There's Snow Place Like Home For The Holidays

Impenetrable Walls

     "Mom! You have got to stop putting ideas in Tess' head," Win said when he came back downstairs, thankful that Bright was nowhere in sight.

     Lita looked up at her son. "I don't know what you mean."

     Win huffed. "You keep giving her ideas that there is something going on between me and Bright when there's not. She is already getting attached to this idea of Bright and I and she's going to get disappointed when things don't work out that way. Besides, this isn't the time for this kind of romantic notion crap, mom. She's been exposed to enough. Can we not just focus on the holidays and leave the rest of this shit for later?"

     "Language, Win," Lita sighed. "And have you thought about what you and Tess are going to do after the holidays?"

     "Mom! What does that have to do with what I just said? Why do you do this all the time? I'm trying to tell you something and you just change the subject because you don't want to hear what I'm saying. Do my feelings even matter to you?" Win raged at the subject change.

     Lita stood up in frustration. "Of course they matter, Win. I'm trying to instill a little happiness in your life, and I'm trying to show you what life could be like if you stayed here instead of running back to that soulless city of yours. I'm getting older and I miss my family. You've been gone for 10 years Win. Going to the city to see you on occasion and having you home are two different things."

     Win raised his hands in the air. "And whose fault is that, mom? You are the one who told me I wasn't welcome here if I married Lovely!"

     Lita narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "No, I said she wasn't welcome here. I never meant you weren't! This is your home, Win!"

     Win threw his arms out in frustration. "She was my wife, mom. How could I leave her behind to go somewhere she wasn't welcome? Is that the man you raised me to be? Is that the kind of husband you expected me to be? You tied my hands, mom! You made me feel like I couldn't come back and I was drowning alone and had nowhere to go. Do you have any idea how much courage it took, how much pride I had to swallow, to even ask you if I could bring Tess here for the holidays?"

     Lita looked down at the floor. She had never seen it that way before. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel cast out. I've missed you so much. I miss having my son close to me and I've missed the chance to get to know my granddaughter outside of a couple visits a year. There's this huge chunk of life between us that's been lost and I know I can't have it back, but I really want the chance to have you back, to put our family back together. I really want to know if there's any room in your considerations to just stay here and give our family another chance, Winnie."

     Win sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know. I'm taking it day by day. I've been out of the business for a while and I still have enough and make enough from royalties for Tess and I to survive, but I can't just do nothing either. Back home, I was a full-time dad and an acting coach and modeling consultant on the side. It allowed me to stay home with Tess most of the time, but still work. But I don't know if I want to expose Tess back to that life after what happened. But I also can't deny the opportunities she'd have if we stayed there. The decisions I'm trying to make aren't solely based on my emotional attachments, but to the very tangible concepts of what's best for Tess and her future, mom."

     Lita leaned against the sink and gave her son a long, hard look. "Well, I don't know much about acting coaches and modeling consultants, but I do know that the drama program for kids in this town is crap and could use a decent teacher," she suggested.

     Win leaned up against the kitchen counter and sighed. "Mom, I get that you want us to stay, and I'm not ruling that possibility out, but I honestly don't know how I feel about settling here right now. There aren't many opportunities here, and I don't want to hinder Tess' future."