I Wanted To Be Normal

“Mhmm. She had dinner with Janet and me last night.” She’s not sure what this has to do with anything but she goes along with it, making a face at Alex before glancing over at her brother.

“Have you seen her recently? She’s hosting Thanksgiving this year, something about wanting her kids together again. I haven’t had the heart to tell her you and I haven’t seen each other in a decade.”

“Yeah. I’ve seen her a lot, actually. I considered just...going to her about this, but you know her. She was overprotective even before...y’know...the weirdness, and now...I might just be paranoid, and the last thing I want is to worry her if it turns out to be nothing.”

“Ah. So you’re Mark then?”

“The one and only. Nice to finally meet you.”

She busies herself with getting Alex from among the toys strewn across the living room floor and transferring the babbling baby into a high chair so she can feed her. Waving Mark in, she watches him as she readies the food and when she sits herself in a chair in front of her daughter, she nods at a chair on the opposite side of the table.

“Come on, then, have a seat and tell me what’s going on so we can figure this out.”

He hesitantly makes his way in and sits in the offered chair. He’s not quite sure how to start this conversation, so he starts with a question instead.

       ❛❛And who are you thinking about killing?❜❜

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?” Sam stops in the doorway and frowns as she stares at her baby brother. She hesitates for a moment and then reaches out to grip his upper arm so she can stop him from leaving; she’s made a fair number of bad choices in her life but letting him leave after dropping a bomb like that won’t be one of them.

“Look, Mark, I’m sorry. Come in and talk to me while I feed Alex?”

Mark sighs and hesitantly makes his way into the house. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, okay? I don’t want to drag you into a mess that doesn’t concern you, I just...I’m scared, Sam. Really scared, and you should know that doesn’t happen often.”

“… a thing…”

“Who are you exactly?”

“Your future brother in law if the rumors are to be believed.”

“Of course, yeah. Is everything okay?”

“It’s nice to see some things never change. Leave if you want, stay if you want - I don’t care either way - but it’s lunchtime and my daughter is demanding food so I can’t stand here and watch you waffle.”

“Wow, ten years and no ‘hey, how are you, how’s life’ - good to see you too, Mark.”