The story of A Change

This is a story I wrote as an English assignment yesterday.

A Change

Fourteen months ago, Lorie Sanders was thought of as a very lucky woman. At sixty-seven, she had everything that she had dreamed of as a little girl. She and Paul, her husband of forty-six years, had raised four children into beautiful and independent adults. Just the week before, they along with their families, had all been home for Thanksgiving dinner. It was the first time in years that all of them had been able to make it in years. Lorie realized then, just how fortunate she was. Three of her children were married and now parents themselves, and the fourth would receive her law degree shortly. They had all seemed so happy, in a time where it seems happiness is in short supply. Yes, Lorie Sanders was a woman to envy.

But that was fourteen months ago. At the moment, Lorie is sitting in her kitchen staring at the clock. She’s watched it as it slowly moved from 1:30 to a quarter ‘til three. There is an air of grief and exhaustion surrounding her. She knows that things have to change, tonight. Lorie walks over to the other side of the room. A photograph hangs there, a photograph of a laughing family enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner. In it, her husband Paul has his arm around her. God, to think that that picture was taken only a month before his heart attack. It had been completely unexpected, and he died three days later after a second heart attack had struck. Her eyes move over to her son and daughter-in-law. They had made such a beautiful couple. It’s been almost a year since she received the call that would rock her world for the second time in a short period of time. A truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into the car, killing both instantly. They had left three children behind. So now, Lorie finds her self raising a young family once again, this time alone. Her daughters had offered to take them, but Lorie knew that that would put to much stress on their families. The girls, Julie and Addie, seemed to be adjusting as well as possible. But Jed, well, he…

Screech. RAPPPPP! Lorie jumped as the old screen door banged shut. She could hear Jed mutter a curse in the living room. He hadn’t been expecting for her to be waiting up for him. She studied him as he came in the kitchen. Not quite yet fifteen, but already a little over six feet tall. Just like his daddy, her baby. He had his father’s chiseled features and physique, as well, not that he let anyone see it. Jed’s hair hung in his face, greasy and unkempt and the baggy clothes swallowed his form. Lorie readied herself for what was to come.

“Well, hi.”

“Hi.”

“Where were you?”

“Nowhere.”

“Well, your curfew was almost…”

“Jeez! What the hell is the matter with me having fun?”

“Don’t you use that language in this house! And watch your volume, your sisters are asleep."

“Whatever. I wasn’t hurting anybody. Just hanging with some of the guys.”

“Hanging with some of the guys, huh? And tell me, just what exactly is it that you and the guys need to be doing at three a.m. on a school night.?”

“Nothin’.”

“By the smell of you, my guess is that that nothing includes alcohol and… marijuana, is it?”

“So what? What does it matter to you if I was dicking, er, having some fun. Like, I said I wasn’t hurting nobody.”

“Oh, you weren’t hurting anybody. I suppose you were at Julie’s game and I just missed you. I suppose that you didn’t miss our family dinner three weeks in a row. And I suppose that I wasn’t really sitting here all this time wondering if the phone was going to ring and tell me someone else I love is dead.”

“Christ, why don't you try to be a little more dramatic, huh?”

But Lorie could see that he was trying not to tear up. “Oh, Jed. I wish you would talk to me about your parents.”

“Why? There is nothing thing to say, they’re gone!” Jed griped the counter. Lorie could see how hard he was he was fighting his feelings. She walked over to him and put her arms around him from behind.

“Of course there is something to say. You have been trying to ignore what happened for all these months and you can’t. Your parents are dead, and you don’t have to be strong when it comes to that.” Jed shoulders started to shake as his wracked his body.

“Why did it happen?” Now Lorie started to cry.

“I don’t know, sweetie. I’ve thought and thought about why, but I just don’t know. What I do know is how much they loved you and your sisters, and how much seeing you hurting yourself would cost them. They wouldn’t want you to act this way. That isn’t how they raised you.”

She could see that his temper was back. Jed pulled away from her, and look like he was about to start yelling again when a small sob was heard from the stairway.

Both Lorie and Jed turned to see Julie standing there crying. Lorie hurried to her. “Sweetie, how long have you been out of bed?”

“Jed woke me up when he started yelling.” Lorie glanced at Jed, who had started to come over.

He knelt down by Julie and told her, “Little bit, I’m sorry for that. But this conversation is between me and Grams. So how about you go back up to bed and try to sleep. I promise to keep it down.”

Now it was Julie’s temper that had started to flare. She stopped crying and jerked away from her brother’s hand. “No!” She screamed at him. “I WON’T go back upstairs so you can yell at Grams!”

“Now wait just a minute, kid. You stop talking-“

But that was as far as he got, before Julie pushed him back and began to yell again. “You stop! You are so selfish, Jed. You act like you are the only one who lost mama and daddy. You never, ever talk to me and Addie anymore. You might as well be dead to, because we lost you too,” Julie sobbed.

Jed looked like he had been kicked in the stomach. He hugged Julie close to him, muttering apologies in her ear. Julie clung to him as if she were starved for his attention, which he realized she was. Lorie had tears pouring down her face and she realized that she was watching Jed become the head of his family.

Later, after he had tucked Julie into bed and watching her go to sleep, Jed walked to his grandmother’s room. He was planning on apologizing to her, but when he got there, she had already fallen asleep. He studied her. How had he not realized the changes in her appearance? She was still beautiful, but it was clear how the pain of the last year and a half had aged her. Jed recognized for the first time in his life that she was getting older.

He thought back to seeing his grandparents together. Jed remembered how Lorie used to glow for within. His dad had told him once that they were all the proof the world needed to know that true love existed. Jed vowed right then that he was going to do everything in his power to see that light back in her again.

What he didn’t know was that for Lorie a change had already taken place. Lorie knew that she had gotten her grandson back that night, and had found sleep easily for the first time in almost fourteen months. Yes, she had gotten her change, and a promise for tomorrow.

The End.

-Kiki