It was then that Ted ambled into the room wiping sleep from his eyes holding a startled Jen. “What’s going on in here!?”
“Look at what your baby of a teenage daughter did to our bed!!!” Pointing to the wet spot.
Jordan was too shocked to defend herself – now almost hysterical in fear and tears.
“Melissa you need to take a breath dear – it was an accident. This is what happens with kids. We’ll get it cleaned.” Ted said firmly and calmly.
“TED LOOK!!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THAT COSTS!!! YOU’RE RIGHT WE’LL GET IT CLEANED!!” Mellissa said knowing she had been beat. She stomped into the master bath and slammed the door.
“Jordie are you ok?” He bent down and touched her shoulder. She flinched away and continued to cry. “Look honey I’m sorry she was mean – I’m sorry you’ve not been getting along with her – I promise it’ll get better. This is no big deal I swear.”
She didn’t respond. Ice Cold. He didn’t know what to do so he just moved back into the living room area with the baby still on his hip. This is impossible, he thought.
This is impossible, Sally thought that morning as she sipped coffee in her quiet living room holding the framed professional family photograph they had had taken the previous June.
How does a family like ours go from ‘model’ to ‘shipwrecked’ in just a few months? What happened?
She hadn’t spent the evening before with friends or at a church small group or with other family. She had stayed home alone and cried feeling sorry for herself and pacing around in anxiety worried about what would happen (or not happen) to her girls and their various problems – especially Jordan.
She thought about calling Ted’s early that Saturday morning– in fact she had had a strong (call it maternal instinct) impulse to try to get ahold of Jordan for some reason at around 5:30 but she resisted.
She’s gotta go through what she’s gotta go through over there and if I call – it’s gonna short circuit everything. She’s probably gonna want to come home and I’m gonna end up in a big fight with Ted and it’ll be awful. God please help me. For better or worse, I’ve gotta get outta this house; get my mind off it!
Sally steeled her emotions and made the choice to cut herself off from the girls for the duration of the weekend.
On a whim, the fretting mother of 3 chose to dial Jo Miller’s number. They had drifted apart through her husband Bob’s addiction problems but when they were both pregnant with their girls, they had been extremely close friends. Sally decided that it might be a good time to reconnect; and possibly a good way for her to build relationships outside her own home circle.
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line was both familiar and friendly.
“Jo? This is Sally Reynolds.”
“Oh Hi Sally! How’re you doing?”
“Well – actually. Not too well.”
Thus began about a two-hour phone conversation that culminated in coffee together at the Reynolds’s household with the pair staying up late with even more conversation together. Jo’s advice and wisdom gleaned over the years after having dealt with her difficult husband was invaluable to Sally in her current predicament. She couldn’t believe her luck to be friends with such an amazing person.
At one point in the conversation while the two were sitting in chairs in Sally’s living room, Jo remembered her promise to her daughter Alex to tell Sally about Jordan’s refusal to go to the slumber party a couple weeks ago.
“So a few weeks ago, Alex jumped in my car really upset about something going on with Jordan.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah – and I normally wouldn’t triangulate like this but I promised Alex I’d mention it to you so I will and then I’ll drop it. Ok?”
“Ok…?” Sally said now curious.
