Off Day Off

“Gwen, you’re home! Hon, could you please bring me a coaster?”

“Sure, Mom!” I quickly shed my jacket and hung it on a hook by the front door. Then hurried to the kitchen to grab a little circle of leather from the heap in the basket on the cupboard.

The sunlight was spilling through the large picture window in the front room as I walked in, catching my mom and her recliner in a great shaft of light that turned her skin to gleaming gold and her light hair to silver. I smiled. For just a moment, she became something more than Emma Hart. Single Mom to two teenaged girls and newest Assistant General Manager of Sewel International. Department of Accounting.

For a moment, she looked like what she really was.

Amazing.

She lifted her cup. “Here, dear.”

I set the coaster on the small table beside her and she set her tea on it. Then sighed and sat back. “I could get used to this. I could really get used to this!” She smiled. “Pottering in the garden all morning. Sitting with my feet up and a cup of tea at my elbow all afternoon. Just . . . watching.”

“You’ve earned it, Mom,” I told her. “You worked a lot of years at the bottom. Now you’ve finally risen to the top and you get to call the shots.”

“And have a day off now and then.” She lifted her phone from her lap. “And maybe use the time to figure out this new iPhone.”

“Don’t push it, Mom. This is your first day off!”

She laughed. “Imagine being able to use the word ‘first’ in front of ‘day off’! Like there was going to be more than one!”

I turned to go back into the kitchen. “Well get used to it.” I stopped as something outside caught my eye.

“What is it?” Mom asked.

“Ummm . . .”

“Gwen?” She leaned forward to see past me.

A dusty and dented Volvo was coasting down the street, obviously driverless and picking up speed. Standing with her upper body sticking out of the sunroof was my sister, her arms in the air.

“Wheeee! This. Is. Aaaawesooooome!” she squealed as she sped past our window.

Behind her, long, skinny legs pumping as he struggled in vain to catch his runaway vehicle was the freckle-faced love-of-her-life, Mort. “Saaaaalleeeeee! Put on the brake! Put on the braaaaake!”

I looked at mom.

She settled back in her recliner and, lifting her cup, took a sip of sweet tea.

Once a month, Karen of Baking in a Tornado gathers words from her varied and wondrous group of friends. Then redistributes and issues a challenge.  You get to witness the results--as varied and wondrous as those same friends.

My words this month jacket ~ iPhone ~ coaster ~ sweet tea ~ recliner came from my very good friend, Rena, of Wandering Web Designer.

Thank you so much, Rena! 

Now continue the fun.

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