A Grateful Heart (ONC 2023; manxman)✅

Chapter 6

Stunned, Teddy didn't move, staring at me. Before he responded, I left the bathroom. I was so hungry I would have eaten anything, including baked beans. Mrs. McDonough made meatloaf and mashed potatoes tonight. My mother never made meatloaf and she wasn't a fan of mashed potatoes. Growing up, I ate a lot of chicken and fresh vegetables. As an adult, I continued the same trend. Mashed potatoes wasn't something I normally ate.

Millie's grace was short and sweet, but not as humorous as Teddy's. "Dear Lord, thank you for the food we're about to eat and for our guest, Eric. He's really nice. Amen."

I laughed to myself because I didn't consider myself nice.

During dinner, Teddy was strangely quiet, his body tense. All the attention turned to me. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Dorothy asked me.

"I had a sister," I replied. "Her name was Erin."

"What happened to her?" Margaret asked.

"She died last year."

"Our sister died, too," Millie said.

Mrs. McDonough swallowed hard, tilting her head down. I bet she wasn't the type who cried in front of anyone. I imagined her crying alone in bed at night while her husband turned his back to her, his way of coping with the deaths of their daughters.

"I'm sorry," I said, spooning mashed potatoes into my mouth. The mashed potatoes tasted more like butter and milk than potatoes.

"Are your parents still alive?" Dorothy asked.

"No. They passed away, too, but I have a lot of friends. I like the people I work with. I love my students. This is only a temporary gig. I can't wait to get back."

"What's a gig?" Jimmy asked.

How do I explain 'gig?' "It's uh... it's a temporary work assignment."

Teddy picked at his food, barely taking any bites. He was typically the one with the ravenous appetite. "May I be excused, please?" Teddy said.

"Everything okay, son?" Mr. McDonough asked as Teddy stood up.

"I'm not feeling well. I think I'll go to bed."

Everyone's eyes followed Teddy out of the room, all concerned with his uncharacteristic behavior.

"Go check on him in ten minutes," Mr. McDonough said to Jimmy. "I bet the newspaper turned him away again. He takes everything personally and it's nothing personal. There's just no work."

"No, there's work," I interjected. "They gave him temporary work while one of the other journalists is out."

"For the life of me, I'll never figure that boy out. Are you sure he's ours, Mary?"

"I couldn't be more sure," Mary said. Apparently, this was an ongoing joke in the family.

In ten minutes, Jimmy left, returning a few minutes later. "He told me to get lost," he said, sitting back down at the table. "His nose is in a book again."

I wondered if he was reading Orlando. I didn't expect to see him for the rest of the night, but he appeared in the attic while I re-read segments of The Red Badge of Courage. Reading by flashlight was difficult and my eyes hurt.

"I came up for chocolate," Teddy said, rummaging through his bottom dresser drawer. As he approached me, he broke off a bit of the candy bar and handed it to me. "Did you know that Oscar Wilde had a male lover for years?"

"Yes, and he was also arrested for homosexuality and served hard labor for two years."

"Do you think homosexuality should be a crime?"