Back Where He Started by Jay Quinn

Author:Jay Quinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2005-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

“Dr. Rivera’s office,” I said.

“Hello Chris! I won’t keep you long, I know you have phones to answer.”

“Hey Andrea. Is everything still on for next weekend?”

“Sure. But I wanted to let you know David and I will be staying at the Pepper Tree. One of his buddies has a time-share there. He can’t make it for Easter, so he offered it to David and me. Since you’re going to have a full house, we took him up on it.”

“Oh Andrea,” I said, “that’s very thoughtful of you. Susan and David will be in the guest room and Schooner and his friend Frank will have the loft. That is a full house, but I’ll miss having you and David with everyone under one roof.”

“We won’t miss the bathroom situation,” Andrea said frankly.

“I understand completely.”

“Mom—”

“Oh, so it’s Mom now is it? What’s wrong?”

‘Well, I just thought someone should warn you. Dad, Alicia, and the baby will be down as well. They’ve bought one of those new pastel Key West-type places on the way to Fort Macon.”

“My God, your father’s going to go broke keeping his wives in beach houses.”

“Is that all you’re concerned about?”

I glanced down the hall toward Cathy’s office; she was now off the phone, and this conversation with my daughter was promising to get longer. I lowered my voice and said, “Andrea, I don’t have time to get into this right now. Your father is completely free to buy a house wherever he wants one. It’s none of my business.”

“Mom, what about Mass? What are we all going to do—sit across two whole pews, one big unhappy dysfunctional family? It’s such a mockery.”

“Andrea, there is no problem unless you decide to make one. There will certainly be more than one Mass on Sunday. And besides, I had no idea Alicia was Catholic. I assumed she worshipped handling her relatives, the snakes. Even if she is Catholic, it’s none of my business and it’s none of yours either.”

“Mom, it’s my family. It is my business. Alicia converted, by the way.”

I held my breath and counted to 10. “Andrea, I understand, but I also take it you’ve gotten to a point where you’ve started talking to your father again with some degree of civility. After all, you obviously know his Easter plans.”

It was Andrea’s turn to be silent. Finally she said, “Damn you’re good. Yes, I’ve been having dinner with Dad fairly regularly. He’s been making a meaningful effort to reach out.”

“That’s very good to hear Andrea. I’m proud of both of you. Since you’ve reached some sort of detente with him, maybe I should call to invite him and Alicia to Easter dinner.”

“Chris, don’t you dare!” Andrea hissed.

“So, I’m Chris again now,” I laughed. “Andrea, you can’t have it both ways unless you’re enjoying the drama. Now, I have to go.”

“Promise me you won’t invite them over!”

“Whatever … now, Andrea I have to go or I’m going to get in trouble. You work in a psychiatrist’s office don’t you? It’s very unprofessional for staff to drag their family woes into work.

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