“You know what else Mom thinks?” Isabel a asked. “She thinks your haircut was a mistake. I do too. I don’t think you should get a lesbian haircut unless you are real y ready to make the leap into that lifestyle.”
“I’m trying to help you,” her sister said.
“I’m real y trying to help you too,” Isabel a said. “Do not cut your hair again. I know it wil take years to get it to an acceptable length, but you need to do it. In the meantime, clip a bow in it or something.”
Mary was trying to tel Isabel a a story, but she kept crying. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“It’s okay,” Isabel a said.
“This didn’t happen with Henry,” Mary said. “I think my hormones are permanently damaged. I can’t stop crying.”
“I’m sure you’l be back to normal soon,” Isabel a said. “Now, what happened next?”
“Okay.” Mary took a deep breath. “So I’m at Target, and I’m trying to return the bottles, and the woman at the counter told me that they had a policy that you could only return three things in a month. And so I couldn’t return the baby bottles even though someone gave them to me as a gift and I didn’t need them.” Mary stopped here to blow her nose.
“Okay,” Isabel a said. “Okay. Try not to get too upset.”
“I know, I know. I just told that bitch that we got duplicate presents and she acted like I was trying to shoplift. She kept saying, ‘Ma’am, you need to calm down.’ Like it was my fault.”
“She sounds awful,” Isabel a said.
“She real y was,” Mary said. Her voice wiggled just a little. “Okay, I’m done. Now we need to talk about you and Boston. Do you think you’re going to go?”
“I’m not sure yet. What do you think?”
“Sometimes I wish Ken would be transferred to another state,” Mary said.
“Real y?” Isabel a asked. “You want to move?”
“No, not move. But if Ken was transferred to Boston or something and then he traveled al during the week. That would be nice.”
“Real y?” Isabel a said.
“Yeah, I mean, I could have the remote every night and we’d stil see each other on the weekends. It would just be nice to have some alone time.”
“Wel , you’d stil have the kids,” Isabel a said. “You wouldn’t real y be alone.”
“Right. Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t work.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Sometimes I’m just tired of having people al around me. Sometimes Ken asks as many questions as Henry. He offered to go to the store yesterday and then he cal ed me three times while he was there. If he doesn’t know what kind of American cheese we buy now, wil he ever?”
“Probably not,” Isabel a said.
“No,” Mary said. “Probably not. It’s exhausting. I’d rather just do it myself. He came home with fat-free American cheese and pepper-smoked turkey. I mean, what is wrong with him?”
“Maybe he just needs practice?” Isabel a said.
Mary shook her head. “No. He’s had practice. He just doesn’t know how to do it. I can already tel in ten years he’l stil be cal ing me from the store to ask if we get pulp-free orange juice or not. He drinks it every morning and he stil doesn’t know!”
“Was he always like that?” Isabel a asked.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “He was. I just never real y thought about the fact that he was going to be like this for the rest of my life.”
“So what are you going to do?” Isabel a asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Wel , are you happy?” Isabel a asked. She didn’t know if this was the right thing to ask, or if she was even al owed to.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “When I think about it, he might real y bug me but I like having him around more than I don’t like having him around.”
“So if he took a job in Boston?”
“Yeah, I know. I was just talking. I wouldn’t real y like it, I know. Sometimes it’s nice to dream. But I know it’s not what I real y want. I like the bastard.”
“That’s good.” Isabel a let out a breath. She had been worried that Mary was going to tel her she was leaving Ken.
“I guess that’s how you decide about Harrison and Boston,” Mary said. “If you like him enough not to be away from him.”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “I guess so.”
“But you know what?” Mary asked.
“What?”
“I’m going to start writing out the most detailed grocery lists ever for Ken. And if he comes home with the wrong stuff, I’m going to send him back out.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Isabel a said.
“It real y does.”
“Sometimes things in life aren’t easy,” her mom said. “Sometimes you have to make real y hard choices.”
“I know,” Isabel a said. “But some people don’t. Some people don’t have to make decisions like this at al .”
“And some people in this world are starving, Isabel a. Life isn’t fair.”
“I know,” Isabel a said. “But that seems unfair.”
“You can’t move,” Lauren said. “You’re my last babyless friend. If you go, I’m going to have to start going to Mommy and Me just to see people.”
“I don’t think you would like that class,” Isabel a said.
“Yeah,” Lauren said. “Not to mention it might raise red flags if I go without a baby.”
“Probably.”
“So, you’re real y going?”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “I guess I am.”
“I feel like that’s a real y adult decision to make,” Lauren said.
“Real y?” Isabel a said. “Because I feel like I’m fourteen.”
“Join the club.”
“What about the second apartment we saw?” Harrison asked. “The one that was in the Cleveland Circle area. It had the real y big closets.”
“I’m not sure I real y liked that one,” Isabel a said.
“Why?”
“It’s in Boston.”
“Right,” Harrison said. “I forgot about that.”
“I think you need to network more,” Harrison told her. She stil didn’t have a job in Boston. It didn’t bother her that much. If she didn’t have a job, she could pretend that she wasn’t real y moving there.
“I think you need to network more,” Isabel a said. Harrison sighed.
“I’m serious, Isabel a. It’s not a good time to get a job. You real y need to get out there and pound the pavement.”
“Pound the pavement? Could you sound more like my seventy-year-old father if you tried?”
“I’m just trying to help.”
“Wel , you aren’t.”
“It seems like you don’t real y want to find a job,” Harrison said.
“What are you worried about? That I’m not going to be able to pay rent? Calm down, I got it covered.”
“It’s not that,” Harrison said.
“Then what? What?”
“Nothing,” Harrison said. “Forget it.”
“I’m not going to forget it. You know, I’m only moving there because of you.”
“I know,” Harrison said. He walked out of the room and left Isabel a lying on the bed. Two hours later he came back. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Good,” Isabel a said.
“I don’t care if you have a job or not,” Harrison said. “I just want you to be happy and find something there that you like.”
“I know,” Isabel a said. “I know.”
“Are you sure you want to go?”
“Yeah,” Isabel a said. “I’m sure.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’d rather have you here than not here,” Isabel a said.
“That sounds pretty simple,” Harrison said.
“I think it is.”