To Everything, There Is A Season

Chapter 56

Several days had passed, and Jane was still in Don and Meryl's apartment. It had been a stressful visit for the younger Gummers. Meryl felt like she couldn't do anything right in Jane's eyes-she felt like she wasn't a good enough mother according to Jane, and a wife who didn't fix meals right or clean her husband's clothes the way she should. It had been building all week. Don sensed it, but he didn't know what to do. He felt stuck between his wife and his mother while continuously tried to keep the peace. Meryl told him she didn't want him fighting with his mother so he was trying not to for her sake; though it pissed him off whenever his mother would talk down to Meryl. He was finding it harder and harder to keep his mouth shut, but he told himself that he was doing it for his wife. Don kept saying how he thought it was time for Jane to leave, but Meryl insisted Jane needed to come to that conclusion on her own. Meryl felt that if either of them told Jane it was time to leave, then everything she and Don worked and tried hard to build with Jane over the past several days would come crashing down around them. It took everything in Don just to tolerate his mother, and he had no idea how much longer he could last. He was also worried about his mother pushing his wife over the edge; he knew if that happened then he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut.

***

It all came to a head on Thursday night. Meryl was trying to cook dinner while Henry, Jane, and Don were in the kitchen. Meryl felt extremely self-conscious as Jane was watching her cook as she tried to maneuver around her busy son who was under her foot getting into cabinets as she tried to cook and clean as she went. She looked over at her husband who was oblivious as usual the past several days, or so she thought. Meryl reached down to close a cabinet not realizing her son's fingers were there and got smashed in the process. "Mommy is so sorry, Gippy." Meryl exclaimed as she scooped up her screaming son.

"Hoot, Mama, hoot." A pitiful Henry said as Meryl placed kisses on his fingers.

Meryl felt absolutely awful. She was always so careful with Henry, and she and Don usually didn't allow Henry in the kitchen while they were cooking unless he was sitting at the counter in his booster seat, but they allowed it because they didn't want Jane to try to be alone with him in another room. "I know angel, Mama is so sorry. She should have looked."

"Did your Mommy hurt you?" Jane asked accusatory as she glared at Meryl. "She wasn't being very careful."

That was it, Meryl's breaking point. She would NEVER hurt her son and hearing her mother-in-law say as much sent her over the edge. "Back off, Jane, it was an accident."

"Yeah Ma, Meryl would NEVER hurt Gippy. He's a toddler, he's everywhere, these things happen. You've said so yourself last Thanksgiving." Don said defending his wife. "She always protects him."

Jane shook her head. "You obviously don't know what you're doing and I'm just trying to make you a better mother. I mean, last Thanksgiving he falls off the bed, and now you slam his hand in the cabinet."

"Says the woman who stands by the man that abuses her son and tried to fucking kill him." Meryl said storming out and glaring at her husband who just stood there and didn't say a word.

***

Meryl was trying hard not to cry as she rocked Henry in his room and tried to read him a book when she saw her husband appear. "Now you want to talk?"

"Baby..." Don said trying to find the words.

Meryl shook her head as she began to cry. "No, you know what, DON'T! Your silence was confirmation enough that you agree with her; which I NEVER thought would happen. So you know what...just leave and take your mother with you. Regardless of what you two might think, I CAN take care of my son by myself."