… I Allow Mrs. Barbara Jonssen to take a few Moments

I was surprised to find Ms. Barbara tracking down her engagement & wedding rings. The room was deathly silent until she returned. Then put the rings in her daughter’s, Ms. Tanya Jonssen’s, hand & closed it around the rings. She looked up at her mother with dejected & hopeless expression, & her new tears made me realize the crying before was the truth. She honestly thought I had some superpower that was going to mind control her into abandoning her steady. Even with the past me, that would be untrue.

“I still love you, Tanya. You did something evil here, but it was for love of a man I never knew was this evil. I suggest going to Aunt Isabella & asking her to give you room & board while you finish at the university. I will help as much as I can, but I would try to get your father to help too, he is the one so concerned about wealth… maybe he should be the one to pay for it.

“If you continue here… that will lead to friction all of us are better off without, but you are still welcome to come home on Thanksgiving & Christmas.”

It was a touching scene, in which I was totally out of my depth. My mother rarely did anything special for holidays other than work overtime at her job. Raising six kids on a single mother’s salary was essentially impossible, but she chose to make it work with charity, instead of taking the supposedly benevolent government hand-outs. She was who taught me to never blindly trust anyone with power irrespective of their race.

The only thing that kept me rooted in one spot was the answer to Barbara’s question about why I left my therapist, Mrs. Sayhoushi Vandal, & their hands squeezing mine, thus signaling to me that they wanted me here. Ms. Inga Jonssen was as quick witted as her twin & pressed her delightful body flush against my back and hugged me.

Everyone was silent for several minutes. Tanya eventually composed herself and stood up. “I am sorry…” She was looking into my eyes & I was composed enough to just offer a nod of acceptance to her apology. “I don’t know why daddy… I think, I don’t know much of anything anymore.

Tanya then focused on her mother. “I don’t know if that apology is enough, regardless I think it is better if I take your advice and move in with Aunt Isabella & Uncle Rogers across town. They have already offered her home architecture office to help me with my last two years.

“I will make sure to frame this, as Elsa says, as Daddy doing something really horrible, & you are dealing with a bad situation. Then if Dwayne sticks around… they will accept him without the baggage of Daddy regardless of what he says… the family will believe you & me more than him regardless of what he says…

“He did some bad things in High School that they never told you about, because they honestly thought he had grown from the experience. Turns out, he was just trying to be worthy of you, but now decided to fail at that goal… the point being that they already know he has a history of being rotten.”

Tanya then stood up & walked around the table before being allowed to hold my hand for her last words to me. I didn’t know what to make of the gesture. Maybe it was some weird white person custom. “The food is good, though don’t eat the cranberries… I mixed it with medication that makes you very drowsy.

“The plan had been to gather everything of note & leave while you & mother were asleep.”