The day had finally come for Tex to go pick up Mama from the hospital. Stephanie was very excited to meet her. All week she had been trying to gather some information about what she was like. The boys only said good things about her which was to be expected if their celebration about her homecoming was anything to go by.
Tex left early in the morning to get Mama. The hospital she was at was 2 hours away which meant Tex wouldn't be able to help with the farm work that day. Stephanie offered to help until she heard that meant she would be helping check the traps around the property and cutting up the meat. She quickly rescinded her offer at that point.
Instead Stephanie decided she would prepare Mama's room for her return. Mama's room was downstairs in the back left corner. Her room was very nice but complete covered in dust. There were old cups of water with dead bugs in them on her nightstand. The bed linens smelled musty and looked like they, along with the rest of the room, hadn't been touched since before Mama left.
"Alright, first thing's first, I need to get all these dishes out of here." Stephanie grabbed as many cups as she could and took them out to the kitchen. She set them on the counter and went back for more. She washed, rinsed, and dried every cup before moving onto her next task.
Washing the linens was probably the hardest task since this woman slept with so many blankest. How she did that in the Texas heat Stephanie had no idea. Stephanie counted 4 blankets on the bed before she gave up on counting them all. This wasn't because she couldn't count very high it was just stressing her out to think about how hot all the blankets must be.
While the blankets were hanging outside on the line to dry Steph began dusting the room. She took the feather duster to each and every surface before using some cleaning supplies she found under the kitchen sink to get any stickiness or grime. When she was finished, the room was looking much better than it had before. It looked like someone actually lived there rather than an abandoned bedroom.
Stephanie still had some time before Tex and Mama were expected home so she decided she would make some cookies to welcome Mama home. There weren't too many ingredients that she could use, but she did the best she could. In the end it was hot sugar cookies coming out of the oven in the shape of butterflies and flowers.
"Thank goodness home-ec taught me how to shape cookies without the cutters," she said to herself. She heard the front door open and heard Thomas's heavy footsteps. "Hi honey," she called to him from the kitchen.
The footsteps got louder as he came over to the kitchen. He walked over to Stephanie, picked her up, swung her around, and pressed his lips to her forehead. He was always so happy to see her, and that warmed her little heart.
"Having fun out there?" she asked. Thomas shrugged. He reached his hand behind her toward the cookies.
"Ah ah ah," she said lightly smacking his hand away. "Those are for when Tex gets home with his mother. You're going to have to wait."
Thomas put on his best puppy dog eyes but Stephanie remained strong.
"No Thomas. You're just going to have to wait like everyone else."
Thomas sighed.
After Thomas went back outside to finish his work Stephanie resigned to her room. Using the materials she bought a week ago she had started creating a new dress for herself to wear when meeting Mama.
The dress was almost finished it just needed a few more final touches. It was a white shirtwaist dress with a tie belt. She only had to finish with the hem on the bottom of the skirt and add the buttons. It felt so nice for her to be creating again.
Soon she heard the sound of Tex's truck pulling up in the driveway. She peeked out the window and saw Tex hop out the driver's seat and go around to the passenger side. Stephanie quickly finished the last stitches on her dress before changing into it. It fit perfectly and looked wonderful. Smiling at her handiwork she fixed the flyways in her hair, reapplied some lip gloss, and got ready to meet the legendary Mama.