Falling For Mr. Greenfield

§ 15 § (BWWM)

THE PARENTS

"Maury. He's here. Come on, now. I think he brought her. Oh, my. I think she's with him." Mrs. Sarah Greenfield called up the stairs to her husband.

They had waited patiently for hours hoping their son would make the visit he'd been promising for some time. The elder Mr. Greenfield shuffled down the stairs. His white hair and kindly face gave him the appearance of a sweet grandpa.

"Sarah, don't get yourself all twisted up in a tizzy. He'll be here when he gets here." The older gentleman grumped.

"I saw his car pull up. He's here." She yelled at him as her husband made his way down the stairs.

"Well, you should calm down. Let the boy come in and don't flood him with your unreasonable questions. That mouth of yours is probably why he stopped visiting us." Mr. Greenfield senior insisted.

"Stop it with the antics. I'm his mother. It's my job to be concerned about my son. He hasn't been the same since that snake left him. You know that terrible girl crippled my baby. That's the reason he stopped visiting us. He was too ashamed to face us after he failed to keep his family together." Mrs. Greenfield fussed at her husband as she pointed an aged and fragile finger at him.

When the elderly man joined her at the bottom of the stairs, she wagged her finger at the man and shushed him as if to insist that he stop talking. The gentle giant glanced at his petite wife shaking his head in quiet surrender.

After fifty years of marriage, the Greenfields remained tightly glued together because Greenfield senior learned to listen to his wife. Regardless of what he decided to do once he was all by himself, he knew it was best to keep the peace by letting her be her willful self.

His wife was a spitfire when he first met her at the tender age of fifteen. As time passed by, the twenty-two-year-old woman graduated from college at an early age only adding to her charm as a stubborn yet compassionate person.

Even when they married a few months before her twenty-third birthday, Maury Greenfield never forgot that the woman he joined for all eternity was willful. He never once attempted to change her over the course of fifty years. He merely learned that the easiest way to get along with her was to let her think she could have her way.

The geriatric couple made their way into the lounge. As they settled themselves, Asher met his parents in the room he was sure they would be waiting in to receive their guests.

Holding Sorrow's hand, he came to a stop as his folks glanced from their son to the young woman beside him. Shock registered on their faces in an almost identical fashion as they panned from Asher to Sorrow and back again.

"Mother, father." Asher greeted them as he walked over to his parents. He leaned down to kiss his mother on the cheek insisting she shouldn't rise from her seat. His father was already standing so the two men, looking very much like twins, earnestly hugged one another. Even though his father was eighty, he and his son were similar in many ways.

Sorrow stood by observing the interactions between Asher and his family.

"Eli Asher Greenfield, well, aren't we glad to be graced with your presence. I see you made it this time." His mother blatantly accused.

"I owe you both an explanation for being absent for so long." He responded as apologetically as possible.

"Son, you know how your mother is. She must always make you feel guilty for being a man and leaving home to live your own life. You have no need to explain a thing." As his father continued his statement, his mother wagged her finger at both of them.