At the Risk of Forgetting by A.M. Wilson

Author:A.M. Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Small Town, Second chance romance, surprise pregnancy, betrayal, dark secrets, single mother
Publisher: A.M. Wilson
Published: 2017-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

8.

The following day was Thanksgiving, and Evelyn and I spent it the way we always did. By giving back. Since it’s always been the two of us, I’d felt silly early on trying to cook us a big Thanksgiving meal. I created a solution that held to the true meaning of the holiday.

I’d learned a lot during my childhood about poverty. My parents didn’t have much, and when they died, Ritchie and I had nothing. I learned to work hard through circumstance, and used that knowledge to create a life for my daughter where she didn’t have to worry about money, food, or necessities like I did. That meant I had to do what I could to teach her about working hard in other ways, by donating our time and talents to those who didn’t have what we did.

Three times a year I required her to do something selfless, and apart from Thanksgiving, she got to choose what that was.

This past summer, she donated thirty hours of her time to community clean up picking up trash, and earlier last spring, she volunteered during activity-time at the local adult group home.

Thanksgiving was the time we’d volunteer together at the soup kitchen one town over and provide meals to those in our county who couldn’t afford to buy their own. Throughout the day, the volunteers staggered their breaks and ate their Thanksgiving meal with the people who came to see us.

My hope was to teach her not only to be kind and helpful to those less fortunate, but also the humility to see them as the people they really were.

Distracted by the upcoming holiday, I didn’t notice I hadn’t heard from Law until after my appointment on Friday. The doctor cleared me from the crutches, and instructed me to tape my foot and start some stretches for my ankle. When I went to text the good news, I realized there’d been radio silence.

What was I supposed to do?

I didn’t want to seem needy by reaching out when he clearly hadn’t thought of me. I shot out a text to Kiersten, tucked my phone back in my purse, and went on my way home.

That night, Evelyn and I got our mani/pedis.

I went to bed without a text.

***

The weekend came and went.

Sunday night, while Evelyn was doing homework, I sent him a text asking if he was still in town. I remembered what he’d said that night at the grocery store, about living in Arrow Creek now, but maybe he had to go back home to deal with some of his father’s affairs.

Just because we shared a few hours of mind blowing intimacy didn’t make him accountable to me.

He never responded.

***

A week went by.

Then two.

Then three.

Still nothing.

***

December 16th—my birthday. As of today, I officially entered a new decade. I kissed my twenties goodbye and greeted my thirties by waking up at the ass crack of dawn, packing a shovel and a lawn chair in the trunk of my car, dropping Evelyn off at school, and driving to the cemetery.

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