The Weekend Visitor by Jessica Thomas

Author:Jessica Thomas [Thomas, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Lesbian
ISBN: 9781594930546
Google: U8zaAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 1594930546
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2007-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

"No, I guess not." I tried to smile back, but it didn't work too well.

"Anyway, we lived with Grandma, who had a small pension, and Mom waitressed and we limped along until I graduated high school. I tried waitressing and store clerking and didn't like either. I had just gone with the telephone company, when Mom got the flu. She kept trying to go to work and got sicker and sicker. Finally, she collapsed at work and died of pneumonia some days later. Grandma didn't last a year. I think she had really loved my mom an awful lot. So had I. She was nice and warm and fun and funny. She should have been married and had a big family. She would have been good at it." I saw the tears come up and reached across the table to take her hand.

"You poor thing! What terrible losses! What on earth did you do?"

"Some soap opera, huh?" Mary was trying to hang tough, and I couldn't help but applaud her for it. "Let me get us another beer." She stood and swapped new bottles for old, this time remembering to add napkins and glasses.

"Well," she said, wiping her mouth, "After Mother and Grandma died, I was cleaning out the papers in the desk when I found the legal file and learned the truth about my father. Strangely enough, the phone company had just offered me a transfer for continued field training in Ptown. I jumped at it. You know why? Talk about simple! I thought it would be nice to be near my remaining family!"

"Oh, no."

"Oh, yes. After I got here I did a little homework and discovered that Grace had lost all three of her kids. I thought she might be glad to see her husband's offspring, and I figured Richard and Francesca and Jack would be happy to have an aunt, although I'm only a year or so older than Richard and actually younger than Francesca. So one fine day, I simply arrived on their doorstep."

"Oh, no," I said again. I couldn't help grinning, and Mary didn't miss it.

"Yeah, you're right. If my childhood was a soap opera, this was some kind of sitcom. A maid answered the door and I said, 'Hello, I'm Mary Sloan, here to see my step-mother and my niece and nephews, Richard and Jack.' The maid looked kind of funny and said she'd check if they were 'receiving.'"

Mary pushed her beer bottle in a little circle, looking embarrassed. "I didn't know what that meant, so I just followed her into the living room, where she made her little speech to Mrs. Sanhope and Richard. Lillian was there, too. Jack, I learned later was away at boarding school, and Francesca had married and moved away." She stopped, as if her story were complete.

"So," I prodded, "What next?"

"Richard and Lillian obviously hadn't a clue, but asked me to sit down, just trying to be polite, you know. Amazin' Grace popped up and said that wouldn't be necessary, I wouldn't be staying.

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