Herloom

October 29 - 1929

We all get comfortable at the dinner table as the tall woman shuffles her way in, balancing the gravy boat between her fingers. She leans over to carefully set it on the table when a drop of gravy runs down the ceramic and onto one of her nimble fingers. She pulls away and swings her hand in the air with a shocked expression plastered across her face.

"Darling, are you alright?" asks the man.

The woman does not respond, instead, glares at him from across the table as she takes her seat.

"How was school today, David?" the woman asks.

David adjusts in his seat and fixates his attention on her.

"It was good, mom," David leans forward and grabs the potato scoop and begins filling his plate.

"Did anything interesting happen?" 

"No." he responds simply and the room goes quiet as we all focus on our meals.

"What about you, Lucy," the man speaks up from across the table "how was your day at school?"

I sat thinking for a moment. I couldn't remember earlier that day; I could only remember the chess game.

"It was okay, I guess."

"Just okay, that's it?" he asks taken aback.

"Yeah," I mutter, shoveling a scoop-full of food into my mouth "just okay."

The rest of dinner is spent eating in awkward silence. As we finish eating, we each take our own plates and make our way to the kitchen to rinse them off in the sink.

I carefully stack my plate on top of David's and step back from the sink, accidentally bumping into the man's arm.

"Woah Lucy," he raises his arms to avoid crashing into me "watch it!"

I stand there in shock, gawking up at the man as he stares down at me with an angered expression. The woman, Agnes, stands across the kitchen wiping down the counters with a damp washcloth. She turns around, staring at me from over her shoulder.

"Lucy, what do you say for bumping into your father?"

"Sorry dad," I mumble and walk out of the kitchen sheepishly.

As soon as I get to the stairs, I can hear the fighting begin.