WE GATHER TOGETHER by Edward L. Woodyard

We Gather Together Chapter Fourteen

Jack Drexler didn't move once he entered the house. He looked around the living room then at his wife, "How's Kelly? Is she better?"

Annie nodded yes. She put the laundry basket on the living room floor and took guest towels from a small bathroom off the downstairs hallway. She threw the guest towels into the basket.

"You here to rake the leaves?" she asked.

Jack reached into an inside pocket of his suit jacket and handed her a check.

"This is your excuse to come by here? Next time use direct deposit," Annie said. She then stared at the check, "This is just great, Jack. I can't even pay the damned mortgage this month."

She tossed the check on top of the guest towels in the laundry basket.

"You could pay it, Annie, if you would manage the money better. Ever hear of a budget?"

"You're the one maxing out the credit cards and flirting with the bank balances on the loans, Jack Drexler. You know how much we're paying in bank fees, Jack?"

The front door burst open. Seven-year-old Jason Drexler ran into the living room and rushed up to his father, "Daddy!" He took off his wool cap and school backpack and slid them down the floor of the front hallway.

"Jason!" Jack bent down and picked up his son, hugging him tightly, "How's my biggest guy?"

Annie tried to keep from enjoying how excited Jason was to see his father. She let down her defenses a bit. When Jack put him down, Jason hugged his mother around her legs.

"I want Daddy to stay for lunch," said Jason. He took off his jacket and let it fall to the floor. He then opened his mouth to his father. "My tooth is ready to come out. See? See it?"

Jack got down on one knee to look into Jason's mouth. Jason wiggled a loose bottom front tooth.

"Give it a couple of more days."

"I want it to come out before Thanksgiving so I can eat all of Grammy's turkey and stuffing."

Annie motioned Jack toward the front door. Jack looked at his son, "I have to get back to work, Jason."

But Jason wanted answers to questions he'd been thinking about. "When are you coming home?"

Jason put out his hand to Jack, but Annie took it instead. "It'll be when we are both ready for him to."

"I'm ready," declared Jason.

"I'm talking about your father and me, Jason. When he and I are both ready, then we'll begin to talk about it."

Jason stared up at his mother and then over at his father who was by the front door. "You don't want him to come home, Mom?"

"Your mother didn't say that, Jason," Jack said bending down to his son, putting his arms out to hug Jason.

Jason instead stood in front of Jack. "You're going to Grammy and Grampy's for Thanksgiving, aren't you, Dad?"

Jack couldn't answer Jason's question. He stood up and sought an answer from Annie. She motioned Jason toward the kitchen. "Yes, Jason. I think so. He has no place else to go."

Jack moved toward Annie. He sensed that she was relaxing her defiance.

"Go on, Jason. Go wash your hands for lunch," his mother said.

Jack watched Jason kick his jacket aside on the floor.

"Jason, do me a favor?"

"Anything, Dad."

"Please hang up your jacket. You know where everything goes. Your backpack too."

"We didn't get homework for tomorrow," Jason said, picking up his jacket and taking it to the kitchen.

"I love you, Jason."

Jack watched his son go into the kitchen and then step onto a small bench so he could reach the kitchen sink. Jason turned on the faucet and cleaned his hands with dish-washing liquid.

Jack went into the foyer and put his hand on the front door knob. Annie watched him. She again noticed that he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. When Jack saw her looking at his left hand, neither one of them needed to say anything.

"It is the holidays," she said calmly. "We should keep up some pretenses for the sake of the family."

Her comment angered Jack. "Whose family? Mine or yours? The Drexlers don't care."

Annie avoided the absurdity in Jack's statement, "The McCullochs don't get divorced."

Jack opened the front door and moved toward the stoop as Annie reached for the door knob to close the door behind Jack. Jack surveyed the leaves on the lawn and then turned back to her, "Either you're going to break a family tradition or there's some hope for us."

"It's up to you, Jack," Annie said in a monotone. She had calmed down.

Now it was Jack who was getting angry, "It's a two-way street, Annie."

Jack kicked autumn leaves out of his way as he went toward his Corvette parked in the driveway. Annie looked at him again, then closed the front door.

She heard Jack start his car. He revved the engine.

Annie took the check from the laundry basket and stared at it. Outside, she heard Jack's Corvette back out onto the street, its rear end hitting a rise in the pavement in the middle of the road. She then heard him screech his tires.

She held the check in front of her and became incensed. "Damn him!"

She kicked over the laundry basket, sending clothes onto the living room rug. She tried to keep from crying, almost hugging herself. She breathed in and calmed herself, bending down to put the dirty clothes back into its basket – when she saw Jason standing in the doorway of the kitchen, staring straight at his mother, his mouth open, speechless.

As soon as Annie looked at him, Jason began to cry. Annie stood up from the scattered laundry and went toward him.

Jason instead rushed past his mother to the foyer. He pounded up the stairs and slammed his bedroom door.

Annie followed him upstairs and saw Kelly getting out of her bed. Kelly began to cry as she moved toward Annie who picked her up and held her.

"What's wrong with Jason?" Kelly asked.

"It's going to okay, Kelly. Everything's going to be okay." Her voice was saying one thing, but her eyes were saying something else.

Annie knew that Kelly didn't believe her, not that Annie was hiding anything. Kelly saw the tears falling freely down Annie's face. They both heard Jason crying in his room.

"When are we all going to be happy again, Mommy?"