Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
We had another party this year, much like last, except without the disco theme. Hannah wanted it to be more traditional, so there was bobbing for apples, pumpkin decorating—we bought a lot of those small ones that are supposed to be for pies—and mask design. I honestly didn’t think that kids Hannah’s age, and definitely older, friends of the boys, would be into arts and crafts, but amazingly, they were all excited about Hannah’s different tables. I should have known better, since everyone knew if they were coming to our house, it was an alcohol-free zone. There was food. We put out a huge spread of dinner and dessert and enough soft drinks and hot cider and chocolate to keep everyone happy all night. I was surprised how many kids came and thanked me or Sam. Most of them didn’t live at home anymore—Kola’s friends—and so a homemade meal was a huge treat.
The boys, keeping to their theme of the three of them always going as something together, dressed as the characters from Die Hard. Kola was John McClane, barefoot, in black pants and an undershirt that Hannah treated with charcoal and splattered with fake blood that she whipped up in the kitchen. There was both corn and chocolate syrup, and lots of red food coloring. I had to say, it looked pretty good. Harper wore a suit as Hans Gruber and kept shushing everyone and called Kola “cowboy.” Jake went as Karl, and he looked good in his black pants, turtleneck, and carrying a giant Nerf rifle that Hannah spray-painted black. He yelled a lot at people at the party, and all the rest of the kids kept telling him to calm down. Everyone loved it, especially all the movie lines they quoted.
Hannah was going to be Cher, but so were two of her friends, so she went as Khutulun, arguably the most famous daughter of Kaidu, a cousin of Kublai Khan, instead. I had watched Marco Polo on Netflix and was sad when they cancelled it. Kola, as usual, was concerned about historical inaccuracies. It was the same when we watched anything based on factual evidence, and he explained how whatever event had not happened that way. But the good news was that when she told me who she was, I knew, and so she didn’t have to explain it to me, beginning with Genghis Khan. My daughter, like my son, tended to be thorough.
As I was putting food out on the tables on the back deck, Hannah leaned in close to my ear and asked to speak to me in the laundry room. The way the house was, it was the deck, then a back door that led into an enclosed laundry area where we had a small refrigerator where Sam kept his beer and our overflow freezer which we used for meat and extra things and where all the serial killers kept the bodies in all the police procedurals I watched. There was a sink out there where the dog and cat got bathed, and all of us had cubbies that we still kept extra clothes in since the coronavirus took over all our lives.
I held the back door open for my husband and Jake, both of them carrying more food, then turned and faced my daughter. I suspected that her costume was not only historically accurate but embellished with actual stones, rather than glass beads. This went back to her talking to Aaron Sutter and having things created that were probably far too expensive.
“Yes, my child,” I prodded her when she didn’t automatically start talking.
She was wringing her hands and then suddenly stopped and met my gaze. “I want to have sex with Jake.”
I had to reach out and grab the refrigerator handle.
“Would you rather I not tell you?”
“No,” I assured her.
She nodded. “When I turn seventeen at the end of November, I want to take a trip with him up to Lake Geneva. I found some beautiful cabins, and I want to spend the weekend.”
I concentrated on my breathing…in and out.
“You know I’ll use protection,” she assured me. “I’m not stupid, and I don’t want a baby, not right now. So I need you to treat me like an adult here who knows what she’s about.”
I nodded.
“I told him he had to be tested, because he’s been a bit of a manwhore.”
Deep breath.
“He’s been tested twice now, and he is disease-free.”
“I didn’t doubt he would be,” I admitted. “He’s in love with you, and he wouldn’t cheat. He’s built loyal.”
“Yes, he is,” she said with a sigh, looking at me like I was perfect. “You always see everyone so clearly.”
“Thank you,” I replied, straightening up, no longer needing Sam’s beer fridge for support. “May I ask what you plan to do once you get back from your cabin?”