Amanda and I load the dishwasher, and then her mother pushes us out of the house, with the instructions to make the afternoon our own. I have to laugh at her mother hen-ness. She’s so unlike what I had expected for Amanda’s mother, but now that I’m there, the personalities and family dynamic make sense, and I can’t imagine them any other way.
“Well, you survived breakfast,” Amanda says as we walk down the drive to my car.
“So did you,” I point out.
“Yeah. In the back of my head I kept thinking about the cancer. I’m glad he finally just said it outright. My mom can take awhile to come to terms with bad news.”
“I think she just tries to make everyone happy.” I unlock the car and we get in.
“What was your mother like?” Amanda asks suddenly.
I laugh and shake my head, starting up the car. “Patricia reminds me more of her each day.”
“Patricia!” Amanda exclaims. “And the wall in your house. Didn’t you have an appointment for someone to come out and fix it today?”
Again, I’m reminded of my mother worrying about the roof, long ago. “Yeah,” I say, putting the car back in park. “Hold on.” I dial the carpenter’s number and reschedule the appointment. “I’d better call Patricia too, before I forget,” I say.
Amanda nods.
“Patricia,” I say when she answers, “I’m going to be out of town for awhile. Amanda just got news that her dad has cancer.” I cast a sidelong glance at Amanda. She’s looking out the window steadily.
“Oh, dear,” Patricia says on her end. “How is she doing?”
“Coping, I guess,” I say.
“Well, this is good, John. Stay with her and help. This will make your skills even stronger. There’s a lot of emotion and thought wrapped up in something like this. There’s a lot to receive. It will come to you in waves. It won’t always be interpretable. But it will be good for you.”
“Okay,” I say, not wanting to talk too much about it in front of Amanda.
“Just call me when you’re back in town.”
“I might before that,” I tell her, thinking of Amanda’s father’s blocked thoughts.
“Yes of course. If you have any questions please do phone me.”
“All right.”
“Tell Amanda hello.”
“Will do.”
I hang up the phone.
“Well, has your house snapped in half yet?” Amanda asks.
“Yeah, the crack goes all the way down the street now,” I tell her with a straight face.
“Ha, ha.”
“Patricia says hello.”
“Is she okay with you being out of town?”
“She told me it was the best thing I could do.” I put the car back in drive. “Where to?”
“Well I always liked the lake. I’m kind of afraid it’ll be different now than I remember.”
“How much could it change?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well there’s no harm in looking.”
