Friday evening, as I pulled my car into the driveway and turned off the engine, I let out a deep sigh. No more stress from finals, and no more stress from hitting rush hour traffic in the city on a Friday afternoon after already driving for four hours. But now, I could finally relax. I had just finished my junior year at college, and my internship didn't start for a little over two weeks.
As soon as I walked in the house, Mom came up to me and gave me a big hug.
"I'm happy to have you home, sweetheart," she said.
"Happy to be home, Mom."
"Go say hi to your father. Since I didn't know exactly when you were going to get here, I didn't make anything for dinner - we were just going to order in, okay?"
"That's fine, Mom."
"Do you want help unloading your car?" she asked.
"I didn't bring THAT much home for the three months I'll be here," I said with a laugh. "I think I can handle it."
I said hi to my dad and went back outside to grab my two suitcases with clothes and my laptop. I went back outside to grab a computer monitor I brought home for the summer.
During dinner, Mom said she had a favor to ask.
"Vicky is coming in tomorrow. I promised Mrs. Walker I'd help her plant her flowers since she broke her arm. Could you pick Vicky up at the airport?"
"You bet!" I said enthusiastically.
I loved my mom's youngest sister, and I hadn't seen her in at least a year. My mom had three sisters. She was the oldest, and the next two were each two years apart. Then, eight years later, Aunt Vicky was born. Apparently, once my other two aunts understood where babies come from, they started referring to Aunt Vicky as Boo-boo. But Mom's relationship with Aunt Vicky was different. Since she was the oldest and twelve years older than Vicky, she took care of her a lot. In many ways, she was like a second mother - if not the primary mother - to Vicky. Even after Mom and Dad got married, if Aunt Vicky was having a rough time with my grandparents, she'd go to my parents, sometimes staying with them for a day or two. And by the time Vicky was a teenager, I think my grandparents were happy to let Mom continue to play parent to her sister.
Vicky and I were always close. Just as my mom was twelve years older than Vicky, Vicky was twelve years older than me. Even though she didn't play as big a role in raising me the same way my mom did for her, she was my primary babysitter once she turned 14. Between normal family get-togethers, Vicky staying at our house to get away from her parents, and her jobs babysitting me, we spent a lot of time together. When I was a teenager, sometimes it was easier to talk to Vicky about things than it was to talk to my parents. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying: I loved my parents, and we always had a great relationship. But they were my parents! There are certain things - okay, mostly related to girls and sex - that you just don't want to ask your parents. But I could talk to Vicky about anything.
The first time one of Vicky's friends heard me refer to her as AUNT Vicky, they made fun of her.
"AUNT Vicky! AUNT Vicky!" they teased her.
That was the day she told me to never again use the "Aunt" when I referred to her. Seems silly now, but, at the time, it was a big deal to her. These days, I occasionally include the "Aunt" in her name, not to tease her but to show my love and respect for her. Okay... and occasionally I say it with emphasis just to give her a hard time. But whatever I called her, I always looked forward to seeing her.
Now that my grandparents had moved to Florida, Vicky always stayed with us when she came back to the old neighborhood. She still had a few friends in the area, but she was mainly coming to see family. I confirmed with my mom that this was a bit of a celebration, since her divorce was recently finalized. I never liked her ex, and I was glad she got rid of him. Even if he hadn't cheated on her - multiple times - he just always seemed like a jerk to me. Fortunately, they didn't have kids, so there wasn't that added complications.
That night I texted Vicky to confirm whether she was checking some luggage. I told her to text me the minute she touched down, but that I'd be monitoring the flight.
Saturday
I smelled bacon as I opened my eyes and smiled. Nothing better than waking up to that smell. I got out of bed and walked downstairs to the kitchen, where Mom was standing at the stove.
"Good morning," I said.
Mom turned slightly.
"Good morning, sweetheart. Sleep well?"
"I sure did," I said. "Happy to be done with finals and glad I have two weeks to just relax."
Shortly after breakfast, Mom said, "Okay, I'm going to head over to Mrs. Walker's. Don't forget to pick up my sister."
I laughed.
"Don't worry, Mom. I won't leave Vicky stranded at the airport."
I timed my trip almost perfectly, since she texted when I was 20 minutes from the airport. I figured that was just about the amount of time for them to taxi to the gate and for her to get her luggage. I headed to the cell phone lot and waited for her call. As soon as she told me she had her bag, I headed to her terminal, where she was waiting by the curb.
I smiled as soon as I saw her. She and my mother look very much alike, right down to the red hair. My other two aunts look like they are from a different family compared to these two. It also used to confuse people, because of the large age gap, as to whether they were sisters or mother / daughter. Whenever anyone thought the latter, it pissed off my mother and delighted Vicky.
When I pulled over to the curb, Vicky flashed a huge smile. I got out of the car to grab her bag, but, before I got a chance, she literally jumped up to me, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. I held onto her so she didn't fall. We got a couple of strange looks from the other people waiting, but Vicky couldn't care less.
"JAKE!" she screamed. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"Good to see you, too, Vicky."
After an embarrassingly long hug, she finally dropped her legs and I placed her feet on the ground.
"You need to stop being so reserved when you see people," I said, and she started laughing.
