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A moment later, there was a knock on my door before Leo entered. “Hey, Elijah! Barbara gives good marks to those new interns who started Monday. She says they’re working out great. We should probably get down to the HR floor this week to meet them.”
Thinking back to what I’d seen on my calendar this morning, I reflected, “Gosh, the rest of my week is looking pretty busy, but I’ll do what I can.”
“That would be great,” he said. “I’m leaving this evening for a conference with that State agency in Columbus, so I’ll count on you for that. Oh, by the way, Sarah says she’s expecting you for dinner tonight. You still coming?”
Looking back to the personal part of my calendar, I replied, “Yep. Tonight at seven. She’s making her famous roast, which you’re going to miss.”
“Sacrifices we make for business,” he grinned. “Taking one for the team. I’ll live. Thanks for taking care of the interns thing, man. See you when I get back.”
Leo was gone as quickly as he arrived. When the door closed behind him, I leaned back in my seat and sighed.Great, another detail to attend to.
Rolling forward in my head to this evening, I could already taste my sister’s roast, done to just the right medium-rare and seasoned to perfection. It would be the highlight of my week — but there was something else I could expect at Sarah’s house that I might not enjoy as much.
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Sarah knew the brand of Scotch I liked and always kept a bottle in the house. She also always knew the exact time to bring it out. No sooner was I comfortable on her couch, inhaling the aroma of that roast coming out of the kitchen, than she came over to me with a glass and said, “Here you go.”
I took the drink. “I assume I know the reason for this?”
“Thisisa family dinner, like I told you,” she said. “Mom and Dad are on their way. You’ll want that drink.”
Rolling my eyes and taking a first sip of the Scotch, I said, “I should have brought my own bottle with me.” Feeling the burn of the liquor going down my throat and wishing it could burn away everything else I was feeling (except the pleasure of smelling that roast), I added, “Just the thing to prepare for Dad telling me what I’m screwing up in my life.”
Sarah folded her arms. “Elijah, I wish you wouldn’t say that.”
“I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true,” I replied. “Look at me. I have one of the most successful businesses in Ohio. I’m independently wealthy. I live in a great apartment. I employ dozens of people. And, all that Dad sees when he looks at me is how I used to live and whom I used to be friends with. I can never live that down with him.”
Sarah looked for a moment as if she’d say something to argue with me, but she just sighed. “I’d better check on the vegetables and the bread. Excuse me.” She went back to the kitchen, leaving me alone with my Scotch and my nerves.
It wasn’t long before I heard the doorbell ring and heard Sarah going to get the door. Not bothering to get up, I just sat in the living room and listened to the voices coming from the front hall. They’d be coming in here, and I’d have an exchange of pleasantries withoneof my parents — my mother. I knew what I could expect with my father.
Setting my glass on the coffee table, I stood up as the three of them entered the room. Sarah excused herself to the dining room, giving me a look that said,Please behave yourself.
I gave her a look back that said,Behavemyself?Why just me?
My mother came over with a warm hug. “Hello, honey,” she said.
Returning Mom’s hug and grateful to have it, I said, “Hey, Mom, how’s my best girl?” We always liked to have that silly sort of mother/son moment where I’d speak to her as if she were a teenage girl who enjoyed the attention of suitors, not the woman who’d brought me up and always saw the good in me, no matter how rotten I was.
With the other new arrival, it was always a different story. Dad greeted me with a half-hearted smile and an obligatory handshake, which was his subtle way of putting me in my place, no matter what I did.
“Business is good?” he inquired.
“Good as always,” I answered.
“Fine, fine,” he said. “Your sister and I have been talking. She told me about a conversation the two of you had not long ago.”
Inwardly, I clenched. I wondered if I could add Sarah to my payroll and pay her tonevertalk to my father about me.
“Oh?”
“Yes, she did,” said Dad. He lifted a finger as if he wanted to poke it into my chest. “Sarah said you told her thathewas back. What in the name of hell ishedoing back here? What does he want?”
I shrugged and replied, “He just said he wants to come home, that’s all. I don’t know what his plans are.”
“Is that right?” Dad said, judgingly. “Well, you just make damn sure his plans donotincludeyou.We’ve had enough ofthatto last us all the rest of our lives.”
I had to admit, that was theonething that Dad and I could agree on, even knowing that he would never let me off the hook for it.