WE GATHER TOGETHER by Edward L. Woodyard

We Gather Together Chapter Forty-Three

Jack Drexler wasn't going to let Annie put him on the defensive. "You can be so caustic and sarcastic."

"We've got to get on with our lives, Jack. Isn't that what you told me?"

"Annie. . ."

"'Annie' nothing, Jack Drexler. You better get a job soon. We don't have any money. And you're not moving back in."

Annie had revealed Jack's secret hope for them. Annie knew Jack better than he knew himself.

"Why not? It could be a while before I land something else." In this backhanded effort, Jack knew these words were how he could admit he had made a mistake and was now trying to apologize.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"I don't believe this," he quantified about her reaction to his dilemma.

"When my life was falling apart, Jack, where the hell were you?"

Annie gave Jack a sharp look, causing him to deflect her gaze. Annie wanted payback and now she was going to get it.

"Now that you have the time, you can rake the lawn."

Jack smiled to himself; he had been right. It had taken Annie some time, but she went after him about the leaves and the lawn. He had his response ready, the comeback he thought of while he waited for her to open the front door, "You do it. I don't live here anymore."

Annie looked around the room for something, going into the kitchen and then the family room, then back into the living room. Jack watched her flit from room to room.

"It's your responsibility. But then that was never one of your strong suits."

"The lawn?"

"Responsibility."

"Pay to have someone do it."

Annie stopped and stared straight at him. He knew he had just said something stupid and that he had also given her an opening, of which she would take full advantage. Her voice raised significantly as she went toward him. He was almost a foot taller than she was, but at moments like what she was about to do, she could make him cower.

"With what money?! We have three thousand dollars in the bank and we're not touching the kids' college money. You should have thought of that when you got yourself fired. You're obviously not as charming as you think you are. Please leave, Jack."

Jack did not move. Annie found her purse on the couch behind the canvas boat bag. Jack and Annie heard Kelly come down the stairs. "I'm ready, Mommy." She had on play clothes.

"You look nice, Kelly," Jack said. "Please say hello to Grammy and Grampy for me."

Annie remained calm and walked into a back hallway to retrieve down jackets for both her and Kelly.

"Can I use the phone?" he asked.

"Your cell phone out of range?" Annie responded. Her voice had become even again. She did not want to fight in front of Kelly. She had exposed her emotions about Jack to Jason yesterday which had only accomplished in making Jason upset when he slammed his bedroom door. Annie motioned for Kelly to come to her in the kitchen as she held out Kelly's jacket and helped her put it on.

"It costs too much," said Jack.

"Use the landline at your motel."

"That's even more. Service charges."

Jack followed Kelly into the kitchen. Annie saw him glare at a portable phone on a kitchen counter, and stood in front of him, taking the phone from its saddle before Jack could get to it. She was becoming impatient with Jack interfering with her life, attempting to dictate conditions to her with his demand of wanting to use the portable phone.

"You're out of here. I'm locking the house."

"I have a key."

"Do I need to get a restraining order?" she said very calmly.

Jack started to realize something. He paused and then backed into the living room.

"In the meantime, . . ." Annie said as she handed Kelly to her father. Jack held Kelly while he watched and followed Annie as she collected every portable phone in the house, going from the kitchen to the living room to the bedroom upstairs.

"Annie, you don't want me to get another job, do you? You want me to stay home with the kids, so you can get out of the house."

Annie walked down the stairs with the last receiver from the three portable phones.

"That's the only way you'd ever understand what I go through every minute of every hour of every day of every year."

She put the three phones in the canvas boat bag and took Kelly from Jack. Although he was angry, Jack muffled his voice in front of his daughter. He stared at Annie who returned the stare.

"What the hell do you need to prove? What is it with all you McCullochs? Now I know why Scott had to get out of here. It's the constant competition!"

"We don't talk anymore, Jack. I don't understand your business and you don't understand mine."

"Motherhood is not a business."

When Jack saw Annie's reaction to his statement, he knew he had said the wrong thing.

"Want to bet? Negotiating a deal? Try negotiating crayons between our two screaming kids. Handling a crisis? Jason falls off his bike and I rush him to the emergency room for stitches. Pleasing the client? 'I hate chicken. I want peanut butter instead.' You're full of it, Jack. And it's constant, non-stop."

"Who makes the money?" Jack asked, following it with two more questions, "Who pays for the goddamned peanut butter? And the stitches in his chin?"

Annie looked at Jack. When Kelly started to get upset, her parents started to calm down again. Jack almost pleaded with Annie to understand their dilemma as a couple, "When are you going to realize that we're both in this together, Annie? It's not you versus me. It's us versus them."

But Jack's plea created a different response in Annie. "Who's the 'them,' Jack? The creditors, the banks? Who's the enemy?"