As It Was (COMPLETED) (wattys2023)

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

            My mother's icy stare is what I was met with stepping back into Grandma Ann's. If it hadn't been cold enough outside, I sure needed the jacket wrapped around me the moment I met her blue eyes.

It'd been close to a month since I'd seen my mother; the woman before me didn't even look like her. The dark blonde hair that had once cascaded down her back in untamable waves, was now cropped in a dyed black pixie cut. Eyes, usually hidden behind a pair of big glasses were now staring right through with me without any barrier. Even the way she held herself was different; there was a caution in every step she took, a cold tension radiating off her.

I was stirred out of my intense stare down with Mom by Dad setting the silverware on the table a little too harshly and sending the fork clanking into a glass of water. Grandma Ann, poking her head out of the kitchen, looked to me and smiled.

"We're about to say grace, Evie. Please go wash up."

I didn't fight her, but I wasn't exactly thrilled to have to pass my mother either. She hadn't seen me in a month, and she made no attempt to approach or hug me. We were standing in this living room as no more than strangers.

Once I'd changed out of my dirty clothes and washed up, I joined my family at the table. Grandma Ann was conversing with Dad, laughing, and trying to lighten up the room as she usually did. It unfortunately didn't do much; the tension between my parents and my mother and me was just too strong.

"Today, I would like to thank the Heavenly Father for blessing me with this wonderful meal. I would like to thank Him for blessing me with the opportunity to spend the holidays with my son, granddaughter, and daughter in law. And lastly, I would like to thank Him for making it so my beautiful granddaughter Everly is able to sit at this table with us. Amen."

I opened my eyes to find my parents looking at the two vacant seats that had placemats in front of them. The table was made as it was every year prior to this one; with the chair beside me awaiting Frankie and the one opposite me beside Dad to be occupied by Clark. Of course, they never came, and when I looked to Grandma Ann to thank her for the prayer and dinner, I found that her head was still bowed in a silent prayer.

*

I walked in from the back room to find my parents snapping aggressively at one another in the dining room. Mom was dressed as though she was ready to leave already; keys in hand and all. It made my eyes sting. I had hoped that there would be at least the smallest return to normalcy with the three of us being here, but it'd been far from it. Mom looked as though she wanted to put herself as far from Dad and me as quickly as possible.

Eventually, Mom broke away from Dad and stalked across the room to where I was standing at the entrance to the hallway. I thought with the agitation lining every inch of her face she'd continue past and continue to not acknowledge me as she had all night. Shockingly, she leaned forward and hugged me.

It wasn't one of those loose, I'll-see-you-tomorrow hugs, but held the emotion and tightness of a goodbye.

"I love you, Evie." She whispered, kissed my temple, then turned on her heel and walked out of the house, pressing the door shut gently behind her to not wake Grandma Ann up.

I waited until the headlights flashed through the blinds to turn to my dad, "What was that about?"

Dad refused to look at me, "We're selling the house."

I thought I'd be overjoyed to hear the words. I'd hated the house from the second I laid eyes on it on my mother's small phone screen. But the words shook me to a point I had to lean into the wall beside me for support. "What? Where are we going to live then? I still have like five months of school left, Dad?"