HUDSON'S CHOICE

[PART 1] Lauryn

What is the problem with children and dishwashers? My God! Is it so hard to put the dishes in the machine, and not on the countertop?

“Jane, can you put your cutlery and plates in the dishwasher when you finish eating? It’s a mess around here and I need space,” Lauryn shouted from the kitchen to her daughter, who was finishing a high-school presentation in the next room.

“I couldn’t,” she heard her daughter Jane answer. “The dishwasher was full.”

Seriously?

“And you couldn’t empty it, then fill it?”

“Whatever,” Jane sighed silently before shouting, “Anyway, it’s not me who filled it, so I don’t see why I should have to empty it.”

I should have seen that coming.

“I’m sick of having to argue with you. Just try to clean up behind yourself instead of trying so hard to give me more work. I have enough to do without your so-called help.”

The only thing that protected Jane from a more serious dispute with her mother was the fact that she would soon move to another city and live with her aunt who would take care of her once she was in college. Lauryn didn’t want to spend the time she had left with her daughter fighting with her about anything and everything. The whole story of university and moving was already quite complicated, without adding in the tension and apprehension of being alone for the first time in so long.

Having to rely on her family for a little support didn’t help much either. They had always managed since the divorce. But that was about all they had done, gotten by. Most of the time, Lauryn was happy with the life she had managed to shape after a stormy divorce. She was even proud of what she was able to do, to the extent that she had been left with almost nothing and had to rebuild it all from A to Z.

Go to hell, Tony de Losa. Damn you to hell, she thought, recalling the opulent lifestyle they had led. As a talented Wall Street trader, Tony brought back bonuses that would have shocked most of her friends if they had known the amount. There was nothing they couldn’t afford: an exotic vacation, the best schools for Jane, new cars for both regularly, and especially a dream home. Life couldn’t have been better, she had often said.

It was almost overnight that everything had turned into a nightmare. A huge nightmare. Quick and pitiless. The financial crisis struck with a vengeance, and Tony had been thrown out of the prestigious brokerage firm he had devoted more than ten years to. Technically, he hadn’t even been dismissed. The company had simply ceased to exist. No severance. No r****d of accumulated bonuses. He hadn’t even received a salary for the last month. Auditors, a year later, were still trying to track the $401,000 in funds and other entities that seemed to have evaporated long before everything exploded.

Good luck with the search, Wall Street. I wish I’d never heard of that damn place.

Without realizing it, tears ran down her cheeks, falling at random on the kitchen counter. She always tried so hard not to think about the past. A past she couldn’t change. She had been strong and in control for a very long time. But now, the thought of being without Jane and having to start a new life again, alone, made her break down.

“Hey, mom. I’m sorry,” Jane said behind her, taking her mother in her arms. “I didn’t want to make you cry.”

“I didn’t see you there, hon. You don’t need to see me like this. I thought you were working on your at-the-last-minute report,” Lauryn said with a smile. It had been an incessant battle with Jane to make her work on her paper earlier, but she kept pushing it back until the last minute.

“I’ll ignore that, thank you very much. Anyway, I’m sorry. I know things are not particularly easy for you right now, but they’re not much better for me, either. I don’t think you realize it, sometimes.”

“I know, sweetie. I know,” Lauryn nodded as she spoke. “I wasn’t crying because of you. Well, yes, but not for the reason you think. I’m just a bit overworked by..., well, a little bit right now. I was just remembering...”

With a gentle pat on the arm, Jane silenced her mother. “I thought we had agreed to stop thinking about all this. How does it help? Nothing!”

Turning to face her daughter, Lauryn wiped her tears and resumed. “You’re right, as always. Come on, we’ll tidy up a little and I’ll prepare your favourite dinner.”

“Vegetarian lasagne? Awesome!”

“Oops,” she said shamefully, rummaging in the shopping bag she had put on the counter on her arrival home from work, “it’ll be your second favourite, then.”