Chapter 7

"Arrrrg!"

The scream echoed down the hallway and filled the entire house. There was a lot of anger packed in it.

Standing in the kitchen, John said, "That sounds like Rose."

Knowing there was no one else that it could be, Lisa said, "She sounds angry."

"I wonder what Mother did," David said.

"I'm going to kill her!"

"That is Rose," John said.

He wondered what his wife had done to get that kind of reaction from Rose. It probably wasn't anything that would normally have provoked that kind of response. He was aware that Rose would react negatively to any act of kindness.

"Lisa!" Rose screamed.

Lisa said, "I better see what the problem is."

John called out, "Are you okay? Do you want me to come there?"

"No! Only Lisa!" Rose shouted frantically.

John called out, "Okay."

Lisa entered the hallway to find Rose pacing outside her bedroom. The young woman tightly clutched a large paper bag in her hand. The expression on Rose's face was one of blind fury. Lisa hoped that the anger wasn't aimed in her direction.

Rose thrust out the bag to Lisa while saying, "Look at what was hanging on my doorknob."

Lisa took the bag noting that it was from a large lingerie chain that used supermodels to advertise its products. She opened it the bag and looked inside to examine the contents. Open mouthed, she said, "Wow. Those are nice."

"They're ... I don't know ... too ... private," Rose said.

"Hey, there are matching panties," Lisa said pulling a training bra and panty set out of the bag.

"Put them back. Dad or David could see them," Rose said frantically.

"Hey, these panties are French cut," Lisa said holding up the white lacy panties. "I'd like a pair like this."

"Don't talk so loud. They'll hear you," Rose said in a harsh whisper.

"I wonder how much they cost."

Rose grabbed the set out of Lisa's hand and frantically stuffed it back in the bag. She looked down the hallway to make sure that neither of the men were coming. She would die if her father and brother were to see her standing there holding up a training bra.

Red faced with embarrassment, Rose said, "She just hung this bag on my doorknob. David could have seen it and looked inside."

"I doubt he'd do that," Lisa said.

She would have looked inside the bag if she had seen it hanging there, but she was pretty sure that David would have ignored it. He tended to shy away from things like that.

"She purposely set out to embarrass me," Rose said shaking the bag angrily.

In a way, Lisa was envious of Rose. She would have loved it if someone had given her her first training bra or even taken her to buy her first bra. She had been one of the last girls in her class to get a bra just because she didn't want to go to the store alone. She definitely didn't want to go into the store with her father. The only reason she had gone was because she had overheard some boys talking about how she was walking around with her headlights on. She had been mortified when she realized what they meant.

Lisa said, "Do you want to know what is embarrassing? Embarrassing is having to go to the store alone to buy your first training bra."

"She didn't have to hang it here where everyone could see it," Rose said.

"Would you have prefered it if she had left it in your room?" Lisa asked.

"No!"

The bedroom was considered sacrosanct. No one was supposed to enter another person's bedroom without permission.

"She could have left it for you on the kitchen table," Lisa said.

"God no!" Rose shouted. She would have died if her mother had done that. Upon her resurrection she would have killed her mother in the most painful way possible.

"So where should she have left it?" Lisa asked.

Not having a reasonable answer to that question, Rose said, "Don't take her side."

Lisa said, "I'm not taking her side. I'm just saying that it was kind of a nice thing to do."

Rose opened the door to her bedroom and threw the bag into it. She closed the door and said, "I hate her."

Rose stomped down the hallway to the kitchen. Lisa followed her thinking about how she would have thanked God for that kind of present when she had been Rose's age. She looked up to notice her father and brother watching them.

John asked, "What was the problem?"

Rose answered, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" John asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Rose said in a low growl.

"Sorry," John said.

"Let's get to work," Rose said wanting to shift attention from herself.

It didn't take long for them to form an assembly line for preparing the apples for the steamer. With the long break while the juice was extracted, there was little for them to do. Lisa spent the time thinking about the training bra and panty set. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She had to go through the change from girl to woman alone. Her father had been less than helpful.

She recalled the sex talk her father had given her. It had boiled down to boys had penises and girls had vaginas. All boys wanted to put their penises into her vagina. It was her job to keep that from happening. The sex talk then devolved to an hour long discussion on how to physically convince boys not to put their penises in her vagina.

He hadn't helped with the emotional part of teenage relationships. That was a mother's job. A mother was supposed to prepare her daughter on how to deal with boys. Her mother hadn't been there to do it.

The longer she thought about it, the angrier she got at her mother. It would have been one thing if her mother had been dead. She wouldn't have been alive to do her job. No, her mother was alive and well. She visited occasionally, but didn't concern herself with being a mother.

Lisa was angry at her mother. She had been oblivious to Lisa's needs and that was even worse than not being there. How could a mother miss the fact that her daughter was developing breasts, was beginning her menstrual cycle, and had a marked curiosity about boys? No mother worth a damn could.

Two and a half hours later, John and the kids were removing another four quarts of apple juice from the boiling water bath. They were each taking one jar in turn. Rose had just lifted out a jar when, from the formal dining room, came a shout.

"Lunch is ready."

As soon as she was able to set down the hot jar, Rose raced towards the door of the kitchen. She heard the front door close before she reached the kitchen door. She slowed and walked to the living room window. She could see her mother getting into her car. The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds and then Vicki drove away.

Rose returned to the kitchen muttering, "Bitch."

"What's the matter, Rose?" John asked while removing the last hot jar from the boiling water.

"She's gone," Rose answered glaring through the door.

"I thought you didn't want to see her," John said.

Rose growled. "I want to talk to her."

"You don't want to talk to her," John said, "You want to yell at her."

"It's the same thing," Rose said.

"No it isn't," John said.

Rose growled.

David said, "Let's see what's for lunch."

"We aren't eating her food," Rose declared flatly.

"I'm hungry," David said while heading towards the dining room.

"She probably spit in it," Rose called out to his retreating backside.

John asked, "Why would you say such a mean thing?"

Rose said, "She's bitter. She has just discovered that we want her gone and now her feelings are hurt. She's angry and wants to punish us."

"I guess that is one theory," John said. "I'm not sure that I buy it."

From the dining room David called out, "Hey, it's Chinese."

"She brought Chinese," John said.

"Hey, there's beef and broccoli. I love that. There's some Sweet and Sour Pork, too."

"Those are your favorites," John said.

"There's some Egg Foo Yung," David shouted. "I haven't had that in ages."

"That sounds good," John said.

"I tell you, she poisoned it," Rose said.

"Let's get in there before it gets cold," John said gesturing in the direction of the dining room.

"No," Rose said.

John asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I'm making a sandwich," Rose said.

"Me too," Lisa said.

It was after seven in the evening when Vicki returned to the house carrying three shopping bags. One bag contained two pairs of shoes: a pair of loafers and a pair of sneakers. The second bag contained a blouse. It wasn't much to show for having spent most of the day shopping for clothes.

The third bag contained three iPads. It was the only thing she had found that the kids might like. They had been kind of expensive, but she thought it would be worth it.

She carried her packages towards the bedroom. Hanging off the doorknob was the bag containing her gift for Rose. Scrawled on the bag was the message, "I can buy my own clothes."

Disappointed, Vicki sighed. She removed the bag from the doorknob. She knew it had been too much to expect for Rose to accept the gift. She wondered if the iPads would suffer the same fate.

Entering the bedroom, she spotted a note from John on her pillow. She dropped the bags on the bed and picked up the note. She read it aloud.

Vicki,

David is thawing. Lisa is getting angrier. Rose is furious. I will be by the house tomorrow without the kids. I'm looking forward to seeing you. We have a lot to discuss.

John

Wondering what she had done to make Lisa angrier, Vicki sighed. She knew very little about the kids and they weren't helping her learn more about them. It seemed to her that even John was holding back information that would allow her to reconnect with her family.

"Oh John. How did I ever let things get this bad?"

Vicki was faced with another night alone. Lost with nothing to do, she wandered through the house aimlessly. The kitchen sparkled. Nothing was out of place in the living room. The dining room looked like the table had been polished. The house was clean so she couldn't even do a little housework.

She paused in front of the door to Rose's bedroom. Inside that room, just on the other side of the door, was every personal thing important to Rose. The temptation to enter the room in order to discover more about her daughter was overwhelming.

Vicki was reaching for the doorknob when she noticed a piece of tape stuck between the door and the frame. She stepped back staring at the tell. It was such a little thing, worth maybe a hundredth of a penny, but that little piece of tape had the power of the most expensive lock in the world. If Pandora had been confronted by such a seal then the world would be a better place.