My son and I were driving to Shenandoah Mountains Park through Skyline Drive. We had come this way a hundred times before, when he was a boy, when his father and I bought a vacation home on the other side of the mountains. Our home on the Piedmont of Virginia was a model of the American nuclear home. My son Paul, his older sister Anne, and our baby Andrew, the five of us four or five times a year driving up here to our escape from the world. My ex husband Ray was a good man. He was busy so much, as the Regional Vice President for a major retail chain. His job during the week was in Baltimore, and the hours were so long that he most often only came home on the weekends, and then visiting his stores on the weekends even precluded that. He stayed in an apartment, so we saw him usually 2 weekends a month, more in the winter when the stores weren't so busy, much less, sometimes once a month on a week day, in the spring and summer when the stores were busy.
As the nuclear family broke apart, and the children got older, the problems that come from single parent homes and missing fathers began to surface and grow. Anne got rowdy and took up drugs. Fortunately, she was the oldest, and had benefitted from her earliest years having the family complete. She went on to college and is now a legislator in her home state of West Virginia. Paul, too, had his father's influence while he was in primary and middle school, so he turned out great as well. He was a handful as a high schooler, but is now an assistant coach with a local Division I university football team. Andrew, on the other hand. He didn't get hardly any time with his father. He was born the same year Ray got promoted from district manager to RVP. By the time Andrew could walk, Ray was around maybe 50 days a year, when Andrew started school, we saw Ray 20 days a year. When Andrew started at the Mill School, Ray and I had started our divorce.
When Ray and I got divorced, it's nothing like you'd think. Neither of us were cheating, neither of us beat the other, or the kids. He just had this new life he was immersed in, and I wanted my 2.5 children family. My kids were moving on, two were in college and the other in high school, and I really wanted to have a husband. Ray couldn't and wouldn't leave his job. He was offered by the company, while he was going through the family trouble, to take a local position as district manager. The work was difficult of course, and he had done it before, but it meant 9 stores instead of 80, and an area of 20 miles radius instead of 150. And he could be home. Live, at home. But he had already had that job, and was not going to take a demotion, as he called it. He kept his job, and lost his family. I guess officially, on paper, I lost a husband, but I had lost him 16 years ago.
So now, Andrew and I were on our way to Bryce. We hadn't been here in two years, between the divorce and pending property settlement, and Andrew getting used to his new school, and the other two being so involved in their colleges and sports, we just never got around to it. But this last Christmas, Andrew mentioned it, how he wished we could spend Christmas at Bryce, like we used to. I dedicated myself to this mission for the whole year, saving and fighting in court for that property, for the kids. I got it, and here we are, driving to our family vacation home, just the two of us, all that was left of my 2.5 children nuclear (nukuler?) family.
I wanted, since I was a little girl, to be a mommy. When I had my babies, I was so happy. I still am, at this part of my life. But being a mommy involved pleasing a husband too, a husband who worshipped his wife. I haven't had this in years. I felt empty in this way, that my husband never loved me, never worshipped me. I never got to please my husband either. Yes, I raised his kids, but he never knew half of their achievements or even anything about them. He bought his kids Walmart gift cards for every holiday and birthday for the last ten years. Who does this? He gave me a gift card to his store chain one year for Christmas, of course I knew he had forgotten it was Christmas and bought it the day before.
Now, my last child was a man. He graduated this past Spring, and was taking a year off to attend this academy that better prepared students for University. He didn't get in to any of the schools he wanted to attend, and he wasn't a sport star like his older brother. Andrew was 18, and was 6-2 and 220lbs. He was built like you would be certain he was on his way to a big school to be a linebacker or halfback, but he wasn't coordinated in any way. When he and his brother would throw the football around, it ended up in 4 minutes with the older one storming off in disappointment that his brother was such a klutz.
Being the way he was, Andrew wasn't always popular, wasn't dating as often as I'd hoped he would be. He was big, he was good looking, but he was clumsy in action and in his speech. He just never came off smooth or clever or funny. He wasn't bullied, but he wasn't ever accepted, either. I tell you all of this because maybe you will understand what happened next.
When we got to Bryce, it was different. Two years is a long time in some places. The landscaping was completely different. All the houses were painted two years ago after the last time we were here, and the color was just too "fresh" looking for this kind of area in the mountains. The place looked like a cardboard cutout: useless shutters and shades of plastic grey. We unpacked, ready for a week of Christmas as a family.
After a day, even Andrew acknowledged that it didn't feel like a family Christmas. "Mom, since it doesn't feel like Christmas, and there's no snow even, let's go down to the pool and have a swim." He had already changed into his swim trunks. Andrew was cut up, his abs and pecs were bulging. I don't normally have a thing for muscle guys, but even I was a little stirred by his muscularity.
"Andrew, you know I didn't pack anything to swim in," I diverted my eyes, to not be caught ogling my son.
"Mom, I bet there's a suit still in the closet upstairs!" He ran up there, bounding up the stairs like he did when he was ten. I knew there was probably several suits up there, but they were years old, some hardly fit me right even then. Today I'm fifty, and I'm not fat, but I'm definitely curvy. My thighs and butt are round for sure, and my belly doesn't have rolls, but it's not flat like, well, like Andrew's. I kept thinking of those abs. Mmmm I've got a thing for abs. My next husband (giggle) will have to have abs.
"Ok Andrew you grab me a few, I might not fit the first one!"