Worth the Weight (23 page)

After the five month-long debacle she and to her two pals had dubbed “Bad Romancing in East Lansing”, Lizzie subconsciously swore off sex and instead concentrated on upcoming graduation and entering the real world. She thought of her future, what she would like to be doing and where she would like to ideally live, but mostly, she thought about food.

“I think it was ‘then’ because a month earlier my mother had sent me a batch of clippings.”

“So? Your mother sent clippings all the time, what was in this batch?” Katie questioned
.

Lizzie’s mother, Doris,
had sent
a thick envelope every month or so, filled with clippings from their local paper
.
There were engagement announcements, wedding photos, drunk driving arrest bulletins, scores from football games, reviews of movies that Doris thought the girls would like
.
Each clipping had a hand written note with Doris’ convoluted reasoning as to why that particular clipping was included. “Wasn’t she in your class, or was it her sister?” would accompany a birth announcement. “This sounds like something you could do when you get out” scribbled around a job posting that inevitably would be something Lizzie either had no interest in whatsoever or was not remotely qualified for.

Alison and Katie teased
her
mercilessly whenever an envelope arrived, but were always found going through the clippings after
she’d
read and discarded them.

The clippings were never too exciting, but always seemed to come at a time when Lizzie would be homesick, or missing her parents, or feeling small and insignificant amidst her 40,000
fellow students
, and the sight of the bulging envelope would brighten her day.

Along with online links to the
Ingot
,
and near daily emails,
Doris was still sending envelopes to Lizzie in Detroit, and
she
still got a smile on her face when she would receive them. Though now she recognized more names in the divorce announcements than the wedding column. And the birth announcements for her classmates were for their fourth or fifth child.

“This particular clipping was a wedding announcement for
Finn
Robbins,” Lizzie quietly said. There was silence while Alison and Katie exchanged confused glances.

“I don’t get it, are we supposed to yell Eureka! and everything becomes crystal clear? Twelve years of using Krispy Kreme as a significant other and three years of turning that around, and it’s all because you saw a clipping of
Finn
Robbins’s wedding announcement? I don’t buy it,” Alison said.

Alison wasn’t dubbed “the smart one” for nothing.

“And maybe there’s nothing to buy,” Lizzie conceded
.
“Maybe it’s all just coincidences, and I’m trying to psycho babble my way into one giant rationalization…maybe it just boils down to being really, really hungry for twelve years,” she joked with a small smile.
That’s right, always keep ‘em smiling
.
Make them like me.

“Okay, let’s for the sake of argument say that his wedding announcement triggered your virginity loss, and
that
disappointment triggered the emotional eating, the eating spirals out of control for twelve years while you concentrate solely on the professional side of your life, becoming a mover
and a shaker in your field and
then one day, three years ago, you meet this Davis Cummings, have your epiphany and start to lose the weight. Have I got it?”

Lizzie nodded and watched as Alison ruminated on this.

“I don’t know, Lizard. This plan of yours could so blow up in your face. Having sex with no emotional connection is what caused you to turn to food for solace in the first place. Do you think it’s going to be so different if you have sex with
Finn
now?”

Lizzie didn’t answer right away. She finally shrugged her shoulders. “I think it will be different, because I know what I’m doing now. I know my reasons for being with
Finn
. And it’s not totally unemotional, I’ve always cared for
Finn
. I just know there’s no future there.”

Katie started to make a comment, but Lizzie, tiring of the analysis, quickly changed the subject
.
“Oh, I forgot, I’m naming the two of you as board members for the Hannah Robbins Foundation.”

Katie and
Alison exchanged glances then blankly looked back to her
.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything, I just want to have a six person board, it looks better.
Finn
didn’t have anything set up in the way of a foundation or special status or anything for the money for Annie’s operation. I set up the Hannah Robbins Foundation that all proceeds from this and any other fundraiser will go to. As long as there’s a board of directors, the money is all accounted for and about a ton of other legalities, the money won’t be any tax burden to
Finn
.”

“Who are the other board members?” Katie asked. She laid her lean body back along her towel spread out on the dock.

Lizzie looked at Katie’s body with admiration, but didn’t feel the familiar twinge of envy.

“
Finn
, me, you two, Margo at the bank, and Petey.”

“Petey on a board of directors?” Alison laughed.

“Yep. I figured having a celebrity on it would make it look more legit. Not that there’s anything not legitimate about the whole thing.”

“The board just happens to be stacked with your friends, that’s all.”

“Exactly. Our first and probably only board meeting will be held near the keg during the Strawberry Festival Dance. Please plan on attending,” she said, in her best call-to-order business voice.

“Oh I wouldn’t miss that for anything,” Alison said, as Katie nodded in agreement.

When she got home that evening, she was surprised to find her mother packing. Lizzie sprawled across her parents’ bed and watched as her mother pulled things out of closets and dresser drawers and threw them on the bed. When she noticed Lizzie, she seemed startled. “Oh. Lizzie, I didn’t hear you come in. We got the call about Zeke. The carrier is due in seven days, the squadron into Jacksonville in four. Your father and I have decided to drive to Florida instead
of fly. We’ll spend a week or two with Zeke, then leisurely drive back. I’ve always wanted to see the Smoky Mountains, and your father’s going to take his golf clubs.”

“That sounds great, Mom. I’m just sorry I can’t join you, but with the fundraiser and all...”

A concerned look came over Doris Hampton’s soft face and she sat on the bed next to Lizzie. “Dear, are you sure this is such a good idea? You spending so much time with
Finn
Robbins?”

Lizzie was surprised. “I thought you liked
Finn
, Mom?”

“Oh I do, I do, or.... I did,” she took a deep breath and let it out. “Until he hurt you so badly.”

Her mother remembered
Finn
more than Katie and Alison had. That’s because
she’d
heard
Lizzie
crying in her room every night for a week after
Finn
had broken up with her.
She’d
seen
Lizzie
struggl
e with the heartache that she’
d hidden from her two best friends. Doris was a mom, and mom’s knew everything and forgot nothing.

Memories flooded over Lizzie, but she quickly set them aside. “That was a long time ago, Mom.”

“I know dear, but you know what they say…you never really get over your first love.”

Lizzie picked her head up from where it had been resting on her forearms. “
Finn
wasn’t my first love, we only dated a few months.”

Doris reached out and smoothed Lizzie’s hair back, just like she’d done as a child. “He wasn’t? Then who was your first love, Elizabeth?” Her voice was as soothing as her touch and Lizzie realized that her mother wasn’t asking a question, but making a point.

“He wasn’t, Mom.” But she could not give any other name to Doris to prove her mother wrong.

“Anyway, we’ll be leaving in the morning. Water the plants on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Remember the trash goes out on Thursdays. I think we’ll be back in time for your fundraiser, but if not, good luck with it. If you’re still planning on leaving right after it, maybe we’ll stop in
Detroit
on the way home if we’re still on the road.”

Lizzie’s father poked his head into the bedroom just then and, seeing his wife giving instructions to Lizzie, offered up the only
set of rules
he had been giving to Lizzie and Zeke since his and Doris’ first overnight trip when the twins were
six
teen. “Remember the house rules, Elizabeth. No dope, no dopes.”

Lizzie laughed a “Yes, Dad” as her father retreated from the room. Her feelings for her parents were as warm and cuddly as the worn quilt she was laying on. “Mom, about
Finn
....”

Her mother rose from the bed and returned to the dresser to gather socks from a drawer, keeping her back to Lizzie. “Just be careful, dear. I think you were in love with him once. I’d hate to see you fall in love with him again, if it would turn out the same way.”

She left the room and a stunned Lizzie behind her.

Was her mother right? Had Lizzie been in love with
Finn
all those years ago? She had thought it was just hormones or teen angst
and pride
that had her crying for a week.
She hadn’t planned on falling in love until her twenties.

She couldn't think about this, not now. Not when she was so close to achieving her goal and getting back to her life. She tried to picture her office, her condo, even the face of Davis Cummings and was not entirely surprised when no vision of them became clear. Instead, she saw a ten-year old girl pumping the pedals of a bike for all she was worth, and the girl’s father looking at Lizzie with fathomless blue eyes.

Chapter Thirteen

√ Get folding chair, sunscreen, stuff for kids

√ Talk to Petey about Annie Aid

√ Call Sybil

The weather for the Strawberry Festival could not have cooperated
more
. A beautiful mid-July Saturday shone bright over the Copper Country and the tiny town of Chassell, host to the annual festival.

The day before, two trucks had come to the farm to pick up as many berries as
Finn
’s pickers could deliver. The crop had been plentiful and everyone agreed that this year’s berries were the sweetest anyone could remember.

Lizzie sat in a folding chair, the kind that came
in a pouch that slung
over your shoulder, with Annie in her wheelchair beside her. On the other side of Annie was
Finn
’s empty seat. Lizzie couldn’t believe that she was actually in a “soccer mom” chair. The thought seemed incomprehensible, and yet the reality was very…comfortable. They had arrived at the parade early, to get a good po
sition for Annie’s chair. It
paid off, because they had prime real estate for all the festivities while those who were arriving now were relegated to the back of the four person-deep crowd along the main drag of Chassell.

Finn
was off somewhere seeing to what would be the last piece of berry business he would have to conduct for the day. Stevie was across the street and down a little ways from Lizzie, but she could see him and his buddies as they elbow jabbed each other with guffaws and chuckles.
She
noticed Stevie didn’t share in his buddies' merriment. She followed his gaze and came to rest upon three girls that looked to be about Stevie’s age, but were dressed, and trying to act, much older.

Stevie’s eyes never left the girl standing in the middle of the three. She was the tallest and even at that age, Lizzie could tell the girl would be a beauty. She had on a spaghetti-strapped purple tank top that didn’t quite cover her belly button, denim shorts and flip-flops. Her blonde hair was caught back in a tie-dye bandana.
Oh no, Stevie, don’t fall for the pretty one, she’ll break your heart.

The girls seemed oblivious to the boys, but Lizzie had seen that act before. Had practiced it to perfection over the years with Katie and Alison.
She
bet that one of them would let out a fake yawn soon to project a “this is kid stuff, aren’t we above it all” vibe for all to see.

As if on cue, the middle girl arched her neck back and put her hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn. Hah! The fake yawn never
went
out of style! A hair flip would surely have been in order if the girl hadn’t been wearing a bandana.

Lizzie took comfort in witnessing the adolescent mating ritual.
It
wasn’t much different from the games adults played.