Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

I stop the car and put it in park. There’s no use denying we are there – Renee pointed at us the moment she could make out our faces. Mother’s car stops at the end of the driveway and she gets out to meet us, Renee remains in the passenger’s seat.

“I’ve missed you ,” Mother says to me, holding her arms out expectantly. I begrudgingly hug her back, mumbling a return, not heartfelt in the least. Quickly pulling away, I busy myself shuffling items in the trunk and getting an iced tea from the cooler. I can hear her talking in hushed tones to Devon, explaining her version of events. While not every word is audible, I catch words that disappoint me – “fight”, “moving”, “roommate”.

Wait, roommate?*

*To make a long story short, Mother has not worked in over 3 years, and does not go out and socialize. I’ve never known her to have a single true friend. So this fact is puzzling – who is this roommate and where did they materialize from?

As I close the trunk, she takes it as a cue and asks us to follow her to the hotel they are currently staying at. With more questions than answers at this point, we have no choice but to go further down the rabbit hole.

The short drive across town is tense, but will not even compare to others later during our brief stay. Rounding the final corner, we come upon 60’s style one-story motel that looks abandoned. My insides cringe, realizing Renee has not been truthful about the situation, trying to protect and prevent us from worrying.

Exiting our cars again, Mother finally acknowledges the third person in our party – my husband, Lawrence. It’s a standard “Hi”, but serves as a reminder that Mother is so wrapped up in her own life that she is not even curious or interested in who he even is and why he is there.

Devon and Mother doing most of the talking. Mother acting like nothing is going on, a bad history doesn’t exist, while Devon tries to diffuse the situation. I don’t trust my mouth to keep things low-key, clamping my lips tight and looking to Lawrence for something – anything, a reassuring smile, a comedic gesture, or an inside joke. He returns my gaze with a look of acknowledgement, confirming in his level-headedness that things really are that bad.

Renee finally opens her door and joins our terse group. She is quiet, her usual, but her eyes are puffy and she refuses to look at anything but the gravel under her tennis shoes. Devon asks her if she’d like to go to dinner with us. Between the gravity of the situation and our stomachs running solely on trail mix and jerky, we are anxious to hightail it out of the current situation.

After many indecisive answers (Renee’s forte), we agree on a restaurant the next town over. As we troupe towards the car, our appetites raging, she adds a clause to our trip.

Mother has to join us for dinner.