Amelia's Children

Chapter 4

My parents had already announced that the restaurant would be closed on Monday because the repair man was coming. It was a good thing, too, because that morning the air conditioner finally decided to die completely. Dad stayed in his office for most of the afternoon just so he'd be there if the repair man, who actually turned out to be two women, needed anything, and Mom took advantage of the unexpected day off to cook a big family dinner that night.

My brother Will was coming over, so I was afraid things might get a little tense. Not that I didn't like my brother, I adored him. He had been the only one in the family to support me in my decisions after college. The issue was that everything he had done with his life was exactly what my parents would have chosen for him whereas I...well I think I've said enough about that.

Will had followed his dreams, just like I had. But while my dreams took me all the way across the country and into a new faith that my mother considered sacrilegious, Will had realized all of his ambitions at home. And he had really done well for himself—going to college on a full scholarship and then on to medical school after that. He had naturally made sure that he received a quality education, he just hadn't looked outside the state of Georgia for it. And when his schooling was done he had moved right back home and worked at the family practice that Old Doctor Cowart had started back in the 70s. And when Dr. Cowart had retired, my brother had taken it over. Will knew everybody in town, and everybody knew him. And at the risk of sounding like a cliché I could also say that everyone who knew him loved him. My parents being at the top of that list. His only failing was that he was now thirty-five and still unmarried.

I helped my mother in the kitchen as we awaited Will's arrival, and we tried to find things to talk about that did not involve religion. Mom was into gossip, so that helped. She told me all about Mrs. Pincher who was divorcing her husband after she had caught him in bed with her sister. She told me about Mike Pratt whom I had actually dated in school but who had now been caught in the bed with another man. She told me about the new pastor at the Methodist church who had just gotten engaged to a woman ten years his junior. I began to think there wasn't a single thing that happened in town that my mom didn't know about. I personally did not care a thing for hearing about all of the marriages and divorces and new babies and local scandals that were going on all over town. Quite frankly those kinds of conversations bored me out of my mind, but I was grateful for my mom's constant chatter. As long as she was happily gossiping about all of her neighbors, she was not criticizing me, and I wanted it to stay that way. So I smiled and pretended to be interested and tried like hell to figure out something appropriate to say in response, all the while counting down the seconds until my brother arrived to save me.

I finally heard his car pulling up at five thirty. He came in carrying a huge pan of peach cobbler.

"Here, Mom," he said as he set the cobbler down on the counter and hugged both of us. "Jenny from our office made this and sent it over."

In most parts of the world bringing a bottle of wine to dinner would have been more customary, but my parents were Baptist so we had dessert instead. Mom opened up the cobbler and sniffed, then immediately started in on what I knew was coming.

"That Jenny always sends over the best desserts."

Will smiled. "Yeah, she does. And she must have been busy over the weekend because she brought us a pound cake for breakfast this morning too."

"I've always thought she was a nice girl. She's not married is she?"

Giving me an exasperated look, Will said, "No Mom, she's not married."

"Is she dating anyone?"

"Not that I know of, but we don't really talk about that at work."

"I don't seem to remember hearing about her dating anyone. I don't know her parents very well though, so I'm not the one to ask. It's a shame. She's such a sweet girl, and so pretty." Mom glanced my way and asked, "Don't you think she's a pretty girl?"