Page 46 of Maybe Some Other Time

“I don’t think you know what a shock it was!

” Robbie attempted to lean back on the bench, but without anything to support his back, he was forced to the side, away from Becky.

“There I was, minding my own damn business, when I got a call from the FBI to come down right away to their branch office. There had been a break in my mother’s missing persons case.

” He slammed his Paprika cup onto the wooden picnic bench, nearly cracking both.

“Which is what I told Megan when I took her with me. Next thing I know, we’re locked in a room with some FBI detective, and he’s telling me… telling us…”

Robbie went silent. Thelma shuddered to remember what it had been like to be in her own position in the FBI office.

“That not only had they found you… but you were alive. That was… that was, quite frankly, shocking enough.”

“You must have thought they found the old lady version of your mother.” Becky took her ex-husband’s hand. “Living in some old folks’ home in Pasadena or something.”

“Instead, she was twenty-eight and wearing the outfit she left the house in sixty years ago. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing… time travel… and then there you were, like it was the cruelest prank in the universe.”

Thelma rubbed something from her eye. “I can only imagine.”

“It must have been terrifying for you as well, Thelma.”

“I had been here for two or three days.” She sighed. “Staying in some small hotel that they keep on the premises. My only connection to the outside world was a female agent who argued with me about ethnic cuisine.”

Neither Becky nor Robbie said anything about that.

“Then they said they found my son, and he was coming there. I was so nervous. So afraid.” She went on to cover the heaviness in her heart when she first saw the boy who was her son.

No, he was a man. An old man. There was a grown granddaughter she had no way of knowing about.

Not only were these people being shocked by her presence, but her son wanted nothing to do with her.

For a while, Thelma convinced herself that the only reason Robbie took her in was because the FBI forced his hand.

“More like Megan forced my hand…”

“Because our daughter takes after me more than you.”

“Like you would have so easily accepted what was happening!”

Becky shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I wasn’t there. But I certainly would have been less of a little bugger about it.”

“Yeah, well, not everyone can be so easy-going, Becks.”

“Easy-going, he says! As if I didn’t spend the last five years of our marriage pulling my hair out because the only happiness I got was when he was out of the house!”

“You had no problem living in this house when we were married.”

“It was always more your house than…” Becky glanced at Thelma. “Wait, was this house…”

She shook her head. “We didn’t live in Van Nuys. We were closer to Irvine than anywhere near the Valley.”

“Oh, great, so my ex-husband made me live in Van Nuys just because the real estate was cheaper at the time.”

“Guess how much this house is worth now.” Robbie chuckled in triumph. “Go on.”

“I don’t care, Rob. That’s Megan’s matter.”

The two of them continued to bicker like an old married couple, and for a moment, Thelma indulged in the idea that they were still married and her Robbie was well taken care of in his sickness and health.

Except he had driven this woman, the mother of his child, away.

Perhaps Becky wasn’t a perfectly innocent party in the divorce, but Thelma knew what it was like to have the family life stacked against her.

She was able to file for divorce. No fault.

It blew Thelma’s mind. To have that kind of power…

Eventually, the bickering turned to talking about the cancer, which made Robbie so uncomfortable that Becky demanded to see the hospital paperwork since he couldn’t bring himself to talk about. He ducked back inside his house, leaving the women to themselves.

“I’m so sorry for how he turned out,” Thelma said in a rare moment of addressing the ugly elephant in the room. “He was always a willful boy. Sensitive, but didn’t share much. But I should have been there to help him not be… more like this.”

“Ah, well…” Becky sighed again. “The thing about Rob is that he can be a living canker sore, this is true, but there’s a teddy bear in there. I do think your disappearance did a number on him, but it sounds like it wasn’t your fault at all. I mean… time travel?”

“I know it affected him terribly. That’s why I feel awful. I shouldn’t have gone out that night. I should have run my errands that afternoon like normal. But I was… caught up. In selfishness. Sinful indulgence.”

Becky studied her for a few seconds before offering her observation. “You couldn’t have known. Instead, you became a part of history. Literally.”

“Yes, indeed. And I couldn’t be there for my children. Debbie didn’t get to have a mother to guide her into womanhood, and Robbie probably internalized so much of the stress and grief of the situation. They thought I was dead, Becky. Or, worse, that I had abandoned them!”

“For what it’s worth, I assumed you were dead.”

Something about such candor made Thelma laugh uncomfortably loudly. As her whole chest shook, all she could think was I wish I could have known this woman when she was my son’s wife. They probably would have gotten along swimmingly, much to Robbie’s chagrin. He would have loved it.

“It seems that our Robert has been surrounded by strong women his whole life.”

“Well, I don’t know about his stepmother. Apparently, Mary wasn’t that into child-rearing. From both Rob and Deb’s telling, Mary was enamored with Bill, but not so much the children.”

Thelma’s heart sank. “That’s unfortunate for everyone involved.”

“I never met Bill, since he died before I was in the picture, but I’m sure he did his best in the wake of everything.”

“You mean my disappearing and people assuming he did something?”

Becky snorted into her cup. “Uh-huh.”

“What else did he tell you about me?”

“Not much, honestly. Just that you were always perfectly dressed and people liked you.”

That’s my legacy, huh? Well, at least he hadn’t talked about finding Lesbians From Outer Space in her hope chest. At least some things remained sacred around there.

Robbie returned with his documents. Becky put on a pair of reading glasses and perused the test results and the recommended treatments.

Her brows knitted in consternation as she considered what this probably meant to her.

Just because they’re not married anymore…

Well, Robbie was still Thelma’s son, too.

She knew she would probably outlive him now, but did he have to suffer so soon?

The sandwiches arrived while Becky read through the documents.

Thelma folded her arms on the picnic table and gazed up into the sky as Robbie fetched them.

“I’m not entirely sure he does believe I’m his mother,” she said, garnering Becky’s attention from behind the papers.

“To be fair, there are days I don’t feel like anybody’s mother anymore.

I have to talk about my children in the past tense.

I’ve had to make peace with a life without them. And it feels strangely… fine.”

Becky lowered the papers to the table. “I don’t know the first thing about traveling through time, but it seems to me that you have to make the most of what God has given you here.”

“That’s what I keep thinking. Nobody at my church knows the truth about where I’m from, but they say the same thing. Make the most of your time on Earth. I keep trying. I don’t want to be reliant on any man. I’d rather be reliant on another woman!”

“That’s possible now.”

“Can I tell you a secret? Between us girls?”

Despite the severity of what was on the papers, Becky slammed them down and gave Thelma her undivided attention. “Spill! I won’t tell him a thing!”

“I’m sort of dating someone already. He doesn’t know, though. Neither does Megan. The only ones who know are from my time travel group, and they’re dubious about it.” Pauline had declared Gretchen adorable, but shared the same worries that it might be too soon.

“Really? Anyone I know? Probably not, huh.”

Thelma’s fingers tapped against the table. “Actually, it’s the neighbor. Close proximity does wonders for forging new love.”

“The neighbor?” Becky squinted at Thelma. “Only one I can think of who is available is… Gretchen?”

If she was waiting for Thelma to be disgusted, Becky did not get her wish.

“Wait. Gretchen? But she’s… oh. Oh. That puts things in perspective.”

“What does?”

“I mean, Robbie used to talk about that author. Sandy Westmore. He really did not like her. And he’s always been weirdly homophobic about our daughter dating girls, despite him being chill about everything else as long as it doesn’t affect him. But if you’re… if you were… ”

“Megan says I’m queer. Or bisexual. Or sapphic. I can’t keep up.”

“Oh, of course, Megan knows!”

“She doesn’t know about Gretchen, though. I’m seeing how it goes right now.”

“And how’s it going with dearest Gretchen? How’s she doing, anyway? I haven’t talked to her much since her parents passed.”

“She’s doing… quite well for herself.”

“Oh, my.”

“What?”

Becky laughed as Robbie came out with—Mulberry, Paprika—plates full of sandwiches and all their fixings. “Look at you! As red as a cherry!”

“What’s going on?” Robbie asked.

“Just some girl talk. Now, about your prostate…”

There was no saving him now. Even if he survived treatment, Robbie would never outlive the embarrassment of this moment.