“Alex, short for Alexia” Alex said, politely. Jason had been uptight the entire drive. If the sound in this woman’s voice was any indication, his anxiety was well founded. She clearly wasn’t pleased to meet Alex, no matter what she said. Her posture was stiff and her friendly eyes had turned hard as stone when she looked at Alex and Jason’s clasped hands. Alex tried to ease her hand away from Jason, but he held on relentlessly; not wanting to make Anne think they were arguing Alex stilled her protests. Jason knew his mother better than she did, after all.
“Well, that’s nice.” Anne tried to control the venom in her voice, but wasn’t sure she succeeded from the look on Jason’s face. He looked wary and frustrated. Great, he’d brought his lovers’ tiff home with him, too. Anne could already see how the weekend would go. It wouldn’t be pretty, that’s for sure.
“Here come some more trick-or-treaters,” Jason said into the silence. He knew his mother was irritated. She didn’t like unexpected surprises, and Alex was definitely unexpected.
“Great. Well, here you go,” Anne said, roughly handing Jason the candy. “I’ll go check on dinner. It should be done soon.”
Jason took the bucket of candy and waited for the squadron of Monsters traipsing up the driveway. When he heard the door close he glanced at Alex. She looked confused. “I told you…” he began, but Alex gave him a look that stopped him short. “Don’t pay attention to her,” he said instead, having no desire to spend the weekend with two angry women. His mother would be bad enough, and boy was she angry. She hadn’t just walked away to check on dinner, she
stalked
away. Jason shook his head. This was not going to be a fun weekend. He wished he could convince Alex that they should just leave and call her to tell her about the engagement. It would make things so much easier.
“Did I do something wrong?” Alex asked, afraid that she had made some serious mistake without realizing. She couldn’t understand Anne’s anger being directed at her. She couldn’t think of anything she’d done wrong. Obviously Anne didn’t like Jason holding her hand, but Jason was unwilling to let go, and Alex wasn’t going to make a scene in front of Anne.
“Nope, that’s just my mother,” Jason said, matter-of-factly. “You could be the virgin mother and she still wouldn’t like you because I brought you home with me and, heaven forbid, held your hand.” Jason didn’t know how else to explain it. His mother was a bitter, jealous woman. She couldn’t stand the thought of anyone being happy in a relationship because she wasn’t happy. Maybe if her relationship with his father had worked out she wouldn’t be so terrible, but it was too late now.
“I don’t get it,” Alex said, still confused. She tried to understand why Anne would be so disgruntled. Logically she knew that it was possible that Anne resented her for taking Jason away, but she still couldn’t understand it. Her mother didn’t resent Jason. Actually, she quite adored him.
“Neither do I,” Jason said, sighing. He passed out the candy while Alex stood next to him, chatting pleasantly with the kids. He grinned at her, thinking about what a good mother she’d make. She was always patient and smiling with her students. He’d stopped by the school one day and was surprised at how the kids responded to her.
“What?” Alex asked, suspiciously. Jason had the oddest grin on his face as he looked at her.
“Nothing, just thinking about you,” Jason gave her a one armed hug. “I guess we should go inside and face the gauntlet.” He wasn’t excited about spending the evening with his mother. He would have preferred to stay at home and relax, but he didn’t blame Alex for wanting to meet his mother before the wedding. He respected her all the more because she insisted that they tell her about the wedding in person. He just wasn’t sure it was a good idea.
Alex took a deep breath, nodded, and followed his lead into the house.
Dinner was an uncomfortable experience to say the least. Anne wasn’t impressed with Alexia. She was distant and quiet and reserved. She hardly said a word to either Anne or Jason. She ate slowly, as if the food were foreign to her, which made Anne wonder about her upbringing. Her hair was a little on the frizzy side, and she was pale, almost sickly looking. Jason, on the other hand, seemed happy. He was unusually attentive to the girl’s needs, getting her a drink and filling her plate himself. He seemed reluctant to let go of her hand, even to eat, and he constantly seemed to be reassuring her with a soft squeeze of her hand, as though she were some delicate flower he needed to protect. Anne knew better. She could tell he was taken with the girl, and she couldn’t help the stab of resentment that seemed to be needling at her eyes. A piercing pain shot through her head as an invisible ice-pick jabbed at her temple. Anne took a deep breath trying to calm her nerves.
How dare that little hussy try to take Jason away!
“So, Alexia, what do you do?” Anne asked suddenly, her voice overly loud.
“I’m a substitute teacher,” replied Alex, after taking a moment to swallow. “I’m going to school to get my teaching degree, but in the meantime, I sub when I can.” Alex was not ashamed of her job at all. It paid well and it provided the convenience of her being able to pick when she worked. If she had too much homework or a class she needed to attend, she could simply refuse.
“She’s one of the best subs in the district. She works constantly,” Jason told his mother proudly, afraid she’d say something rude or demeaning in response. She had a way of saying something extremely cruel, yet making it sound like naïveté on her part. It was infuriating because it was hard to tell whether she was honestly that ignorant about things or if she was being that rude. Either way, Alex didn’t need his mother picking at her. Even if Alex would tolerate it, Jason wouldn’t.
“That’s good,” Anne said slowly. There was a soft, hesitant, knock on the door, no doubt more trick-or-treaters. Anne wasn’t in a friendly mood as she listened to the insistent knocking.
“I’ll get it,” Alex was grateful for the diversion. She stood quickly and went to the door. There were five kids, all dressed like one of the seven dwarfs, smiling at her expectantly. Alex took her time talking with the kids, enjoying their excitement. It helped to relieve the tension that had filled her body since the moment she met Anne. She couldn’t help smiling when she looked at the small replicas of Sleepy, Grumpy, Doc, Dopey, and Bashful. They were just too cute. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go trick-or-treating with kids. Rose and Kelly had invited them to go this year, but it was the best weekend to visit Jason’s mother, so they’d canceled. Alex was starting to regret the decision.
Jason listened to the muffled sounds from the coatroom as Alex talked with the kids. He couldn’t tell exactly what they were saying, but he could discern giggles and energetic responses. He loved watching Alex interact with kids. She just had a way about her that brought even the most shy child right into her arms. She was so excited about finishing her teaching degree and having her own classroom. She was constantly buying supplies she thought would be fun or useful in the future. He would swear her closet was full of coloring and craft supplies she was saving. He was so distracted with his thoughts he didn’t hear his mother talking at first.
“Jason, why didn’t you tell me Alex was a girl?” Anne asked once Alex had answered the door. “Jason,” she said, demanding his attention with a stern tone of voice that she had used when he was a boy.
“I didn’t think about it Mom. I guess I assumed Trisha told you,” Jason said dismissively. Truth be told, he hadn’t been honest with his mother because he knew she would have been revved up had she known that he was bringing a girl home. He figured it would be better to catch her off guard.
“You should have told me, Jason,” Anne said irritably. “I could have been more prepared…” Anne began.
“How, Mom? Have the bedroom in the basement cleared out? Or maybe the one on the other side of the house? What difference does it make, really?” Jason knew his mother too well. She was angry because he’d brought a girl home and she wasn’t given time to take what she considered the appropriate measures to separate them. Precautions, she would have said.
“Jason, stop. I know you’re a grown man. It just would have been nice to get a heads up. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think I deserved one,” Anne said defensively. Would she have prepared a different bedroom? Probably, she thought impatiently. The one right next to Jason’s room would have been totally unacceptable. But that was entirely beside the point. He should have told her Alex was a girl, and his girlfriend to boot; given her time to digest the information before throwing it in her face.
“Fine. Mom, Alex is
a girl. We’ve been dating over
a year.” Jason was angry. He couldn’t believe his mother. It would be understandable, perhaps, if he was sixteen or even eighteen years old and still relied on her for support, but he wasn’t and he didn’t. He hadn’t in years. When he left for college, he left. He grew up and moved on. She was trying to treat him like some teenager and Jason wouldn’t hear of it. She treated Trisha like a child, but Trisha accepted the abuse, Jason would not.
“Thank you. Was it really that difficult to offer me some consideration? You’re bringing a strange person into my home, and you never even told me it was a girl.”
“You know what?” Jason began, but stopped when Alex appeared in the doorway. She must have heard his tone because she froze for a second, watching him in some surprise, before walking into the room, the smile fading from her face.
Anne and Jason were silent as Alex sat down; Alex, who had never been comfortable in tense situations, tried to break the silence. “It’s too bad you missed it, Jason, Ms. Stafford, there were five of the seven dwarfs outside. It was really cute. They were all in second grade and it was some kind of extra credit for school...”Alex stopped short when she noticed the look of complete hatred in Ms. Stafford’s eyes. Jason looked at his mother for a moment, reveling in her anger at the use of his father’s name. It still hurt his pride that she’d changed her name. Forget that she didn’t love their father anymore; they were all Staffords and by changing her name Jason felt she was distancing herself from her children as well as their father.
“Alex, I forgot to tell you that my mother doesn’t use my father’s name anymore. She uses her maiden name, Davis.” While Jason said this in a frighteningly calm and even, almost smug tone, Alex had a feeling that there was more to it than he let on. If looks could kill, she’d have been dead, and Jason seemed rather pleased with his mother’s discomfiture.
“I’m sorry,” Alex began, looking bewilderedly at Jason’s mother. “I didn’t mean…”
“It’s fine,” Anne interrupted crossly, “you didn’t know.” Anne rose from the table, taking her plate to the dishwasher. She returned, grabbing Alex and Jason’s unfinished food. She’d be damned if she’d sit there being polite and cordial. Alex started to offer to help, but Jason squeezed her hand in a silent signal that she shouldn’t bother. Offering to help would probably just make things worse anyway.
“We’re going to go see a movie, Mom,” Jason said after a minute.
Anne didn’t respond right away. “Fine,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m going to bed, it’s been a long day.” Anne couldn’t believe how Jason was treating her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. If she seemed a little surprised and taken aback because he’d brought a girl home, it was only because he didn’t tell her he was bringing a girl home. In all the years, even throughout high school, he’d never brought a girl home. Oh, he had girls that were friends that came over, but there was something different about the way he treated Alexia; something that worried Anne deeply.
“Okay. We’ll see you in the morning then,” Jason said, standing up and leading Alex with him. He was getting out while the getting was good.
“What did you want to do tomorrow?” Anne asked, interrupting their escape before they made it through the kitchen.
“Relax. See a few sights. Go to the mall maybe,”
Anne nodded once. “I’ll see you in the morning. Your room and Rose’s room are both ready for company.” Anne wanted to insist that Alexia sleep in Rose’s room, but after the little fight she’d had with Jason it didn’t seem like a good idea to push him. Jason had his father’s temper and she knew he’d just as soon walk out the door than give in to her wishes. As if he knew what she was thinking he took Alexia’s hand more firmly in his grasp. Anne had noticed that Jason left their luggage in the car; he would leave without a second thought if she demanded something of him. Anne looked at the clasped hands for a moment, noticing, for the first time, that Alexia wore a small golden ring on her left ring finger. It looked plain, but Anne really couldn’t tell while they held hands.
“We’ll see you in the morning, Mom,” Jason said, pulling Alex behind him as he walked towards the door. Alex followed obediently, unsure of what was really happening. Anne looked ready to both throttle Jason and burst into tears, whichever one crossed her mind first, while Jason looked blatantly irate. He didn’t stop walking until they’d reached the car, at which point he opened Alex’s door for her. Alex had no idea what to do. She knew Jason was upset, but she didn’t really know why or what would make it better. Instead of climbing into the car, she wrapped her arms around Jason’s neck and hugged him tightly. He hesitated a moment before hugging her back and she could feel the anger, which had welled up into a tight ball inside him, begin to disintegrate and fade. He pulled away, kissing her softly on the lips. “Thanks, you always know what I need.” Alex smiled softly as she climbed into the car.