cleaned it. It was the only job that they would let her do to help out, since she was growing bigger every day. The marble double sinks his father had installed for his mother on their wedding day gleamed, as well. Megan had seen to cleaning the rest of the bathroom. Everything smelled and looked new.

Smiling to himself, he thought of asking Aaron and Todd to help him move the massive bed and the rest of his furniture back down tomorrow.

After the carpet crew left, he started bringing down some of the smaller stuff, himself including the air mattress he was going to use. He was standing in the empty master bedroom when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eyes and swore he smelled his father.

Just then his cell phone vibrated with a new message. Looking down, he grabbed it from his jeans and quickly looked back up towards the empty archway and shook his head. He needed one night of real sleep, he thought, as he looked at the text message from Allison.

Ten minutes later he pulled up in front of the Adams’ house. Allison was sitting on the steps of the porch. Her eyes were pink and he could tell she was either about to cry or had been crying.

The steady spring rain had continued through dusk and a slight chill was now in the air. He could see her shivering as he walked up the path.

“Still can’t get in the house?” He signed.

“
I stopped trying. It’s so frustrating. She was yelling at me like I was a stranger trying to break into my own house.”

Helping her to stand up, he held onto her hand and felt her fingers were chilled. Walking over to the door he knocked.

“Mrs. Adams, it’s Iian Jordan. Can I come in?” he looked over to Allison to gauge if there had been a reply. When she shook her head “no”, he continued. “Mrs. Adams remember I’m deaf, I can’t hear you. I just wanted to come in and see if…” The door swung open.

Her mother was in large gray sweat pants with a huge white tee-shirt. Her hair was a mess, and there were clothes thrown all over the living room, again.

“Oh, Iian,” she stopped to primp her hair. “Well, if I knew you were coming, I would have made some of my cookies. Well, don’t stand out there in the cold. You two kids had better come in.”

Her mother was treating her like a stranger which only made her feel worse. Her headache had only gotten worse sitting out in the cold on the front porch. When she had seen Iian drive up, she had almost lost it and cried right there in front of him.

By the time she shuffled her mother into bed, she was sure she would need a half bottle of wine or a big bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream to make her feel better.

Iian had stayed around and entertained her mother while she had picked up all her clothes. Her mother had thrown all over the living room, something she had been doing lately. Why she chose to do this was still a mystery to her. She was starting to think that she would hire someone to watch her full time. Mrs. Evans could only watch her for a few hours at a time. Maybe somebody else could watch out for her the rest of the time.

When she walked back into the living room, she saw him sitting on the couch, looking through an old photo album her mother had handed him earlier.

Walking over, she sat next to him. There on the pages were she and Abby on her father’s old boat. Boating had always been a part of her life. Living on the coast, she had loved to go out for trips with her family. Sometimes they would spend weeks on the small sailboat they had owned.

Looking over at Iian, she signed, “Thank you for helping tonight.”

“
Don’t mention it. I always did have a soft spot for your mom.” He reached over and toyed with the ends of her braid. She tried hard not to purr like a cat, but the light contact helped ease her headache.

“You’ve got a bad headache?” He spoke this time. Her eyes had closed when he started to stroke her hair. He continued to rub her head and then he nudged her to turn her back towards him. “I bet it can be stressful dealing with a bunch of kids all day, then coming home to this.” He kept talking as he made his way down her neck to her shoulders.

The tension he felt there was almost shocking.  “I’ve been working on the house all week and sleeping on the down-stair’s couch. They just finished putting carpet in all the upstairs rooms today. It looks wonderful.” He continued to talk about what he was doing around his place in hopes of helping her relax.

She moaned in pleasure as his warm fingers moved up and down her neck. He was talking and she could tell he wasn’t expecting her to answer him back. When she felt like she could just slide down the couch and fall asleep, she turned to him. Looking directly in his eyes, she leaned forward and kissed him. She had wanted to kiss him since he’d walked up to her on the front porch.