Broken Down on Memory Lane Alone, Together Alone

Halloween. What a wonderful holiday. It was my birthday. I always took the time to decorate my house from top to bottom. My husband helped here and there, but I usually worked alone. I didn’t mind though. It was, after all, my favourite holiday. I loved handing out candy to the kids, and seeing their costumes. The most elaborate costumes got the most candy. It was a good system. Or at least I thought so.

My son and granddaughter were coming over for supper. I didn’t think it was necessary, but Anakin insisted that he and Mara visited on my birthday. I wasn’t quite sure how Mara felt about this. I’m sure a 16-year-old girl could think of a million different things to do with her Saturday, other then having dinner with her 58-year-old grandmother.

I was walking around the outside of the house, making sure everything was still in place. We had a fairly large house. Not too big though. It was definitely a step up from where I grew up. My father tried his best, but it was hard being a single parent.

Anakin’s car pulled into the driveway just as I finished my rounds. He wasted no time getting out and giving me a hug.

“Happy birthday mum.”

“Thank you Ani,” I grinned, I didn’t know how Sunny and I managed to raise such a good boy. He may have been 34 but he was still my baby.

“Dad just called me asking if I could take him to the store,” Ani chuckled, “he forgot to get you a gift again.”

I rolled my eyes and smiled, “as if being married to him isn’t enough.”

I looked over to the car. Mara was still seated in the passengers seat, staring down at her crotch. I could only assume she was texting… or there was some kind of problem. Ani followed my gaze, and sighed.

“She just got a new phone,” he looked back at me, “I don’t think she’s put it down in three days.”

“Well… at least you know she has friends,” I grinned.

“Ready to go get that pizza!” Sonny called as she rushed out of the house, I noticed the not to subtle wink he aimed at Ani as he passed us. He opened the passenger door, “hay kid, it’s nice to see you again. Get out.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the frightened expression on Mara’s face. Both Ani and I were used to Sonny, but thanks to Mara’s stepmother she never really got to come around all that much. It wasn’t ideal, but as long as I got to see her and my son once in a while I was okay with it. I didn’t want to start drama with the woman; she was petty and immature at best.

Ani walked back to the car as Mara got out, “we’ll be back soon.”

I nodded and waved, before making my way back into the house. I wasn’t quite sure what to do to entertain a 16-year-old girl. So I decided to just let her do whatever. I didn’t want to push myself on her either, if she wanted to talk to me she would… or at least that’s what I hoped.

Mara was still texting when she made her way into the house. I sat on the kitchen counter and watched her walk in the direction of the living room. At least she seemed to remember where things were. Seeing as I didn’t have to entertain Mara, I needed to find something to entertain myself with while I waited.

I decided to make myself a birthday cake. I hadn’t really been planning on making one, but I usually made one for Halloween sometime in the month of October. And seeing as I hadn’t made one yet, it was perfect. I grabbed my trusty ‘cook book,’ which was really an old journal that I had scribbled recipes in. I found my dads’ recipe for red velvet cake and set to work making it.

As I measured and poured, mixed and folded the ingredients together I tried to think of something to talk to Mara about. I racked my brain for a conversation starter, but I came up blank. It was like my first day of school again, minus the fear.

By the time I finished making my cake, and put it in the oven, I had decided to just find Mara and start talking. I’d probably just compliment her on something she was wearing, and ask her where she got it. That was always a decent conversation starter. I wandered into the living room, but she wasn’t there. So I began to search for her. The house was pretty large, there were quite a few rooms she could be in. I looked in the study, the music room, and Sonny’s office.

I found her in my favourite room in the house, the library. There were shelves from floor to ceiling, all completely covered in books. The room was dimly lit. Everything was dark and rich colour wise. I wanted it to look like an old library, and I think I accomplished it quite well.

Mara was reading the blurb of a book I knew like the back of my hand. It was based on the relationship I had with the author after all, though the addition of zombies made it a little more interesting. That was it! That was my ticket to a conversation. Thank God for Dravin.

“Have you read that one before?” I asked as I walked up to Mara.

She slightly jumped and looked startled, “no, I haven’t been able to find this one anywhere… I’ve read most of his work though. He’s defiantly one of my favourite authors.”

I smiled, “mine too. What’s your favourite book?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, “probably Olivia.”

I scrunched up my nose, “really? I thought that one was rubbish. This,” I reached up and grabbed a thick book, “is my favourite.”

She took it and read the back, “I didn’t know this one existed.”

I smiled, “I’m one of the very few people who received it.”

She looked up from the book at me, “received it?”

I nodded, “he sent it to me and a few of his closest friends, you can read it if you like.”

“I’d love to,” she grinned, “so… did you know him?”

“I dated him actually.”

She looked disbelievingly at me, “no way.”

I held up and finger, and walked over to the other side of the room. I kept my photo albums in here. I grabbed one and flipped through to make sure it was really the one I wanted. Sure enough in the middle pages there were pictures of Dravin and I snuggling on his parents sofa. I took the album and walked over to the large, super comfy, chairs and took a seat.

Mara came over and sat beside me. I pointed to the picture and smiled, “this was taken the first time I met his parents.”

She set the books she was holding down on the little cherry wood end table to her left, and gaped at the picture, “can I look through that?”

“Sure,” I handed it to her.

She flipped all the pages back to the beginning in one swift movement. I watched her as she slowly took in the pictures. They were of my and my dad when we still lived in Toronto; I was only 11 or 12. That was a happy time. Mara continued to flip through until she found a picture from the first time I met Sonny.

“Is that Grammpy?” she looked up at me with her dark brown eyes, her mother’s eyes.

I nodded, “that was the first time I met him actually… I was 16.”

“How did you two meet?” she looked genuinely interested, which was slightly surprising.

I shrugged, “it’s a long, and not at all exciting story.”

“We have time… and I cant imagine anything you’ve done is boring, you did date one of the best authors ever,” she was giving me a puppy dog pout, and doing some serious ass kissing, two things I couldn’t say no to.

“Well,” I sighed, “my father and I lived in Toronto for the first sixteen years of my life. My mother had run off when I was one or two, so I never really knew her. But my father and I were happy. Anyway, one day I was walking home from school and I was attacked. The man stuck a knife in my mouth, and did this,” I pointed to the right side of my mouth, I had half a Chelsea smile, “I’m not going to go into detail, but I almost died. My father packed up all our stuff. And when I was able to leave the hospital we moved to a little town just outside Vegas. We had some family there. It was a nice little place. I managed to make some interesting friends the third day there…”