Part 3, Chap 1

Heaving a huge sigh of relief, Mrs. Benison nudged her two children awake and dragged them off their last flight and into the terminal.
“We’re here at laaaast,” Edmund said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. “Where are Grandma and Grandpa?”
“They’re probably outside waiting to pick us up, honey,” Mrs. Benison said, smiling. “You can try to call their cell and ask them where they are if you like,” she added, handing him her cell phone.

“Oh, Sarah!” cried the voice of an elder woman the moment they stepped out of the airport. A short, grey-haired woman hurried over to Mrs. Benison, who threw herself into her mother’s arms. “And you two, oh my, how you’ve grown!” the grandmother turned to Mary and Edmund, wrapping her arms around them and squeezing them in a tight hug.
“I missed you, Grandma!” Edmund cried, burying his head in the elderly woman’s shirt. Mary, watching the scene from a distance, marveled at her brother’s warmth and affection for a woman who he hadn’t seen since he was three years old.
“Oh, I missed you too, sweetie!” her grandmother cried, planting a kiss on Edmund’s cheek. Mary wondered why, if she really had missed him, she hadn’t ever come to visit him or even had any form of contact with him for so many years. “Now come on,” the elder woman continued, “Your grandfather is parked right over here.”

Mary squeezed into the back seat of the car with Edmund and her mother. She scrutinized her grandparents carefully. Her grandmother was short, but sturdy, her blue eyes still sparkling and alive. Her hair was grey, with a few silvery strands shimmering in the dim light. Her grandfather, tall and robust, had a kind, wrinkly face and long, drooping whiskers. They didn’t look so bad, she thought, and yet the distrust and anger that she felt burning in her chest did not abate.

She wondered briefly why she felt so angry at her grandparents. She remembered arguments that had occurred when she was younger between her mother and father, involving her grandparents and, Mary remembered, her mother’s sister Katie. She thought that the long separation that had occurred between her mother and her parents had something to do with a disagreement between Mary’s grandparents and her father. Mary speculated about what the disagreement had been about. Her resentment toward her grandparents grew, and she wondered angrily why, after seven years of practically no contact, they should protrude into her life now just because her father was no longer living?

An indignant fire burned in Mary’s chest. Suddenly questions swarmed up in her mind. Were her grandparents glad that her father was dead? After all, hadn’t it been he who had prevented them from visiting their daughter and grandchildren? Had her father purposefully kept his wife’s parents away from his children, or had the grandparents stayed away from their own choice, perhaps their anger or resentment toward their son-in-law? But what if her father hadn’t wanted her grandparents to be part of her life? Was she betraying him now, by going against his wishes when he was no longer there to let his opinion be known?

Mary, her heart beating thunderously in her chest, watched her mother closely. She seemed so happy, so content to be with her parents after having been away from them for so long. She chatted happily about old friends and old haunts which she couldn’t wait to show to Edmund and Mary. Confusion and uncertainty turned Mary’s sensations into a jumble of chaotic fears and doubts. She didn’t understand how her mother could be so happy, how she could be so cheerful and carefree when her husband could no longer even feel such emotions. And yet Edmund, too, seemed so carefree – they both seemed so blithe.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Mary relinquished her unhappy reflections and tried to join in on the jovial conversation that was going on around her. She had noticed Edmund eying her with concern, and she didn’t want to incite his anxiety or distress on her behalf. Grinning at him, she laughed appreciatively at a joke her grandfather had just told, and launched into one of her own.

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