Tightening the Knot Page 3

  “You see… There’s just this weird tension between us. I feel like if I could just make some sort of gesture to show I’m trying to fix things, that might get us talking again and sort of… back on track.”

  “Okay.”

  “Well, I can’t think of anything. Can you help me thing of something?”

  “You remember that I’m not married, right?”

  “I know. But I thought that might actually help.” When Jenna looked very skeptical, she continued. “Maybe that it would make you more objective or something.”

  “I don’t know about that, but… let me think about this,” Jenna sat and scrunched up her face a bit. It has been well documented that scrunching your face helps you think. “Well, could you maybe… like send him some, I don’t know, man-flowers?”

  Meredith burst out laughing. “What are man-flowers?”

  “I may have just made that up.”

  “No kidding? How am I supposed to send him something that doesn’t exist?”

  “If you’d stop laughing for a minute, I’ll explain what I meant.” Jenna waited for Meredith to contain herself, with only slightly more patience than she had for Shawn, and then continued. “Well, you know how it’s common for men to send flowers to women as a nice romantic gesture. What I mean is, isn’t there like a male equivalent that you could send to Greg as a similar show?”

  “I… I’m not sure. Do guys get things?”

  Jenna grinned. “Not usually.”

  “I mean, in the mail. Do guys get things delivered?”

  “Aside from things wrapped in brown paper?”

  Meredith sighed. “Are you helping or not?”

  “Sorry. Well, what does Greg like? Couldn’t you just get him a little surprise? Just a little something that he wants to show that you’re still paying attention.”

  “Except that Christmas is next week so I already have something under the tree. I’m not sure it’s much of a surprise to get my husband a Christmas present.”

  “True. The timing doesn’t really work in your favor.” She was quiet for a moment. “You know, maybe there really is no such thing as man-flowers.”

  Meredith smiled and they sat together with scrunched faces, trying to squeeze out a better idea. Jenna finally shrugged as though she was giving up. “So when does Greg’s mom arrive for the holidays?”

  “Tomorrow at… um, I think the flight is around 4:30.”

  “Oh… Hey! Maybe you could just be extra nice to her as a kind gesture.”

  “Okay, I see you’re out of ideas.” Meredith teased her friend, but was grateful on the inside because the joke really had given her an idea. Greg wanted to tell his mother about their baby woes. No details, just a simple comment to let her know the lack of grandchildren was just as disappointing to him and Meredith. But Meredith insisted they keep it between them and he had agreed. She just couldn’t stand to talk about it. Maybe she should relent in her stance. Telling Greg it would be okay with her to say something to his mother might show that she was trying to open up a bit about the whole thing. She would just need to time it so that he told his mom near the end of her visit. That would really be best for all concerned.

  ╣ Chapter 6 ╠

  A voice mail for Meredith early Wednesday afternoon confirmed that Greg had arrived in town without delay and would have no trouble picking his mother up from the airport as planned. She was not surprised, therefore, to be swept up in a giant bear hug by her mother-in-law, Judy Donnor, the moment she walked through the door. What did surprise her was the sound of a dog barking. She looked around for the source and saw a metal crate in the corner of the room. Inside was a medium-sized dog with orange and white speckled fur and pointed ears. It stopped barking and returned Meredith’s gaze with much more than a scrap of hope and with its tongue lolling out one side of its mouth. It was an adorable animal. It was also a bit of a puzzle since she was reasonably sure there had not been a dog in her living room when she left for work that morning. She looked from Greg to his mother. “As far as I know, no one in this room owns a dog, and yet…” She gestured toward the caged animal.

  “It’s Mark’s,” Greg answered, as though this explained everything. Mark was one of Greg’s co-workers. Meredith had met him on a few occasions, but did not know him well enough to even know that he had a dog, let alone why he did not appear to have a dog at that particular moment.

  Judy added what she knew of the situation. “I guess Greg volunteered to dogsit while Mark and his family are visiting his in-laws. This is very nice of course, but I was as surprised as you are since Greg has never liked dogs. I hope you’re not going to be too put out.”

  “No way! I love dogs. I tried to talk Greg into getting one for years. But…” she turned back to her husband. “How long is the dog going to be here?”

  “Till the day after Christmas.”

  “Is it a boy or a girl and what’s its name?”

  “Girl. Her name is Katie.”

  “How long has she been in the crate and can we let her out?”

  “I was waiting for you because I didn’t know what to do with it. She’s only been in there about two hours.”

  Meredith unlatched the crate and the dog ran in crazy circles, sniffing the three of them thoroughly, then flopped down at Meredith’s feet.

  “The thing is… Mark said she likes to run away. We need to make sure we put a leash on her before we open the door to take her out.”

  “Okay.” Meredith had knelt down to pat the dog, who had correctly landed in front of the one most likely to give her some attention. “She’s so soft and so cute.”

  “Just don’t forget that we have to give her back in a week.”

  “Now don’t spoil my fun. Did you get any toys for her?”

  Greg showed his wife all the supplies they had been given. This included several toys and a doggy Santa hat that Mark’s kids had insisted Katie would be sad not to wear on Christmas Day. Meredith gushed over the cute hat and how cute the kids must have been packing it for their pet. Then she tried to be polite and focus on the conversations with her mother-in-law, but she remained distracted by the dog until the three of them left to go out for dinner.

  Judy generally insisted on treating them to dinner a few times each visit which Meredith interpreted as a slight on her cooking. She retaliated by making the meals they did eat at home rich and lavish, even though it meant “forgetting” the diet Judy had been on for the past twenty years.

  They arrived at the restaurant during the dinner rush and had to wait for a table. When the hostess called their name, she chuckled.

  “Donnor party of three… the Donnor party, huh. That’s so funny. I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t make you wait too long.”

  “Don’t worry, we’re not that hungry.” Judy answered with remarkable cordiality. It did not sound at all as though she had used the same line fifty times in the past, though the number must have been even higher. Meredith cringed at the joke, mostly because she had made a similar one to Greg upon their first meeting and was embarrassed to be reminded of it. She quickly forgot the lame joke as they were seated. There was something much more cringe-worthy as Judy opened with, “So we’re all here and with no distractions now. This would be an excellent time for an announcement, if either of you were going to make one.”

  Meredith decided that there was suddenly nothing more urgent than getting that napkin unfolded and smoothed neatly, very neatly, in her lap. Greg showed a little more grace under pressure. “The only thing we have to announce is how pleased we are that you’re here for Christmas.”

  “Hmmm… You’re not just making me wait till Christmas to find out, are you? Did you plan a special grandma-themed present?” This comment brought an angry flush to Meredith’s face and it was noticed and misdiagnosed by Judy, who thought she had guessed too close to the truth. She started gushing. “Oh! I see you blushing. I guessed right, didn’t I? Congratulations you two! It’s about time. Oh, I can’t wait to tell Mar
y and…” Meredith stopped the flow by abruptly excusing herself from the table. She went to the restroom, ran cold water on a paper towel and dabbed it on her face. She closed her eyes for a moment and reminded herself that the woman just wanted the same thing she did. How could she be mad at Judy for not knowing what she refused to tell her? Meredith tried to focus on this thought and pushed ideas of politeness, privacy, and the last time her parents had hinted about grandchildren out of her head. One last deep breath steadied her, until she opened her eyes and jumped at the crowd now in the mirror. Two other women would hardly constitute a crowd under most circumstances, but she was embarrassed at being so visibly startled and their stares may as well have been a roomful.

  A waitress had just arrived at their table when Meredith returned to it and the business of placing orders successfully closed the previous subject. Meredith did wonder what had been said in her absence, but not enough to remind anyone that she had been gone. All three were content to pretend there had been no conversational issues and chatted pleasantly about various safe subjects. Greg commented on traffic tie-ups he had run into on the way to Atlanta and on how smooth the return trip had been by comparison. Meredith talked about some of the projects her students were working on and how serious the placement of glitter could be to a six-year-old.

  When it was Judy’s turn, she regaled them with stories of her volunteer work. She had become very active in her community shortly after retiring, when she discovered she could no longer fill all her free time with knitting. She averaged about one blanket a week and when she ran out of family and friends to accept them, she delivered a garbage bag full to a project run by her church and ended up staying for her first shift of many. She had been meeting a lot of people and had a talent for turning even fairly mundane occurrences into entertaining stories. It helped that neither Greg nor Meredith had met any of the people featured in her anecdotes. In person, medical conditions were rarely amusing and affectations in general less pronounced.

  They finished the evening on an agreeable note and dropped Judy at her hotel on the way home. It had been a late dinner so Greg went to bed shortly after they returned while Meredith took Katie outside and then played with her for a bit. The instructions from Mark said that she slept in her crate at home. Meredith gave her a little tuck in and even sang a little song. Yes, she sang a lullaby to a dog and then she went upstairs and listened to heart-breaking and ear-splitting whines until she was sure all the neighbors would be penning angry letters in the morning. At which point she went back down to sleep on the couch.

  ╣ Chapter 7 ╠

  There is a remarkable phenomenon whereby a piece of information that would otherwise be of no interest becomes the thing one most wants to know only because someone else would have you left in the dark. Meredith had the pleasure of experiencing this phenomenon Thursday morning as she entered the teachers’ lounge to the sound of one teacher, Ellen, shushing another. She smiled anyway as she got her coffee and pretended not to notice anything unusual, even adding a nod and a “good morning” in their direction as she left.

  She was mostly able to shove it to the back of her mind through the morning, but it became a source of irritation during lunch when the sight of Ellen reminded her of the incident. Ellen’s attitude did not seem any different though so Meredith began the task of convincing herself that the slight had been imagined. She had nearly succeeded by the afternoon recess. The fourth-graders were in music during that time and she and Mercy occasionally took advantage of the overlapping free time to visit each other. Today it was Gavin in her doorway.

  “Hey, Meredith. Good day?”

  “Mostly. You leaving Mercy with all the work?”

  “She insisted on grading the spelling tests herself and I was a little restless so I thought I’d pop in and say hi to you.”

  “Hi to you, too. Are you ready to be on your own after the break?”

  “I think so.” His words were not definite, but he oozed confidence that belied his inexperience.

  “I know that… well, Mercy told me that you just finished your Masters at NC State. Were you teaching while you worked on that or is this your first time?”

  “I’ve been subbing on and off, but this will be the first time I’ve been with the same class more than two weeks. Of course that means I’ll be around for my first conferences this spring.”

  Meredith smiled, knowing exactly what he meant. “Don’t worry, most of the parents around here are perfectly reasonable.”

  “See, you just used the scary word.”

  “What, ‘parents’?”

  “No. ‘Most.’” She laughed and he looked around the room, probably thinking he should be heading back to his, and noticed the giant arrow over the trash can. “Are you having a gum problem?”

  “Yes.” The frustration was evident in her voice.

  “Is the sign working?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Have you sent a note home?”

  “No help.”

  “You look like you’ve been dealing with this for a while.”

  “All year.”

  “Detention?”

  “I’m trying to avoid that.”

  “Do you have any other ideas?”

  “Not really. If he would just spit it out for me, I wouldn’t worry about it, but he swallows it. At least twice a week I’ll catch him with gum and when I show him the trash, he’ll swallow it and try to act like he never had any. It worries me every time because I fear he’ll choke, sometimes he has a big wad of it, but I can’t just let him chew it because the other kids will start doing it, too.” Her speech came out in a rush and she realized how much she had wanted to share it with Greg. It was only important because she hadn’t.

  “It’s really none of my business so I won’t be offended if you ignore me, but I’d have given him detention a long time ago.” Meredith looked skeptical. “He knows the rule and he’s broken it whether he swallows it or spits it out or whatever. Sounds like he’s had more than enough warnings to me and it might be the only way to get his attention.”

  “That’s really what you’d do, huh?”

  “Definitely.”

  “You are so gonna be labeled the ‘mean teacher’ before the end of the year.”

  He laughed and said, “I can live with that,” as he backed out of the classroom. The voices of returning children were echoing in the hall so they both knew the visit was over.

  Meredith hurried through her afterschool tasks to leave as much time as possible for making dinner. She walked the dog briefly around the backyard and left her prowling the kitchen for stray crumbs while she worked on the feast. Greg shuttled his mother from the hotel on his way home from work and they arrived as Meredith was setting the table for rosemary and fennel roast pork with stuffed zucchini and a feta walnut salad. She had even found the time for homemade baklava to top off the meal.

  Judy was adequately impressed and indignant after a second helping of dessert. Greg knew enough not to ask in front of his mother why they didn’t eat that well more often and even offered to clean up while the women rested in the living room. Meredith absentmindedly threw a ball for the dog while Judy sat rather awkwardly in a nearby chair. Judy seemed at a loss for words, which was completely out of character for her and Meredith was not sure if she should say something. The silence was broken by Greg’s voice from the kitchen.

  “Meredith. Where’s the washrag?”

  “It’s in the sink.”

  “No, it’s not. Don’t you think I looked there?”

  “Well, I’m sure I used it while I was cooking. Maybe it just got under one of those pans or something.”

  “I don’t see it.”

  “Just get out another one for now. It’ll turn up eventually.”

  “Alright.”

  Sounds of running water and shifting dishes filled the kitchen and Meredith remembered she was uncomfortable as she refocused on her mother-in-law. “I…” she started. “Um, do you want
to play with her?”

  She held up the ball to Judy, who took it as she replied, “Don’t tell me you’re getting tired of having a dog already.”

  “No. Although I have to admit I’d be more enthusiastic if I hadn’t slept on the couch last night.”

  “But…” Judy looked concerned. “Greg brought her home.”

  “Oh, dear, no! I mean, it’s not Greg.” This seemed to have come out of no where and Meredith chose to ignore the implication. “We tried to leave her downstairs last night and she whined so piteously to be left alone. I thought she might wake the dead. Or at least some very cranky neighbors.”

  “Are you going to put the crate in your room tonight?”

  “I guess.”

  Greg joined the women once the kitchen was in order and the three of them had a pleasant chat. The most excitement of the evening came when it was time for Greg to take his mother back to the hotel. Katie slipped through the open door like water through a cracked fishbowl. There was a moment where no one knew quite how to react. Then Judy stood on the porch looking concerned while both Greg and Meredith gave chase in a contest where the prize was either not trampling their neighbors manicured lawns or not explaining to Mark how they lost his dog. The dog was going wherever she was going at top speed. When she finally stopped to sniff a tree, Greg managed to loop a finger through her collar. Then he and Meredith walked the eight blocks back home completely out of breath and taking turns hunched over to hold the escapist’s collar. Neither had thought to grab the leash before taking off. In fact, Meredith had not even put on her shoes. She had felt something sharp pierce her foot and she decided that if she needed a tetanus shot, the dog would not be getting any treats from her the next day.

  ╣ Chapter 8 ╠

  It turned out that Meredith’s foot had been affected more by her overactive imagination than by anything particularly sharp. There was no blood. Katie was completely forgiven five minutes after she was back in the house. She was, after all, still cute.