Defensible Spaces by Alison Turner

Author:Alison Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Torrey House Press

Lonna wakes up before anyone else on Christmas morning. She is in her daughter’s guestroom to help with Christmas.

She pats the wall for the light switch. In her daughter’s kitchen she turns on a light and can feel that the oven is on: someone must have forgotten last night. She switches it off. That’s a good way to burn a place down. Ashlynn and Brady might need her around more when the twins are born.

Lonna’s husband, Jay, thinks it is unnecessary to stay the night and will come over later, but that’s because men never know how much goes into Christmas morning, especially with Brady’s parents coming. Lonna said she could help with Christmas Eve dinner, too, but Ashy can be stubborn and try to do it all on her own. Brady’s never been a big help, drinking even more than Lonna does—Lonna returns to the guestroom to check her purse, where her water bottle of vodka is still secure.

For the first time since moving to Clayton when Ashlynn was in elementary school, they are not going to Lonna’s brother’s house for Christmas. Vander always puts up a show-off gigantic tree that needs a ladder to decorate, and he always has ideas for what the dozen kids, cousins, and grandkids or grandcousins or Lonna never knows what to call them, can do for fun. Christmas is always on Vander’s schedule, and everyone else has to spend the day thanking him for the gifts, thanking Jolene for the food that she spreads across their gigantic table in their gigantic dining room surrounded by windows. But those two, Vander and Jolene, don’t have a drop to drink even on celebrations like Christmas, which means Lonna always has to provide for herself.

Christmas should be all about making a kid feel special, which isn’t possible at Vander’s ranch. Ashlynn never got a Christmas to herself after they moved to Clayton, and Mellie hasn’t yet, either. This Christmas will be the most special Christmas of Mellie’s life, and the most relaxing of Ashy’s because of Lonna’s help. Mellie is an early riser and today Lonna will be ready for her so that Ashy can sleep in. Soon she won’t be sleeping at all with three kids and no help from Brady. Lonna will start the coffee and the fire. Everything will be ready when Ashy wakes up.

She accidentally knocks the coffee pot against the wall. She opens cupboards looking for grounds but when she finds them she sees the filter is already full and there’s water in the maker. She pushes on, hears it crackle. She grabs a small cup, pours in half an inch from her water bottle, fills the rest with water from the faucet.

After this Christmas Lonna will get back on track. She’ll get back to AA, will maybe call Cheryl Krane who moved to Idaho so many years ago that Lonna has lost count. Cheryl is still Lonna’s sponsor and still the only one who knows how low Lonna got during Ashy’s last year in high school, but Cheryl has never told.

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