Late to the Party ✔

15. Every cloud has a silver lining

Life ended after divorce.

It was a well-known fact she'd never questioned. A divorced woman has failed her family, her man, and her purpose. She's peaked too early and has been reduced to a write-off, a lost cause, whether she's holed up in her two-story home with the blinds drawn shut, leaving the liquor store clutching a brown paper bag, or cruising from bar to bar with jeans so tight you could see Washington grinning on the quarter in her back pocket.

Ironically, it was Brenda who'd lifted the curtain a bit to show her all might not be as doom and gloom as people claimed. Of course, that was before the floozy went on and slept with her husband in her marital bed. After Sheldon had laid down a detailed rendition of what'd transpired on that fateful Sunday, Georgie, without asking, took the bed apart and went with Jeanie to see if Uncle Carl's old frame could be salvaged and fixed up. With some sanding and a fresh coat of paint they'd found in the shed and a mattress from one of Connie's spare rooms, the space was hardly recognizable — yet, when she stood on the carpet and thought about having to close her eyes in the same spot her husband had betrayed her with another woman, her stomach turned upside down, and she could barely breathe. Missy, sensing her discomfort under her forced exclaims of gratitude, had suggested switching with Georgie for the time being.

That first night in the garage, she did feel her life had come to an end.

A for-sale sign was put up on the lawn next to theirs, not long after her mother had come strutting in with strands of hair dangling from her updo, a button on her shirt popped and a scratch in her neck, and had slammed down a pile of papers on the breakfast table. "The bitch is leaving town," was all she said, blowing a lock of grey from her forehead, "and she's leaving you in charge of the bowling alley." Mary peered over the documents, took in the drop of what appeared to be dried blood next to a hasty scrawl, and wondered about the legality of it. The gesture left her feeling treasured. For all of her mother's faults, she had always been able to depend on her in times of need, and she hadn't needed her this hard since she'd dipped a stick in her own pee at seventeen and watched with dread as a blue line appeared in the window.

After the initial shock of her husband's faithlessness wore off, Mary started worrying about the kids. Sheldon had taken to checking the driveway before meals, like he expected his father's truck to wait for him there, only to slump his shoulders in disappointment every time. Missy, on the other hand, hadn't uttered a single word about her dad; it was as if he'd never existed. She was sweet as sugar, didn't even tease her brother, worked on her summer assignments without complaints, and cleared the table after dinner unprompted. She didn't go out as much, came home early from rare meet-ups with her friends to spill a waterfall of mindless chatter about dumb girls and even dumber boys. Until one day, Jeanie crouched down in front of her, looked her straight in the eye, and said, "It's okay to be sad. My daddy did about the same thing to me, and it broke my heart. And he wasn't even a very good daddy to begin with."

Missy hadn't bawled like she did then since she was a baby. Even Sheldon shed sniffling tears of his own, and patted his sister on the knee.

The following morning, Jeanie had packed some sandwiches, and they spent a fine day at the waterfront of a small lake she'd remembered from their youth. Mary lay there spread out on a blanket, dozing off with splashing and shrieking in the background, and felt the sun caressing her face through the leaves of the trees and the blades of grass tickling her bare ankles and smelled sweet water and sunscreen, and wondered when and why she had ever stopped taking off her shoes and immerse herself in nature without a care in the world about stains on her dress or whispers from the neighbors. It'd been ages since she'd felt as close to God as in that moment, and the clouds over her head slowly started to shift and revealed diamond-glistening, clear blue skies.