Let tomorrow come

Chapter 21.

It seems that my mother took my advice and listened to the tape recorder after all. However, now she is more sad and thoughtful. Dad tries to stir her up. I have already told him about the story with the recorder. He, of course, shook his head disapprovingly, but praised me for my intelligence. He tried to talk to his wife several times, but she avoided him. It seems strange to me that she behaves this way, but dad told me that this is normal. She's in shock after getting the full picture and is probably feeling uncomfortable or ashamed right now. But she never said anything about life without us, although dad told her how he missed her and was looking for her.

"You see, Chris, there's no point in being angry with her. We don't know what happened to her or how she lived. But I see that not everything is alright with her. I don't know if we can fix this. The psyche is a very complex thing. And as you get older, you'll know more about it. From your own experience."

I'm glad that he communicates with me as an adult.

"Of course, daddy," I hugged him, "but she's very sad. And she hardly speaks. Are you sure she'll be okay?"

"I can't give any guarantees, my dear. I hope she's not going crazy because this is weird behavior. But I'm always with you, you know. We can handle it."

"How does John react to this?"

"Wow, are you worried about John?" he smiled.

"Of course, no matter what he does, he is still my brother and your child. Maybe he'll improve, though..."

"Although it's hard to believe," Dad interrupted me with a laugh, "but suddenly a miracle will happen. By the way, does he still play chess with his grandmother?"

"Sometimes. But his grandmother kept him busy with his studies. Will his head explode from so much knowledge?"

"Daughter, a head cannot burst from knowledge! I have an idea about your mom and my wife. Maybe Anne can talk to her? They always communicated well."

"Why not? I'm glad you're here, but I want to read before bed," I waved the thick book in front of his nose.

"What are you reading?" he asked and looked at the title, "Oh, it's "Nils's Wonderful Journey with the Wild Geese. "Did you find this in our library?"

"Yeah."

"I read this book once, it's a good thing. By the way, would you like me buying you the latest Harry Potter book? You haven't read it yet, have you?"

"Cool, dad. Want Want. And what about grandma?"

"And grandma won't know anything, we'll buy you a small bookcase for your room. Do you want?"

"Thank you, daddy!!!"

"Now I'll go over to John's and check on your mom."

He kissed the top of my head and left me alone.

***

The Wilsons came over for Sunday dinner. Marco made shrimp and pineapple salad and blueberry pie. I love it when he cooks something atypical for our table. These are masterpieces. Sometimes it seems to me that he is an artist, only instead of brushes he has knives, and instead of canvas there are products.

I'm glad. Mom communicated with them quite willingly, although things weren't working out with dad yet. Dad is still trying to find an approach to her. I look at her and begin to doubt that everything is okay with her. She waves her arms twitchingly, although she has never done this before, and says that she has been in Spain and in Turkey for the last six months, although she has worked in different places that are not even closely related to history. Mr. Wilson smiled at her restrainedly, and he looked sympathetically at dad. And after dinner he went up to dad, and they whispered about something.

It's June now, Peter still wants to go to university, so he will continue to study here. Although rare, we will be able to communicate for another year until he leaves. Peter and I decided to build a construction set today, but a little unusual. This is a wooden car that is assembled from prepared parts. It turned out beautiful. Peter said it was a retro model, but I didn't remember its name.