Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Now, Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate all the mothers in my life, and that includes those with human babies, fur babies, and the ones who have mothered others. We invite people over for a sort of Mother’s Day open house, and normally everybody loves it. It’s a brunch and there’s a theme, and Hannah always helps me come up with whatever it’s going to be. We make little swag bags. Last year it was Paris in Spring, so everyone got an Eiffel Tower tape dispenser and an ornament, and of course a box of chocolate truffles. Hannah always makes the bags look incredible as well.
This year the theme is Sunshine, and Hannah felt that could be best embodied with greenery. So everyone got lavender to plant when they got home, a bee watering station—which is basically a cute piece of pottery with individual divots that holds two or three drops of water so pollinators can stop for a drink—sun catchers to hang outside, and a supercute fridge sun magnet that lights up for a few seconds after you press it. They make a fun sound as well. I like things that click off and on. Of course, either before everyone gets there or after, Sam and I give Regina our gift and Kola and Hannah give her theirs. Most people think that Hannah is in charge of getting her grandmother’s gift, but it’s actually Kola. Since she has to do the party with me, he’s in charge of figuring out what to get. It’s not so easy.
Hannah was walking around the house two days ago getting the bags ready and talking to her brother on the phone.
“You’re sure the flowers are going to be delivered on Saturday?” she asked him.
“For the fifth time, yes,” he assured her. “And you picked up her gift from the store and made sure it looked good, right?”
“I did,” she said, smiling even though he couldn’t see her. “That was a cute idea since she loves polka dots.”
Apparently there was a rain hat in navy with white polka dots, a lightweight raincoat for spring in white with red ones, and finally galoshes in yellow with white. It was too much to wear all at once, but very cute individually. Sam and I, or I, basically, got her a gorgeous emerald pendant, since that was, after diamonds, her favorite stone.
“Thank you,” Kola yawned on the other end. “And since I have you,” he said, chuckling.
“No,” she whined.
“What do you think about a golf terrarium?”
“Sorry?” she whimpered.
“It’s a completely closed little biosphere, and you have the option to put bugs in it.”
She groaned. Loudly.
“Just—I’ll FaceTime you so you can see the picture.”
“Call Pa, and we’ll answer on his tablet,” she told him and hung up.
“What are you guys talking about?”
“Papa,” she whined, and then Kola called and she propped my tablet against the toaster so we could both see him and she could continue to pack gift bags.
We didn’t see him, only pictures that were being scrolled for our benefit.
The terrarium was, from what I could see, the size of a ten-gallon fish tank. “Why?” I asked Kola.
“Because our grandfather is the hardest human being on the planet to shop for,” Kola told me. “And for Father’s Day, spending time with him shouldn’t be a gift, it’s something we both like to do, and giving money to the charity of his choice has never been his thing. He likes to see how smart we are to get him something he would have never thought of for himself.”
“He likes his garden,” Hannah chimed in.
“Why don’t you like the golf terrarium?”
“Because it’s dumb,” she said, shaking her head. “There are little people and tiny clubs, and while the golf cart is very cute and the whole diorama of it all is cool, what is he supposed to do with it? Just set it in the house?”
“Yes.”
Hannah made a face.
“Did you miss what I said about the bugs?”
“If you put bugs in there, it will look like some horror movie from the fifties, like The Night of the Grasshopper or something equally heinous.”
“Come on, it’s cool.”
“You’re just tired of trying to come up with something,” Hannah told him.
“Do you guys worry about your father and me like this?” I asked, seeing Kola now, realizing he was in his living room, sitting on the couch.
“No,” my son replied, and I noted how tired he looked, and a bit gaunt.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m just trying to get everything done so I can come home at the end of this month instead of mid-June.”
“Yes, but, love, there’s no rush.”
“I want to come home,” he told me. “And so do Harper and Jake. We’re all getting everything done, we’re packed already, and we were gonna rent a truck and drive everything across country, but Uncle Aaron called, and he’s gonna send his moving guys, and his plane to get us.”