All But Normal by Shawn Thornton & Joel Kilpatrick

Author:Shawn Thornton & Joel Kilpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Family, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Dysfunctional Families
ISBN: 9781496414557
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2016-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

MOM HAD ALWAYS entertained dreams of getting her own driver’s license. Every mother she knew drove children to little league games, school, and the park.

“I ought to be able to drive!” Mom told Dad one day, working herself up about it as she had numerous times, punctuating her speech with expletives. “I ought to be able to take the kids to their games or to school on my own. My sisters can do it. There is no reason I shouldn’t. You won’t stop me. We need a second car. I need to go get a driver’s license.”

“Whatever, Bev,” Dad said with a dismissive edge.

I suspected Mom knew she didn’t have the skills to drive, but I wasn’t sure. Dad just bore it and tried not to get trapped.

“Oh yeah?” she said. “If it wasn’t for you, I could have gone to college! I could have graduated from high school! If I hadn’t ridden with you in that car that night we—”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it before,” Dad said. “Tired of hearing it again. Just shut up!”

Mom stood up and leaned into her fierce words.

“You’re going to hear it until you rot in hell! And I hope you die and go there soon! I won’t shed a single tear. As a matter of fact, I’m going to roller-skate on your grave! There! How do you like that?”

Dad took a different tack now and went all sappy sweet to quell her fury.

“Now, Monkey, calm down. Just settle down, Kumquat.” He slowly moved closer to her, smiling and trying to gently hug her.

His goofy romantic names injected a conciliatory note into her symphony of anger. These were his favorite pet names for Mom, maybe drawing on memories of their best times together. She calmed down a bit. This tactic worked often for Dad. What it told me was that deep down they both loved each other.

“Well, I should get one,” she said in a gentler tone. “It’s not fair to you or the boys.”

“It’s all right, Kumquat,” Dad said. “We’ll think about it some other time.”

One day he was unable to shake her loose from the idea of a driver’s license and finally got so irritated that he changed course altogether.

“You want to drive?” he said. “Okay, you get to drive. I’ll teach you.”

He grabbed the keys to our car, got Mom into the passenger seat, and drove to the top of Victory Road. Once there he turned the car toward the opposite end of our dead-end road and put it in park. He threw Mom the keys across the bench seat. She wasn’t quick enough to catch them, so they landed between her legs. Mom looked stunned and pleased all at the same time. They both got out of the car, and Dad helped Mom into the driver’s seat. He got into the passenger seat, where I had never seen him before. Mom looked so strange behind the wheel.

I sat on my bike so I could watch from the safety of our lawn.

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