Chapter 20
That evening, Mary Louise was in her comfy pajamas getting ready to watch a little HGTV when her phone rang. It was her daughter, Carla.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, sweetie.” Mary Louise stopped herself from asking if something was wrong. Carla almost never called her, and Mary Louise didn’t want to get her riled up so early in the conversation. As the pause lengthened, Mary Louise pressed her lips together tightly waiting for Carla to talk.
“Mom, do you think it would be okay if I came home?”
Mary Louise stifled a “hallelujah” and said, “Of course, honey. Of course.”
Another long pause while Mary Louise waited for Carla to explain herself. Or not. There were so many questions. When? Why? Did she need money? Mary Louise knew if she started with the rapid fire questions, Carla would get frustrated and probably hang up. Was this people pleasing? Or just smart mothering?
“I just really miss Texas. Washington wasn’t what I thought it would be.”
Washington, or Spencer? Less than a year ago, Carla had been hit with a double whammy. First, her friend Pankaj had gone to India to marry a girl his parents had picked out for him. Second, her mother had been right about Pankaj. Carla met him at the software company where she worked and it was apparent to Mary Louise that Carla was falling for him. At one point any conversation they had included an anecdote about Pankaj. Mary Louise had spent her career at software and computer hardware companies, and had worked with plenty of men from India. They were always pleasant to her. Always acted like perfect gentleman. But she knew just as they knew that there was a cultural difference. She listened carefully to what Carla said. The stories were about something funny that happened in a meeting, or a story that came up at lunch. Mary Louise noticed that these lunches always included other people.
She tried to warn Carla that in her experience, traditions ran deep with the people from India she had worked with and that there was little hope of a relationship with Pankaj. As usual she had gently poked around the situation rather than having a full-on conversation to avoid a blow-up with Carla. Mary Louise had never met Pankaj and didn’t know if he had encouraged Carla, or if Carla had just been busy encouraging herself.
Either way, Carla felt betrayed when Pankaj casually announced he was going back to India for a few weeks to get married and bring his bride back to the states. She had been hurt and angry. Knowing that her mother had been right about the situation made her even madder. She soothed her anger by taking up with another man she worked with named Spencer. Mary Louise felt the nagging whispers that she had failed as a mother. She thought she had raised a strong, independent woman but time and time again she was faced with an immature, argumentative daughter who continually made bad relationship choices. She was smart and beautiful. Why couldn’t she focus on that for a while instead of chasing after men? Mary Louise wanted to blame it on social media, but deep down she felt the guilt of some misstep of her own that was causing the issue.
Spencer got a job offer in Washington state, and Carla decided to go along. Mary Louise had warned her about that decision as well, which would explain why the phone calls had gotten steadily scarcer in the past few months. It must have been really, really hard for Carla to call just as it had been really, really hard for Mary Louise to keep her mouth shut and not warn her daughter of what she knew would be waiting for her in Washington.
“I understand, said Mary Lousie. “Washington is too dreary. You need to come home and get some sunshine and barbeque.”
“That sounds amazing,” said Carla. “I’d kill for a Salt Lick rib right now.”
Carla sounded so pitiful, tears welled up in Mary Louise’s eyes. She swallowed hard, shaking off the hurt in her heart for her daughter and said, “Oh, dear. I forgot!”
“Forgot what?” said Carla, sounding panicked.
“I turned your room into a home yoga studio. But you can stay in Adam’s room.”
“Real funny, Mom. Ha ha ha.”
That perked Carla up enough that Mary Louise felt easy asking about her timeline.
“I have some things to wrap up here, but I should be on the road in the next couple of days.”
Mary Louise hated the thought of her driving all that way alone, but knew it would do her no good to voice her concerns.
“Sounds good. Call me when you are leaving.”
“I will. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, sweetie. I’m glad you’re coming home.”
**Please leave a comment below. Your information will not be saved or added to an email list. It just prevents the bots from bashing me.
You can also use the Contact form to message me direct.**