Curse of the Peters Brothers

Chapter 11

flashback...

"Katty, will you please come home for a visit?" Gramps asked over the phone, "We all miss you."

"I miss you too, Gramps. I just can't come home," she sighed, "you know that." It was the same argument every time she called home. If it weren't her mother, Gramps would be the one to beg her to return home. No matter how much she wanted to go home, even for a visit, it was too late now. She'd made up her mind and now she had to stick to it. No matter what.

"Actually, Katty, I don't know that. Your new job is more important than your family now?" he accused.

"You know that is not true!" she all but yelled into the phone. "I just can't get the time off work to take a trip long enough to be worth it!" she defended herself with the lame, but true, excuse. It had become her safety net. No one argued that point.

"You need to tell your new boss that you have to come home. I'm getting old you know, Katty. I might not be here much longer."

The guilt card. "That's a rotten thing to say to me, Gramps! You know I would come home if I could!"

"If that were the case you'd have come home at some point in the past seven years. Don't even argue with me. You know I'm right."

The thing was, he was right. She knew it. He knew she knew it. Could she admit it? Not a chance.

"I'll see if I can get a week off work this year, but I can't guarantee it."

She heard Gramps sigh dramatically through the line before he said, "I just hope I live long enough to see you again."

"Please stop saying those things," Kit begged him.

"Katty, I've been missing your Gramma Kat for so long. It is getting to be time for me to-"

"Gramps," Kit interrupted, "I won't call you anymore if you keep talking like this."

He knew she didn't pose hallow threats. So he sighed and gave in, "You're as stubborn as your Grandmother," he growled.

Kit glanced at her watch and saw that she needed to get going. There was so much to do tonight. They were making the set for the show look like a winter wonderland for the Christmas season and she had to take measurements and pick out fabric swatches as well as book guest stars for the show. She loved her new job as assistant to the stage manager but the actual stage manager didn't do anything. So she was doing her job and all the running for it as well as his job. The one thing that kept her going was the fact that her boss, Victor, is retiring later in that year. She had to work her rear-end off in order to get his job. And she knew she could do it.

"Gramps, I'm so sorry but I have to go back to work now. We have so much to do this week."

"Oh Katty, I pray that you will change the order of your priorities."

"I love you Gramps."

"I love you too, Katty my dear. You take good care of yourself. Take time to slow down once in a while."

"I will. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," said Gramps as he hung up the phone. Kit caught the strain in his voice and knew that he was crying. It was her fault and she knew it. The worst part about keeping away from home was that if she went home she'd put a strain on a very important family relationship. If she stayed, she'd lose very important family relationships. She was in a lose-lose situatuation and she hated it. Some day, maybe, her family would understand her motives.

No matter what, she wasn't happy. She tried not to dwell on the why she wasn't happy. It wasn't that she didn't like her job. She did, but it got to be too stressful too fast. But it kept her busy and when she was busy, she didn't have time to think.