The Life And Times Of Rachel Grape

The Day They Had Been Dreading

    The LeBaron was packed.    Gilbert just paid to have it totally taken care of.   It was a dent.   The Artisan Grocery was lucrative, but school was beginning and the moms did not have money.   A few people in town were mad that they made it into that, but women who carried Kate Spade bags, talked of their jobs int he city and to Elise how "cutely quaint" the place was, but they told their friends and those friends told theirs.   The remaining kids hugged and kissed her goodbye, and Alyssa told her, "Don't get drunk, don't party, and have a great time".  Alyssa worked for her parents that day.    They drove to the state college, wiping away tears.   Luckily, her roomate was not there yet.   She would be in the next day.   They got her side of the room ready, took her to dinner, and told them their tearful goodbyes.   Rachel was special to both of them.

    Rachel was special to Elise becuase she found "the one".   She found the man who loved her for her.   For medical reasons, she had lost weight, but Gilbert did not care.   He loved her curves, her apron belly, and her boobs that now sagged to her waist.   She was getting closer to fifty.   He loved her the same say as he saw her walk into Endora.    Rachel was special to Gilbert, for that was his first child.   It was also the reason he came alive.  When Elise came to Endora, he was still waiting for Becky to come back.   Years later, he found out she passed away during childbirth.   She was a homesteader a few counties away.   One day he searched her and she died in 1998.  Her husband was Wade Busch.   Eloise was their first baby.   He still thought of Becky and knew that he had found the person who truly made him happy and that was his wife Elise.   Gilbert was not on the social media like his wife was.   She knew about her ex.  She knew about Wendy.   Wendy was still in Iowa, still married to Kevin, still a PW.   Her son was handsome.   She hoped he wasn't weird like her mom.   Michelle had ballooned.  She was a real estate agent.   Through social media, she kept tabs on people.   

     With a  kiss and a hug, they got in the car.   The drove down the highway and then, for the both of them, the tears began.   Their baby was leaving them.  

    "Cheer up, Mama," he told her.

"It's so hard," she told him."

"I know, babe.  I know.   It'll be okay."

    They ate at a roadside restaurant and talked.   They would have to go home.  Alyssa was over, because Bonnie would bring a boy home and have sex with him.   Bonnie had done it and it wasn't something that her parents were too proud of.   

     "I hope Bonnie makes it to college," her mother said.

"I know."   

"She could get pregnant."

"Well, so could Rachel, but I don't think she has had sex."

"I think I scared her."

    Back at the house, the house seemed a bit darker.   Alyssa had her baby in the living room, watching TV.   The rest of the kids were either playing upstairs.   Bonnie was on the phone talking to a boy.   Her mother rolled her eyes.   Her parents were tired.   They just went up the stairs to bed, and they cried themselves to sleep....