Enlightened

Chapter 2

The next two hours just flew by, listening to everyone tell stories about anything and everything.

Then Mom announced, “Baylie, you need to get dressed. We are going to go visit Grandma after I finish baking this peach pie.”

Mom’s peach pies are to die for, but that didn’t stop me from fussing about the plans she’d instantly derailed.

“We are? When did we decide that? Mom, I have plans this afternoon,” I whined.

“Not anymore!” she insisted.

“Oh my goodness, Mom, you know I love Grandma, but she doesn’t even know who we are anymore. It’s so hard to sit there and try to carry on a conversation with her when we have to remind her every two minutes who we are.”

“Baylie, how would you like it if you had no memory and we just put you in a home and never came to visit? She can’t help it she has Alzheimer’s. She is still my mother, and your grandmother, and it’s our responsibility to make sure she’s doing okay, and being well cared for, even if she doesn’t know who we are. Honey that’s what love is all about, it’s unconditional.” Mom laid on the guilt trip.

“Yeah, you’re right. Okay, I’ll go get dressed.” I said, while getting up from my seat and finally putting my breakfast dishes away.

As I turned the corner to go back upstairs, I could hear my dad talking about me.

“She’s developing quite the attitude lately,” Dad grumbled.

“Oh, she’s just growing up, Steve, that’s how teenagers are. If you think that’s bad you should have seen all the trouble we went through with Victoria. When she left for college last fall, it was the greatest day ever.” His voice cracked.

I had to listen more intently, but it almost sounded like he’d started crying.

“We thought she’d never make it there … she had to go into rehab twice before she was straight. So count your lucky stars Baylie just talks back a little, you could be having major problems,” Billy explained.

I tiptoed up the stairs, since I had lingered at the bottom eavesdropping. I wasn’t aware my cousin, Victoria, had been in rehab — twice! This was news to me. In rehab for what? What had brought it all on?

Victoria and I were always real close growing up. She’s three years older than me, and had always been somewhat of a role model. Usually if she had a new hobby, I surely attempted the same adventures, though sometimes, a couple years later. For a few years she was big into skateboarding, but I was never quite coordinated enough to master the challenge. I envied her at that stage in my life, and for a long time I thought the only reason she took up skateboarding, was because she knew I lacked the skills to be able to mimic her.

We never lived real close to each other since Uncle Billy was active duty military, but during the summertime, she’d come stay at my house or I’d stay at hers. We were almost like sisters. Victoria was always a good student, making excellent grades. Her parents were flawless. She had the picture-perfect life, or so I thought. It shocked me to hear she’d chosen a path so opposite from her character. I wondered how it started, and how it ended.

It seemed to me, life was a delicate balancing act, one slip could change everything. I hoped she would stay on the right path now that she was in college. Her future was too promising to just throw it all away. Last I’d heard, she planned on getting a teaching degree and I always thought she’d make a great teacher — if she could put up with little kids mimicking her all of the time.

I pilfered through my closet trying to find the silly sweater that Grandma had gotten me about four Christmases ago, before she went into the nursing home, thinking maybe she would remember it. All the while, I thought about Victoria, worrying about her.