Chapter Two, Episode Ninety-Two - Conflicted - Situationally Theirs

Conflicted

Larger than life arguments.....Mrs. Eliot could hear her daughters, again. Soon there would be a slamming bedroom door. Stomping adolescent feet racing each other down the stairs. In harmony, “Mom!! She’s being stubborn again!” And “Mom! It’s not me, it’s her. She's bossing me around again!” Calmly she got out lemonade, took plastic not glass tumblers from the cupboard.The argument that had descended from upstairs sounded more heated than usual, despite the same pattern. There they were, right on time, squeezing and elbowing themselves into the kitchen, Dez red-faced and Emelina’s mascara reaching her chin. Both of them furious. Their mother wanted to reel time back and pull out two chairs, had them face each other quietly until they could talk civilly. They were too old for that a now. 

“Lemonade, girls?” She gave them their drinks, then turned away from them and continued peeling potatoes. Silence. Dez slouched into a chair, slurped her lemonade. “Don’t slurp!” Emelina rolled her eyes and sipped her lemonade. “See mom, she bosses me about everything.”

“Yes, dear.” Their mother put the potatoes in the oven. “I’ll leave you girls here while I go to Fresh Seafood for tonight's salmon. Please check the potatoes in twenty minutes and give them a stir.” She exchanged her apron for a light sweater, picked up her purse and went out the door.

~~~~~

Dez remembered that afternoon. “She was being too bossy. She even handed me a spoon and told me that I should stir the potatoes.” She was on her way back to Hartley to an interview for a part-time job. It was a temp job for receptionist placement. Not her favourite type of work, having to dress up for every shift, but it paid pretty good. She’d have some benefits with it so she wouldn’t have to depend on her sister for everything. It had been too easy too fall into that trap. “Listen to yourself! ‘A trap’ sounds like Em’s got evil plans for me.” Arriving in Hartley, she pushed it all out of her mind. Her interview was more important.

~~~~~

Emelina stirred her coffee til it was cold. “I suppose mother walked out on us because she was tired of our fights. She never said anything except to check on the potatoes and stir them.” She made a face when she sipped the cold coffee. Pushing it aside, she flipped through the pages of an old photo album. “There you are, mom and dad.” She ran her fingers over the glossy black and white. “I remember that afternoon, mom. I think it may have been the last real fight Dez and I had. We’re in another conflict now. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. Dez has gone off to a job interview in the city. She does live here on Estate but I don’t know…….I just don’t know.” She closed the album and slid it back in the bookshelf. 

~~~~~

“That’s what peace is, right? Postponing the conflict until 

the thing you were fighting over doesn’t matter.”

~ James S.A.Corey, Drive