"There are only eight days left until Christmas, Erin. I don't think that you'll finish anything else for your family."
Erin looked up from the shawl that she was working on for Karen and saw that John was crouching down so that he could look into the room without joining her. Frowning a little, she looked back down at her project before shaking out her shoulders and fixing a sharp glare on his face. "I will have this finished by lunchtime tomorrow, and then you can deliver them to my children. There is no way that Karen will be the only one of them left out. She's my first baby, and I won't do that to her. Did you bring me three gifts bags so I could at least wrap the presents, even if I can't write cards for them?"
"Yes, Erin, they're under the tray for you. And everything has to be ready to go by noon tomorrow. If it's not, I'll take Bruce and Tabitha their gifts, and Karen will just be out of luck." He closed the door with a loud thud, and Erin grimaced at the door before setting aside the shawl and going over to the food tray. She had not been expecting a hearty barley soup that afternoon, but the scent of it was delicious as it wafted up from the bread bowl. Taking a seat at her table, Erin began to eat, finding herself hungrier than she thought. As she ate, Erin thought about how much she had left to do on the shawl, thankful that she had chosen a pattern with only a small lace section, as she would have no time to block it.
"I hope that you understand, darling, when you figure it out, just why it's not perfect. But it's stitched with love, I promise," she murmured as she finished up the soup, cleaning her mouth with the provided napkin before washing her hands and bringing the tray back to the shelf by the door before picking up the gift bags. They were nothing like what she would have chosen for her darlings, but she knew that she had to be grateful for what John had provided, since he didn't have to give her anything. Letting out a deep sigh, she lovingly wrapped Bruce's sweater in the provided deep green tissue paper before slipping it into the closest matching bag. Tabitha's was wrapped in white tissue paper, and slipped into the bag with a kitten dressed as Santa Claus, since Erin knew that her youngest daughter would find that adorable. Which left the angel bag for Karen. That was fitting, since Erin had always thought of her oldest daughter as her little angel, from the moment she had been born. That just firmed her resolve to finish the shawl, as her angel deserved something beautiful for Christmas. Even if she wouldn't know that it was from Erin.
Letting out a small sigh, Erin went back to her bed and picked up the shawl once more, knowing that she would have to keep her fingers speeding along for the rest of the day and most of the morning in order to truly get it finished before her deadline. "John, I know that you can hear me. Please, just make a sandwich for me for supper. I'll need something fast so that I can have more time to finish this shawl for my Karen."
Clearing her throat, Erin cracked her back before getting back to work on the shawl, finding the rows going much more quickly than she had anticipated, which filled her heart with a spot of hope as she worked the yarn. Again, she lost herself in her work, pushing past the slight ache that was developing in her forearms. She knew that she could rest for the next few days, since there wouldn't be a pressing need to make anything, and she could go back to more mindless projects. The dull thud of the door opening caught her attention hours later, and she looked up from the project to find that John had returned. "I also dropped off some new pictures for you to peruse before you head off to sleep tonight. I think that you'll find them rather interesting."
Erin didn't like the sound of that, but she couldn't interrupt her counting to say something pithy back in response. Instead, she just shook her head as she counted out the final bits of the row. By the time she was setting the project aside, John had already closed the door, and she was left to pick up the tray, a pleased smile crossing her lips when she saw that he had listened to her wishes and left her with a delicious looking sandwich, along with a rather large slice of Dutch apple pie. As she brought the tray over to the table, Erin tried not to pay attention to the manila envelope that contained the photos that John had taunted her about, but as she picked up the first half of her sandwich, she found curiosity winning out.
Awkwardly, she opened it with one hand as she continued to eat, wanting to get four more rows completed that evening, so that she only needed to knit twelve tomorrow. Which was doable, she just had to ignore the pain in her arms. But as the pictures spilled out from the envelope, Erin began to tear up, seeing that David was in Penelope's arms once more, a happy grin on both their faces as they spoke with someone. Erin didn't know who it was, since they were off camera, but she could almost imagine that it was Alex. It would make a sick sort of sense that they would all be together, since she was absent from their lies now, and not hanging like a millstone around their necks.
Pushing the pictures away, Erin hurriedly finished her sandwich and piece of pe, knowing that she had to keep her strength up in order to finish what she needed to that evening. Frowning at the pile of pictures on the floor, Erin got to her feet a few minutes later and brought the tray to the shelf before washing her hands and angrily sitting on the bed once more, queueing up YouTube to play a Mahler playlist, feeling in the mood for his music that evening as she worked on the shawl. Erin worked until she was yawning too often to truly concentrate on what she was doing, finding herself pleased to have knocked out nine rows in total, which meant she only had seven to finish in the morning before weaving in the ends and then wrapping it up. That was more than doable, and she placed the project on top of the wicker trunk before heading into the bathroom and slipping into pyjamas, washing her face before heading back into her room.
Stooping next to the table, Erin picked up the pictures once more, flipping through them to see what else was there, hoping that she would be able to find more of her children. Instead, it seemed like it was just a series of snapshots with David hanging all over Penelope. A part of her began to despise them both, even though she knew that for all intents and purposes, she was dead to them. It wasn't their fault that they had started to move on without her, it just hurt like hell to know that she was so easily forgotten. Taking a deep breath, Erin shoved the pictures back into the envelope before tossing it into the trash can and then crawling into bed, pulling both quilts high up around her shoulders as she turned the laptop and lights off, quickly falling into a troubled sleep as she thought about escape and returning to her David.