-- 02 --
Reba called all her kids in for a family meeting, she bore the news about their grandmother. Barbra Jean and Brock stop fighting for a while. Reba's problem was bigger than their problems.
"Meemaw doesn't remember us?" Questioned Cheyenne
"According to daddy, she thought your father and I are still married and we didn't have you, that's why she expects us to go there for Christmas. We only stop going there after we had you."
"How did this happen mom?" Asked Kyra
"Your grandpa said she started by forgetting little things. He just thought she was getting old. By the time he figured this was serious, she had lost some of her long term memories."
"Is meemaw dying?" Jake was concerned.
"Jake honey, eventually, everyone will. But Meemaw she's fine and happy. It's grandpa I'm worried about. It's not easy to care for a forgetful person."
"Reba, are you going to see your parents?" Barbra Jean showed her sympathy, Reba was her best friend after all.
"Yes, I'm going for a few weeks. I'm going to ask you as a friend who needs help, to hold off your decision about going to Little Rock and to take care of Jake and Kyra for me while I'm gone."
"I'm coming with you," announced Brock.
"That's okay Brock, I could tell mama you're caught up with your work or something."
"No, I'm going. I'm lucky enough that she still remembers me. I want to go visit her." Brock determined. After they both cleared their work schedule, couple of days later, he went with Reba to her parent's place. Reba was quiet for most of the ride. Brock tried to cheer her up by telling her a few jokes and make light conversation. They didn't talk about what he said when he was fighting with Barbra Jean.
"Thanks for coming with me." Reba finally broke the silence.
"Hey, just because our marriage is over doesn't mean our friendship is over. I've known Helen and JV for almost three decades. That's the least a friend could do."
"What's the problem with you and Barbra Jean?" If that was the least a friend could do, maybe she could at least try to help him fix his marriage. "Wasn't it just two months ago you were saying about the hole in your chest crap to her? Why are you two fighting again?"
"She got another job offer at Little Rock, she really wanted to go. I told her that I'm getting to old for a new adventure. But she said she's only in her early 30s. Her adventure has barely started. Then I made a mistake saying that she should have thought of that before she married me." Reba listened to him quietly, Brock continued. "She said she wouldn't have married me if I didn't knock her up. And I said, did she think I wished that never happened? And you know how it turned out."
"Brock! That's daddy!" Reba shouted out when they drove past a gas station a few miles from her parent's home. Brock made a u-turn back to the gas station. Reba hopped out of the car the moment he hit the brake. "Daddy!"
"Hello there carrot top, you're here earlier than I thought." He accepted his daughter's hug and retrieving the fussy floss from Brock. He never forgot to give JV some every time he met him. Brock always thought of it as a 'peace offering'. They said hi to each other.
"I came here as soon as I can, how's mama?"
"She's fine, she sent me out to get a bag of food for chicken." Reba was confused.
"She sent you out to get some chicken to make dinner?"
"No, chicken, the live ones, she sent me out to get the food for them."
"You have chickens in your range?" questioned Brock. He thought his ex-in-law had a range full of cows.
"No we don't. Helene thought we had a chicken farm. I only come out here to get gas, by the time I'm done, she would already forget why I was out."
"Oh daddy." Reba hugged her dad.
"Listen you two, I'm glad I've seen you before we get to the house. If you hear your mom speaking about something that never happened, and she insisted it did. As long as she's happy talking about it, please play along. She started making up some memories to replace those she lost. And she still thinks you two are married. I tried to correct her. But every time I did, she was upset. So I'm asking you two, not to correct her on that. You can try and talk to her about some old memories, as long as it's happy ones." JV explained the situation and told them more about Helene's conditions before they heading to his and Helene's place.
"Hello mama." Reba tried to be happy and cheerful giving her mom a hug.
"Hey Reba, I haven't seen you for couple of months, you look old!"
"Well mama, I'm getting older every day."
"But you're glowing, when will I see my grandchild?" Reba looked confused.
"Which one?"
"The one you're carrying, of course! How many months along now?" Oh God...
"Oh mama, I'm not pregnant. I just gained some weight."
"You're not? But you called me yesterday to tell me you're finally pregnant." Helene was genuinely confused and upset, she thought she was having a grandchild. JV cleared his throat.
"Honey, you shouldn't lie to your mother." Brock came in to the rescue. Reba bit her bottom lips and rolled her eyes. "Hi Helene, you look lovely. Ignore Reba, she just has her mood swings, we were hoping to tell you later, but you caught her off guard." When it came to lying, leave it to Brock. He came up with excuses way too fast. Well at least Helene looked happy again.
"Where have you been, you old foul?"
"You sent me out to get you some ice cream, here have it before it all melts."
"I did? Oh yeah I did. Thanks." Helene took the ice cream bar and start eating it, still wasn't sure if she had craving for ice cream. Reba tried to hide her laugh. Her mother's condition wasn't as bad as she feared. Her dad seemed to handle it well. "Well c'mon in, I cooked plenty of chicken." With that JV darted right in the house, afraid that Helene might put something on the stove and forget about it again. He was glad to see the caregiver he hired help out when he wasn't around to take care of everything. "Where's my chicken?"
"Errmmm, you said you want beef for dinner," said Liza the middle-age caregiver.
"Hi, I'm Reba" Reba introduced herself. "And this is Brock, my ex-husband." That caused Helene to turn sharply in shock.
"EX Husband? What happened to you two?" Questioned Helene shockingly, JV glared at his daughter. This forgetful thing must be hereditary and Reba had taken some already. She slipped after her dad strictly asked her not to.
"Helene, I think you heard it all wrong. Reba said sexy husband, not ex-husband." Once again Brock came into her rescue. Although Reba discreetly made a puking face, she didn't correct him. Brock shook hand with Liza.
"I thought you two are cousins," commented Helene about Brock and Liza. Reba only spent less than an hour with her mom and she started to have a headache already. She wondered how her dad handled her mom without going insane himself. Well, since no one expected them to arrive so soon, Helene didn't prepare enough food for the whole family. Brock said he would take his pregnant wife to dinner because Reba had craving for some Italian food. Helene was surprised, excited, and happy to hear that Reba was pregnant.
"I'm having a headache!" Reba almost screamed the moment she closed the car door.
"Morning sickness has been bothering you?" Teased Brock, Reba gave him a deadly glared.
"It's not funny!"
"Well, it made your mom happy."
"Would she still be happy if after nine months I still don't have grandbaby for her, Brock? This isn't right! It's all lies! I'm not pregnant, and you're not my... husband!"
"Honey..."
"Don't you 'honey' me! I'm not your honey!"
"Well, get used to it, you will be for the next couple of weeks." Reba let out a long heavy sighed "Look, Reba, I know this is hard, not just on you, but on your mom too. She's confused. Why do you want to make it harder on her than it already is? If you just play along, she's happy. I don't see any reason why we should correct her to have her feeling upset and a few moments later, she will believe what she did before and we'd upset her with the truth again. Like you're being pregnant for instant. She thought you are, and we played along, she was happy. And a while later she had already forgotten, and when she thought you're pregnant again, she's happy again. Don't worry about nine months from now, heck, in nine months she might still think you're pregnant."
"Well I guess you're right. What's the harm of playing along, not like she's expected to see we sleep together or anything." Well... not exactly. "Daddy!" Cried Reba the moment she found out the sleeping arrangement. "You do remember 'Barbra Jean', don't you daddy?"
"Who's Barbra Jean?" asked Helene bringing blanket for the young couple. She forgot that she had put some in the room.
"Er... a buddy of mine." Brock stammered
"Hmm... That name does ring a bell." Helene mumbled. "Any way, here's your blanket, it could get quite cold at night. Let me know if you need more." Helene put the third blanket on the bed, humming 'Respect' walking out of the room.
"Daddy!" Reba turned back to her father. "You do recall that Brock and I are divorced, don't you?"
"Look Reba, you think it's easy for me to put my little daughter in the same bedroom as the man who made her cry? It's hard on me as much as it hard on you. But for your mom's sake, all I can do is to trust him being a gentleman."
"Oh C'mon dad, it's like give a cat a mouse and tell him to guard it!"
"You two were pretty good when you were dating."
"Yeah... yes we were..." Brock muttered, glancing at Reba with a grin, and quickly put on a serious face when JV looked over.
"Alright fine! But I'm taking one of your guns!"
"Would it be better for you two if I just sleep on the floor?" Brock wouldn't want to risk Reba having a gun in her hand.
"That's a great idea, son. Sorry to put you in this trouble." JV said good night to both of them. Helene walked back with more blankets. JV took her out of the room, ignoring Helene's remark that the kids needed blankets; it could get cold at night. "Oh they can keep themselves warm." JV remarked, but turned around to give Brock 'the look'. Brock put a blanket on the floor and used one to cover himself. Good thing Helene gave them three. Reba waited until he settled before turned off the light.
"Reba..."
"What?"
"Do you realize that this is the first time we're in the same bedroom since the day we decided to separate."
"Hmm hmm..." she answered in her throat.
"I remembered when we were together, you couldn't sleep without a night light, but I couldn't sleep with a night light. So you said that you would get rid of the night light provided that I wouldn't fall asleep before you do."
"And you never did," stated Reba grinning in the dark.
"I remember I had to tell you stories, talk you to sleep. The first night that I had to go out of town, I called you and talked to you on the phone until you fell asleep."
"Yeah, you complained about the phone bill later." They both laughed reminiscing the day Brock got the phone bill on the mail.
"Then years later, you learned to soothe yourself to sleep. You didn't need me anymore."
"You were away so often, I had to, or else we'd pay too much on the phone bill. Especially when you went on fishing trip with good ol' Ralph, I had no way to keep in touch with you." They both lay in silence for a while. All of a sudden Brock let of a soft chuckled. "What's so funny?"
"Just thinking about what your dad just said, about we were good when we were dating. Man if he only knew half of it."
"You wouldn't be alive, he'd shoot you silly."
"Hey, remember when I came here the first time?" Brock rolled on his side facing her bed. Reba also was on her side facing him. In the dark, he could see she has a soft grin on her face.
"Of course, you were pretending to be all city boy, no idea what the inside of a barn looks like. You want me to show you, so I took you to a barn after dinner."
"I couldn't believe you fell for my tricks." Brock chuckled.
"I didn't."
"Oh, you knew why I want you to take me to the barn?" Asked Brock resting his head on his hand, raised his vision higher from the ground.
"The barn, the eclipse, the shooting stars, the golf tournament during the night, I knew all your schemes. I just like the fact that you kept coming up with silly excuses to take me out at night."
"Well you had to give me some credit, some of those excuses were good. And the fact that I risked messing with your dad's gun just for a chance to hold you in my arms. That should show how much I love you." In the dark, their eyes met.