A Twist in My Story

Denise Jonas was pulling into her driveway, a trunk full of groceries weighing down on her soccer-mom van. Shutting off the ignition, she removed her keys and stepped out of the van, stopping short when she saw her eldest son stooped over on their porch steps. “Kevin?” she asked.

Kevin, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, his head braced on his closed fists, opened his eyes at the sound of his mother's worried tone. “Sorry I didn’t call. I was just driving around and decided to stop by,” he murmured in a soft tone.

“That’s fine honey. You know you never need to call in order to come over,” she said, smiling over at him, though she was slightly worried by his demeanor. “Why don’t you help me carry these bags in and I’ll make us some tea,” she suggested, knowing her eldest son all too well—he wanted to talk. Nodding once, Kevin stood off the porch, walking to his mother’s trunk and helping her carry in the dozen bags or so of groceries. “You can just set those down on the counter,” Denise stated, setting a few on the floor.

“I’ll help put them away,” Kevin said, already digging into one of the bags. Denise watched as he walked over to the pantry and started sorting out the cereals and breakfast pastries she’d bought. His demeanor was sluggish and he looked as if something was weighing down on him. She knew it had something to do with Danielle leaving him, but she also knew him well enough to know that he had to be the one to bring her up. If someone else tried to start a conversation that Kevin didn’t want to have, he would shut himself off completely. So while he organized her pantry, Denise walked over to a cabinet and pulled out the kettle, filling it with water and setting it on the stove.

“Where do you want me to put these?” Kevin asked, pointing to a bag full of fruits—he wasn’t sure whether to put them in the refrigerator or replenish the fruit bowl in the middle of the kitchen table.

“The fruit bowl will do. You can put the rest in the refrigerator,” Denise replied.

Kevin bobbed his head in acknowledgment and followed her instructions. “So, where are dad and Frankie?” he asked to distract himself. He really wanted to just talk to his mom about his troubles, but felt embarrassed about bringing them up.

“They went down to the YMCA. Frankie’s taken an interest in basketball so your dad’s taking him down on the weekends to practice,” she explained as she too sorted through a bag of her own. “He wants to get him ready for try-outs when they come along in a couple of months.”

Kevin frowned at the news—had it really been that long since he last inquired about his family that he didn’t even know Frankie wanted to play basketball? “How long have they been going down there?” he asked.

“Three or four weeks,” Denise responded. Kevin frowned a bit more. He really was out of touch with his family.

“What about Nick and Joe? Any news from them?” he asked. At least he knew about Joe’s departure, even though he hadn’t been paying too much attention when his father ranted about it the day after Dani left him. And he hadn’t talked to Nick since a couple of days before he left for school.

“Nick calls me every other day. He’s doing well; he really enjoyed his first couple weeks of classes and he says he’s made some friends. I keep asking if they’re good friends who don’t do bad things, but you know your brother, so elusive all the time. But I trust his judge of character,” Denise replied.

“And Joe? Has he called yet?” Kevin questioned, now feeling bad for how out of touch he has been with his family in the past several weeks. Having had put away the majority of the groceries, he walked over to the kitchen table and waited for his mother’s reply.

She was standing over the whistling kettle with her back to him, so Kevin saw when she tensed up, her shoulders rising and falling with a heavy sigh. “He called yesterday,” she replied in a soft voice. “He says he’s doing okay and to not worry about him.” The conversation with her second son had barely lasted five minutes. She had wanted to stay on the phone with him much longer and inquire about his whereabouts and what had possessed him to leave in the middle of the night the way he had. But he had claimed he didn’t have much time to talk, had assured her he was fine, safe, and in good company. He had told her not to worry, which was a silly request—she was his mother, she was going to worry no matter what. Telling her he loved her, he had hung up. She tried to convince herself that at the very least she knew he was alive and that he claimed to be well—but in reality she wanted to know exactly where he was and why he left the way he did.

“Well, at least he called,” Kevin tried to comfort, knowing his mother was probably very upset about Joe running away.

Denise released another sigh before joining Kevin at the kitchen table, bringing with her two mugs with chamomile tea bags, the kettle, and a small bowl of sugar and one of honey. “Yes, at least he called,” she agreed, pouring hot water into his mug. “So, how have you been? We haven’t heard from you in a while,” she said once they both had their teas prepared the way they preferred.

Kevin looked up at his mother and saw her warm, caring brown eyes fixed on him. He knew she was waiting for him to bring up Danielle and he also knew that she would be nonjudgmental and give him the soundest advice. But he just didn’t know how to bring it about—it really hurt him to think that his wife—his best friend—had left him and it had all been his fault. He had gone through so many stages of emotions in the past two weeks that he didn’t know which one to fall on anymore. At times he would find himself being pissed at Danielle for being so immature and leaving him for such a ridiculous reason and then other times, when he was willing to admit it to himself, he knew that it was his fault she left and would end up hating himself and just missing her terribly.

He had been looking for some old paperwork that had been needed at the office but thanks to their move, he had had to rummage through a lot of boxes to find them. In one, he found an old scrapbook of Danielle’s—she had always been very creative. It was full of pictures from their earlier years, when they first got together. They had both been only teenagers, but they had looked so happy and care-free. He didn’t know how they got to where they are now and that absolutely killed him.

His face contorted into a frown at the thought, his lower lip trembling. He couldn’t remember the last time he had cried, let alone in front of his mother, but the past few weeks had taken an extreme toll on his emotions and he didn’t know who else to turn to. Usually Danielle would be the person he turned to for everything—she had been his best friend for years—but she was at the root of his problems. “Mom,” he croaked out, his voice catching in his throat.

“Oh baby,” Denise said, resting her hand on his and pulling him up, wrapping her arms around him comfortingly. Kevin stooped down and hugged his mother, who was considerably shorter than him and held onto her tightly, crying into her shoulder. “Shh, baby, it’s okay, I’m here,” she said, running her hands up and down his back. She hadn’t seen Kevin cry since he was a little boy. He always wanted to be strong for his younger brothers and never let it show when he was upset or sad about something. His mood was worrisome. She stayed silent and just let him cry out all his pent up emotions. She couldn’t imagine what he was going through but she would let him know that she was there for him. When his tears finally subsided she pulled away and looked up at him, wiping his tears away. “Baby, talk to momma,” she said, sitting them both back down at the table.

“I just, don’t even know,” he said, shaking his head and looking down at his hands, embarrassed that he had just broken down like that.

“Do you miss her?” Denise asked just to start him off.

Kevin nodded. “Part of me wants to listen to my pride and just let her realize her mistake on her own, ya know? I’ve been trying hard these past weeks to act like it doesn’t affect me and to just give her space. But then another part of me, my heart, it longs for her, Mom. I want her to come back so we can fix whatever it is that went wrong.”

“Oh sweetie,” Denise cooed at him, running her hands through the curls he inherited from her. “I know this must be hard on you, but you can’t expect Danielle to come back to you without a fight. You have to prove to her that you’ve changed and that she’s your top priority.”

“But she is my top priority mom. She’s my wife and I love her,” Kevin argued.

Denise frowned at him and ran her hand down his stubbly face before taking a hold of his hands on the table. “I know you do baby boy, but you need to constantly remind her of that. No woman wants to feel second best in her husband’s life and that’s how you’ve made her feel. I know your job is important to you and that you’re a hard worker, but there's more to life than work.”

Kevin looked at her intensely. “You know, you sounded a lot like her just now. Are you on her side? Do you agree with her decision to leave me?” he balked, suddenly growing angry. It wasn’t rare for him to have these mood swings since Danielle left, but this time he was unleashing his anger on his mother.

“I could never agree with something that’s causing you this much pain honey. But in a way I do believe you need to start focusing more on your family. Danielle’s having a baby for heaven’s sake!”

“I know that; which is why it’s even more important that I work hard so that our baby can have everything it may ever need!” Kevin exclaimed, shoving his chair back and standing up to pace the length of his mother’s kitchen.

“Oh sweetie,” Denise said, standing up much more calmly. “As long as that baby has both its parents loving it and supporting it, that’s all they’re really going to need. But in order for that to happen, you and Danielle need to get back together and work out your issues.”

“I’ve tried, Mom! I’ve called her every day these past two weeks, often multiple times a day, but she hasn’t bothered to call me back! Who knows if she’s even listened to my voicemails! She’s being so immature about this whole thing!”

“Kevin,” Denise tried to calm down his rant but he just kept on going.

“At the very least I was hoping she would get back to me about the party my boss invited us too but no, she doesn’t care about how her leaving has affected me. I had to lie to Mr. Rich and tell him that she’s been sick so we can’t go the party his wife is hosting. Does she not realize how bad that made me look?”

“Kevin,” Denise tried once more to get a hold of her eldest son’s attention.

He finally halted and turned to look at her, fire in his eyes. “You know what, fine, I’m done trying. She can do whatever she wants, move back in with her parents for all I care. I’m just going to do what dad told me to in the first place—focus on my job. That’s all I have now that she’s gone anyways.” Before Denise even got a chance to argue that he did care and tell him he was the one being childish, he turned on his heels and stalked out the backdoor, slamming it forcefully on his way out of the house. Releasing a sigh, Denise fell into a chair, shaking her head, saddened by the mess in her oldest son’s life.

“Hey Mom, Katie told me you wanted to see me?” Danielle said, walking into the living room where her mother was tucked away on the couch, reading a romance novel.

Angela Deleasa looked up at her second daughter—her eyes were red and swollen; she looked like she would burst into tears at any moment. She smiled tenderly at Danielle, her heart filling with sadness for her baby girl. Danielle had been so reserved since her arrival two weeks ago and though Angie had tried to get her to open up about her problems, Dina had been the only one to succeed. Angela didn’t want to pry too much, so she had resorted to just getting information from her eldest daughter instead and thanks to her, she now had a way to help Danielle out.

“Yea, sweetie, come sit with me,” she said, patting the spot next to her as she made room for her daughter to join her.

Danielle walked over and sat down next to her mom. She was really hoping she wouldn’t ask her about Kevin, she wasn’t in the mood to talk about him today. She had received a very hostile phone call from him earlier in the day, which had gone to voicemail, and when she finally listened to the message, it had brought her to tears. He had called her a variety of names, ranging from childish and immature to selfish and idiotic. He had yelled at her for not responding to his request that she come back and attend his boss’ party with him and had told her that he wouldn’t be calling anymore and she could do whatever she wanted—he didn’t care. His message had left her in tears for the majority of the day, curled up in her bed past dinner time and up until now. The only reason she had come out was because her younger sister said her mother had something important to tell her.

“What’s up?” Danielle asked, avoiding her mother’s gaze.

Angela looked sadly at her daughter but when Danielle looked up at her prolonged silence she let a small smile pull at her face for Danielle’s sake. “Dina told me you two were talking a few days ago,” she started off. Danielle bit her bottom lip and looked away—she knew Dina would tell her mom everything she’d confided in her, but she just didn’t want to talk about Kevin at the moment. “She said you were interested in helping the Henderson’s with their redecorating.”

Danielle looked back up at her mom—she had forgotten they even talked about that. “Yea, we talked about it,” she murmured.

Angela smiled. “Well, I brought it up to Maggie Henderson today at lunch and she was very accepting of the idea. She said if you’re still interested she’d love for you to go over and see the rooms and possibly discuss some ideas with her.”

Danielle smiled slightly to herself. That was the best news she’d gotten in weeks. “Really? They want me?”
Angela was filled with happiness seeing her daughter genuinely smile for the first time since she got here. “Nothing’s set in stone just yet but I’m sure you would get the job without a problem. You’re so creative sweetheart, and I know you will put your heart and soul into this project, just like you do with every other project you take on in life.”

Danielle smiled at her and leaned back in the couch, her hands instinctively resting on her abdomen, which was just slightly larger than usual. This was going to be a much needed distraction from sitting around her parents’ house, thinking about Kevin and going back into her saved voicemails, listening to the message where he told her he loved her. Angie looked down at her daughter's stomach when she noticed her involuntary action. She smiled softly to herself, unable to grasp the idea of shortly becoming a grandmother.

“We should probably get you set up with a doctor down here. If you’re planning on staying for a while, that is,” she said, effectively breaking the happy bubble her daughter was in.

Danielle frowned and looked down at her stomach. With the way things between her and Kevin currently stood, it looked like that would be for the best. “Yea, that’s a good idea,” she mumbled.

“Sweetie, I know you don’t want to talk about him, but I need to know, have you two spoken at all since you left?” Angela asked, desperate to have her daughter confide in her.

Danielle shook her head. “He keeps calling but I never answer. Sometimes he leaves a message and other times he doesn’t. But his messages are getting more hostile,” she responded.

Angela tsked. “That’s just his way of showing you he’s hurting. Granted, Kevin was never good at showing he was in pain, but he loves you sweetie. He probably just really misses you and wants you back with him, but can’t get that message across without getting frustrated,” she suggested.

Danielle’s lower lip trembled as tears sprung to her eyes. She knew Kevin was hurting—she had talked to Denise earlier today, who had called wanting an update on the baby, and she had told her how Kevin showed up at her doorstep and broke down crying in front of her. Denise had told her he had gotten upset and stormed off, saying he didn’t care what Danielle did, so she gathered it happened shortly before his latest voicemail. Denise had told her something similar to what her mother just told her; she said he really didn’t mean it but was just hurt by the situation. It killed her that Kevin was this upset about it, but she was upset as well. She wanted him to realize his mistakes and own up to them. She wanted him to be less focused on his job and more focused with bringing their first child into the world. But most of all, she just wanted him to tell her he loved her and that nothing in the world was more important to him than she was, with the exception of their unborn child.

Angela watched helplessly as her daughter stood up, tears spilling over her eyes and ran back upstairs, once more locking herself in her room to cry over her callous husband.