Chapter 14

Henry's birthday was the following week and it came and went with much less fanfare, but it was special nonetheless. Elizabeth fixed omelets for dinner, because that was the one thing she could consistently make without burning. The big event though, was giving baby food to Benny for the first time and they had moderate success, until Benny decided it was funny to blow it back all over his eager parents, who were seated much too close. Henry and Elizabeth wiped themselves off as best they could and got Benny ready for bed.

On a whim, they jumped into the shower together and discovered that those shower sex scenes in movies must involve a great deal of editing and a lot of imagination on the viewer's part, because the entire scenario only provided a lot of giggles and thankfulness that no one was injured, although that was in question for a while.

The two were snuggled up together and Henry was just about to doze off when Elizabeth mumbled, "Joan called today." Henry tensed.

"Oh, and, how was that?" he asked.

"Surprisingly non committal. She didn't yell at me. She only asked how school was going, and if I was alright. I really thought about telling her about you and Benny, but I decided that was just opening myself up to attack, so I said it was going well and I was fine. She prattled on about going on some trip with her lady friends and then she bitched about the food before hanging up abruptly. So I don't know what that all means."

Henry kissed her shoulder. "I'm glad you didn't get yelled at. That's an improvement." Elizabeth nodded, but in the back of her mind wondered when the other shoe would fall.

Three days later, Elizabeth had just finished lunch with Henry and he headed to class. She was fixing Benny's bottle and he was already fussing when the phone rang. Elizabeth tucked the receiver against her shoulder, picked up Benny and popped the bottle in his mouth while plopping back on the chair to get them both comfortable. "Hello," she said.

"Lizzie?"

"Aunt Joan?" Elizabeth asked, wrinkling her face in confusion.

"I was trying to call my niece, Lizzie, I must have the wrong number."

"Wait, Joan. It is Lizzie. What's going on?" It was typical for Joan to go months without contacting either her or Will and most things were supervised by her lawyer, who happened to be her son. Now, to get two unsolicited calls only a few days apart, was completely out of the ordinary, and worrisome.

"Hi baby girl. I was just calling to check up on you. How's school going?" Joan crooned.

"Uh, it's fine. I'm doing well in all my classes. Are you doing alright?" Elizabeth's brows knitted together.

"Well, at 65, I've realized I'm not getting any younger, but I'm still motoring along." Elizabeth had been staring at her bare toes thinking she needed to take the remnants of summer polish off of them, but her head snapped up at Joan's statement.

"Joan, you're 75. When was the last time you talked to Jerry?" Elizabeth asked.

"Who's Jerry?"

"Your son, Jerry." Jerry was Joan's son from a first marriage. Elizabeth thought Jerry had been about 7 when Joan married, her Great Uncle Nathan. Nathan died of a heart attack the year before her parents were killed. Coincidentally, Jerry was also the executor of her and Will's trust. She had been meaning to call him about how much power Joan had over the terms of her trust. Elizabeth knew that Joan could call the shots until she was 20, but the trust was supposed to be turned over as she and Will turned 20. Elizabeth was curious if Joan could actually stop that from happening. But, now, she felt she really needed to speak to Jerry because his mom was not acting like herself. Although she wouldn't say it was an unwelcome change, it was definitely uncharacteristic.

Elizabeth refocused when Benny started squirming in her lap and she removed the bottle and sat him up to burp him. Joan was still chatting on the other end and the she suddenly stopped. "Are you babysitting or something?"

"No, Aunt Joan. It's my son, Benny. He burped and she returned him to her lap and put the bottle back in.

"You have a baby?" The woman truly seemed dumbfounded.

"Yes. He's almost 5 months old," Elizabeth said, waiting for the lectures to ensue, and she would've happily listened to the lecture as long as she wasn't called a slut or a whore.

"How come I've never seen him?" Elizabeth physically removed the phone from her ear to stare at it. What? "You need to bring him to see me soon, ok baby girl?"

"Sure, maybe close to Easter. We will be driving through."

"Sounds good. Are your classes going okay?" Elizabeth once again assured the woman that they were fine and said her goodbyes. Benny had finished his bottle and Elizabeth burped him again and changed his diaper before rocking him to sleep. Once she had him down for his afternoon nap, she immediately called Jerry.

"Early onset Alzheimer's," Jerry said. "That's honestly why I had to put her in the nursing home. She was doing okay, but it was little things and I was terrified she'd leave the stove on or wander out of the house and forget where she lived. Her personality has been very erratic too."

"Tell me about it. Six months ago, I was a host of unpleasant names and she's now called twice in the past three days to check in." They chatted and Elizabeth got the information about her trust, and Jerry said he would talk to his mom about reinstating Elizabeth's monthly allowance that came out of the interest. Elizabeth ended the call, feeling better about the entire situation. She was glad that it was possibly an illness that made Joan so volatile. It helped her to be more charitable towards her aunt.

Against Henry's wishes, Elizabeth opted to stay at school during spring break while he had training for ROTC. She wanted some time to get ahead on work for the end of the year, and she knew that if she went to Pittsburgh, she would just end up hanging out all week and not get near as much accomplished. The first few days were relaxing and productive, but by Thursday, Elizabeth was feeling a little isolated, so she decided to go to Middletown to see Aunt Joan to thank her for reinstating her allowance.

She smiled, thinking Jerry must have made a good case, because she also received a check for the back pay she'd missed previous several months. It came at just the right time too. Henry's car had broken down the week before and needed an expensive repair and new tires. They were able to take care of both and put the rest of the money in savings for any other unexpected expense that might pop up.

Loading Benny in the car, she made the trip, but as she pulled into the parking lot of the retirement community, she started to get nervous. What if Joan's mood had turned? Did she want to subject Benny to that? She decided that she would just check it out and then just leave if the situation wasn't okay. Nothing prepared her for what she walked into though.

She knocked and entered the room. Joan looked alert and smiled, but it was blank, lacking recognition. "Hi, Joan," Elizabeth said.

"Hello," Joan said, curiously. Looking at the car seat hooked through Elizabeth's arm, she said, "Did you bring a baby to visit me?"

"I did. Aunt Joan. This is Benny." She moved forward and turned the car seat so Joan could see Benny, who was smiling and kicking his feet. Joan's eyes lit up. But Elizabeth was totally caught off guard by Joan's words.

"I sure do miss babies. My Jerry now is four years old. They grow so quickly. What did you say your name was?"

"It's Elizabeth." She forced a smile and removed Benny. The two had a nice basic chat about the weather and Benny and how he was rolling over and could sit with minimal help and Joan recounted many stories from when Jerry was baby. After about half an hour, Benny was getting tired and Elizabeth let Joan hug him before returning him to the car seat. As she was bent down adjusting the buckles, Joan said, "Lizzie?" Her tone had changed. Not venomous as it had once been, but harsh, yet confused. Elizabeth froze.

"Hi Aunt Joan. I thought Benny and I would come to see you."

Joan huffed. "You just got here and you're already leaving." Her tone was accusatory.

Elizabeth scrambled to diffuse the situation. "Uh, you didn't seem like yourself. Benny is tired. If you want, I'll make a bottle and you can feed him." She ignored Joan's jab about how she should be breastfeeding. That wound was still pretty fresh. She gritted her teeth and forced a smile. "If you don't want to, I can," she said, pouring the powder into the bottle of warm water. She capped it and shook it to dissolve the powder and started to sit down when Joan wiggled her fingers.

"Give him to me." Elizabeth subconsciously bit her bottom lip. "Oh for God's sake Lizzie. I had a kid. It's not something you forget how to do."

Elizabeth looked at her aghast. "I didn't think you would since you were breastfeeding."

Joan pursed her lips. "It wasn't because I didn't try."

Elizabeth smiled, and hoped she didn't show too much smug satisfaction at having caught Joan being hypocritical, "Me either." She handed Benny over, along with the bottle and burp cloth.

Joan studied Benny as he sucked the bottle, letting go every few sucks to grin at the older woman. "Your man still around?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"Henry? Uh, he didn't come with me today. He's at a training for ROTC this week. If we come at Easter, he will come with us."

Joan looked up in surprise. "He hasn't left yet?"

"No," Elizabeth said slowly. "He isn't going to leave."

Joan let out a hoarse bark that startled Benny, but she quickly soothed him and he went back to his bottle. "That's what they all say. I hadn't even made it out of the hospital with Jerry when that son of a bitch Johnny went out to get a bite to eat and never came back."

Elizabeth gasped. There were a lot of things that made sense now-Joan's strong reaction to finding out she was pregnant, her insistence on getting an abortion, her disdain for Henry, and probably even her coolness to being named her and Will's guardian. "I can't imagine how hard that was. I know hard it's been for me and I have Henry and he is all in. In truth, he may do more than I do. He's so good with Benny, and loves us both so much."

"Consider yourself lucky. I had to drop out of college and get a waitressing job, and barely made enough to pay for our one room and the sitter so I could work for peanuts. I can't believe we survived."

"But, you met Uncle Nate. That was better, right?" Elizabeth had adored her great-uncle, even though her family didn't see her grandfather's brother very often. He was a tall, broad man who laughed heartily and was always so warm and welcoming. She hoped Joan didn't have bad things to say about him.

"Nathan saved Jerry and I. He was a Godsend. He loved me even when I couldn't love myself and Jerry like his own. And then he left too." Elizabeth had an inkling of how she felt. Elizabeth had often felt that way about her parents departure, like somehow they chose to leave and purposely screw her over. When she was rational, she knew that they would never choose to die and leave her, but when she sat in the depths of despair, it was all too easy to walk down that road and blame them for leaving her.

Joan burped Benny and he started squirming. Elizabeth took him back and held him in just the right way, rocking him back and forth until he was asleep moments later. "Classes, okay. Your grades are good?" Joan asked, and Elizabeth now understood why. Joan had to quit school. She was trying to make sure that Elizabeth didn't follow the same fate.

"Yes. I'm doing well. If there is one thing for certain. Henry will make sure I graduate. He wants that for me. It was why he completely changed schools and married me, so that I could keep my scholarship, and we could raise Benny together."

Joan nodded and closed her eyes. Once Elizabeth was sure that Benny was sound asleep, she buckled him into his car seat. She thought that Joan might have drifted off, but then she murmured. "That's good. If you have an education, you can make it, even if one day he doesn't come home."

Tears formed in her eyes. Losing Henry was perhaps her deepest fear, and she did not want to confront that. Ever. "I pray not," she whispered.

"I do to Lizzie." Elizabeth kissed her aunt and bid her goodbye. Once back in the car, she leaned back in the seat and thought about Joan. She'd always been a hard woman to get along with, but now Elizabeth felt like she had more insight. She connected with Joan more in that visit than in every visit she'd ever had with her aunt. Joan was perhaps a product of her circumstances. Although glad to understand where Joan was coming from, Elizabeth was so happy to have Henry, a man who loved her with all his heart and who would do anything to protect their family.