Chapter 49

                                    

                                          
The next morning, the aroma of bacon and eggs aroused me from my sleep. I sat up in bed, outstretched my arms, and inhaled the scent of the breakfast that Meredith was cooking. I slept very well that night, and waking up in the morning in my old bed gave me a sense of familiarity, like things were going to finally return back to normal. I knew full well that things were going to be completely different now, but I had a great deal of confidence and was ready to take on the day. It was a new beginning. I felt that this was going to be the first day of the rest of my life. I vigorously launched myself out of bed and ran down the stairs into the kitchen. “Good morning, Olivia! You sure look ready for the day this morning!” Meredith said as she was flipping bacon on the griddle, and she set some on a plate for me. “Of course I am, Mom! I’m home with you!” I replied vociferously. Meredith laughed with amusement. “You should be, we’ve got a big day ahead of us. After breakfast, we’ll go up and get ready for the day, and head to the grocery store to pick up some food and supplies for the party,” Meredith said. I zoned out while I was eating and Meredith was going through the itinerary for the day. She had the entire day planned out and I was just daydreaming about what the day had in store for me. I would be seeing Stella, Evan and Chloe for the first time in a while, amongst some of my favorite people that I thought just a week ago that I would never see again. Soon we would be all together, grilling and playing badminton in the backyard and enjoying a nice warm Fourth of July holiday. I envisioned me in Evan’s arms, laying up against him while watching the fireworks light up the sky above. At that moment, my daydreaming was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. “I wonder who that could be?” Meredith curiously asked. “Probably Stella and the others,” I said. “No, I don’t think so, they aren’t supposed to be here for another couple hours,” Meredith replied. I ran to the door excitedly and opened the door. I stared at the figure in the doorway in shock. It was my mother, my biological mother. Or rather Chris’ biological mother. “Hi,” I peeped out nervously. She was caught off guard as well. “Oh, hello there,” she replied. Meredith poked her head in from the kitchen. “Colleen, I wasn’t expecting you so early, come right in!” Meredith said. Colleen closed the door behind her, as Meredith walked into the foyer and greeted her with a hug. “Colleen, this is Olivia, we just got home last night,” Meredith said to her. I, still in shock, tried to act like someone who had just met her for the first time. “Are you Chris’ mom?” I asked her. She nodded affirmatively. I launched myself into her arms and gave her a big hug. “I’m so sorry, I really wish I could have met him,” I said solemnly. Colleen, with a tear forming in the corner of her eye, gave me a bittersweet smile. “Aren’t you the sweetest?” she said adoringly. She crouched down and looked me in the eye. “I’m sure Chris would have made a wonderful father,” she said. I nodded with a smile. “So how old are you, Olivia?” she asked. “I’m thirteen,” I replied. “Thirteen……you are such a beautiful girl, and I can tell that you’re an old soul, too. You want to know how I can tell?” she said. I looked back at Meredith. She looked at the two of us with great interest. She looked a little concerned, actually. She looked like she was about ready to pounce, to insert herself into the conversation in case I said something that outed myself to her. Not like she would understand or believe any of it anyway. “H….How?” I asked nervously. “Because, those jeans you’re wearing, with the flowers on the bottom! I used to wear the same jeans when I was your age! In fact, we used to sew them in ourselves back then!” she replied, the look on her face looked as if she was reminiscent of her younger age. I smiled and looked back at Meredith who, like me, looked relieved. At that moment I felt so happy to see that my mom was smiling. I don’t know how she could smile after all she’d been through. My dad passed away a few years earlier, and now she is grieving the loss of her son. Did my mere presence bring her this much joy? Then a thought came to my head that made the smile on her face seem clearer. Growing up, I was an only child. While Meredith and I were struggling to have a child of our own, my mom made it pretty clear to us that she wanted a little granddaughter. It was at that moment that I realized that I already had a mother in Meredith, but my former mother was now my grandmother. It was tough, that I was never going to be able to tell her the whole truth about what happened, but I was happy that she was still going to be family to me. “Colleen, would you care for a cup of coffee?” Meredith said, as we congregated in the kitchen. After Meredith served Colleen a cup of coffee, she grabbed her keys and made her way to the front door. “I have to make a run to Target to pick up some things for the party, I’ll be back in a little bit,” she said. The next couple of hours Colleen and I shared numerous stories with each other. She did most of the talking. She told me story after story about Chris when he was growing up in her house. She told me all sorts of stories, that if I were still Chris, I would feel really embarrassed about. It didn’t seem to matter anymore, but I had to nod along as if these stories were new to me. It was comforting to know how glowingly she spoke of my former self, and how much I meant to her, and how much she loved me. It took every fiber of my being to resist the urge to say, “I love you, too Mom,” but I had to save face. I enjoyed having these conversations with her. In fact, it was the happiest I had seen her in quite a while. “You know, you remind me so much of my Chris. You two would have really gotten along well together, I know it,” she said to me. “Yeah, I really wish I could have met him,” I replied with a forlorn expression on my face. “I’m sure….that if he were still he would tell you that he loves you very much,” I continued. “Aww, you are the sweetest,” she said as she hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. Just then, I heard keys jingling and the knob on the front door turn as Meredith walked in the front door with several Target bags. Olivia, there’s a few more bags out in the car, can you grab them, please? “Sure thing,” I replied, as I went out and brought them inside. She had gotten an entire carload of party supplies, table coverings, miniature flags, and copious amounts of hamburgers, hot dogs and buns. As I was bringing several bags on each arm into the kitchen, Meredith poked her head out of the refrigerator. “Oh, Olivia, I went and got a propane tank in the backseat, can you please go get it?” she asked. “Okay, sure mom,” I replied tiredly. I went back to the car, opened the door, and saw the propane tank in the backseat tucked on the floor of the car between the front and the back seat. “Should be no problem,” I thought. I lifted the tank out of the car, but once I had the tank out of the car, I lost my grip as the tank clanged on the driveway concrete. “This is a lot heavier than I thought,” I thought to myself. I was able to carry it into the backyard, but I was dragging it with my arms clenched the entire way. “This was a lot easier when I was a man in my thirties,” I rambled in my head, feeling weak and embarrassed. I finally set the tank next to the grill, relieved. My arms were burning. “Well, that was a workout,” I said to Colleen as she was setting the folding table in the backyard. I slumped down in the patio chair, my skin already starting to glisten from sweat. “Bottle of water?” Colleen asked as she handed me a warm bottle of water, which was just placed into the cooler. I didn’t care, as I downed half of the bottle. Meredith walked out the sliding door with two armfuls of hamburger buns, hotdog buns, napkins and plasticware. As she set everything on the table, she looked at the propane tank next to the grill and then looked at me tired and slumped in the chair. “Oh dear, I forgot….” she said, as she looked at Colleen and shook. “I….forgot to grab the veggie tray….be right back,” she continued. “Yikes,” I thought. I don’t think my former mother would ever catch on, but it would have sounded very bizarre if Meredith had continued that sentence and outed me as her former husband, and Colleen’s former son. “Hey Olivia,” Meredith bellowed as she began to open the sliding screen door. “Why don’t you just hang out for a bit, the guests will be here soon,” she said as she went back into the house. “Well, here we go,” I thought to myself as I leaned back into the chair, put my sunglasses on and gazed at the sky.