This Is Not Over by Holly Brown

Author:Holly Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

29

Dawn

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?

A fascinating hypothetical, Thaddeus, but the answer will have to wait.

I know where I wouldn’t be, though: dinner with the in-laws.

Even though I call Rob’s parents Mom and Dad, at their insistence, none of us are fooled. Someday I might really feel like a Thiebold, but I’m reminded, every time I see them, that it’s not today.

Their home is in Elmwood, just a few blocks over from the engraving store on College Avenue, and typical of the neighborhood, it’s a large brown-shingled Craftsman. Some people have replaced the brown shingles with white stucco or other facades. There are some A-frames and Mission styles and Victorians interspersed, but regardless of make and model, all the houses are uniformly well-maintained (these are not my mother’s Victorians). Every other car is a Prius. While these houses are worth millions now, “Mom” and “Dad” bought theirs more than forty years ago. This is the family’s primary asset, especially since the store is shedding value fast.

Tonight, “Mom” slaved over a vegan dish with quinoa and root vegetables, while “Dad” clucks over it appreciatively. “Dad” is rail-thin and ruddy-faced, with a neat ring of ear-level gray hair. “Mom” carries just a little extra around her midsection despite all the power walking and the quinoa. Her hair is close-cropped and almost black, accentuating her green eyes (Rob’s eyes). She’s at that age where attractiveness is about the suggestion of past prettiness, and she’s pulling that off. They both wear a lot of REI wicking fibers, and North Face on top of it. They’re forever stripping off fleece zip-ups.

They’re happy people, is the thing. Well matched. They found their mates as teenagers, just looked across the high school cafeteria, and bam.

I’ve seen them get testy with each other on a few rare occasions. But somehow, that only makes their union more impressive. They get annoyed, and then they hug it out, and they do it without a lick of shame.

Rob’s allowed to get in a mood, and no one holds it against him. But I don’t feel like I can do that. For one thing, my moods are way darker than Rob’s. For another, I catch “Mom” looking at me sometimes like I’m a diamond ring that needs formal appraisal. She’s not convinced I’m real.

And she’s right, I’m not real around them. I’m not myself. I’m the self that I imagine they’d want for their son. I never used to perform that self for Rob. But since my father died, it’s different. Now I have to prove I’m human.

“Dad” and Rob are talking about new marketing strategies and how to make an engraving shop “go viral.” I bite my tongue. No one is asking for my opinion. If I offered it, I’d only be marked further as an outsider. Thiebolds are relentlessly optimistic. They’re convinced that mom-and-pop engraving can be resurrected; all they need is to set up a Twitter account, and voilà.

Finally, the conversation runs its course, and “Mom” takes over.

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