“No. I’m just seeing if I left my bag.”
I look in the bathroom.
Nothing.
She is gone.
SILENCE
“Maybe she’s already outside,” I say.
“Whatever,” Colby says. “We have to go. This is taking way too long.”
We climb back out and look around. No mom.
“Wait here,” I tell him.
“I’m going home.”
“No, no, please,” I say. “Just wait here.”
I go back inside.
Everything is still.
In the front room, the clock is ticking.
In the kitchen, the fridge is buzzing.
I look in my room.
Nothing.
I look in the hall closet.
Nothing.
I look in the bathroom.
Nothing.
I even open the door of the study a crack.
That’s when I hear it.
TALKING
At the end of the hall. In the art studio.
My dad’s voice.
I tiptoe down the hall and put my ear to the door.
He is talking.
But not with his TV voice.
And not his dad voice.
It’s different.
I open the door quietly and there they are.
In the moonlight streaming through the window.
Dad on the rocking chair.
Mom in his lap.
Dad whispering and talking.
OPRAH
If I meet her I’ll say that she was wrong about some things.
PAINTINGS
I stand in the doorway and watch them. Dad has all my paintings out on the floor.
Mom is just curled up — her Tevas dangling.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I miss Olivia so much, but I miss both of you too.”
I stand there.
And watch him cry and then I see her put her arms around him and hug him.
My mom hugs my dad.
They sit like that a long time.
Rocking.
Then I hear Dad say, “I didn’t know Mazzy could paint.”
I hold my breath.
She doesn’t respond right away but then she says, “She can.”
I let the air out and that’s when I close the door.
WENDY’S
Instead of kidnapping my mom, Colby and I go to Wendy’s for two free Frosties.
We walk.
MORNING
In the morning, Mom is sitting in the front room.
She has two suitcases and she is wearing the same outfit I put her in.
She looks like Mom.
Dad is making a power shake in the kitchen and he doesn’t say anything about her clothes.
As we are leaving and getting in Dad’s car, Norma comes over.
She is in a fluorescent muumuu and she has her hair in curlers.
“You all need any help?” she asks.
I look at Dad.
He looks at me.
“I think we do, actually,” he says.
OLIVIA: watercolor on paper
The END.
Everything Is Fine. Page 11