A few hours passed before Dad’s car engine could finally be heard pulling up into the driveway.

Mom and I had still been puttering about the kitchen right up until the moment we heard the telltale sound of Dad’s well-used Foyota SUV. We were both still scrambling to get all the dishes and extra sides we decided to make when the front door had opened, signaling that our time to prepare dinner was over. Hearing him walk inside I turned to look at Mom to see how she would react.

Normally this is when she’d go out to greet him with a kiss on the cheek and a welcome home, but at the moment she was still in the kitchen, gathering up utensils and other items.

“Mom?” I prompted.

“What?” She replied rhetorically.

“Aren’t you going to go out and say hi or something?”

“N-no, we’ll just focus on bringing the food out and then we'll see each other at the dinner table.” She replied, her voice strangely uneven.

I almost wanted to roll my eyes at her hesitation and awkwardness. She’s supposed to be the adult here. Man up, and go clear the air with Dad already.

Instead, I just let out a sigh and began diligently ferrying plates of food and utensils out to the dining room. Careful to avoid dropping onto the floor any of the several hours of labor the food in my hands represented.

I saw that Dad had already gone upstairs to drop off his stuff from work, and to change into more casual leisure clothes for home. I thought about going up to greet him instead of Mom, but it felt cheap to try and do it in her place. Plus, he was probably mid clothing change, and I had no interest in the mental scarring walking into that embarrassing situation would create for me.

I did however happily take over Mom’s typical duty of yelling for Elliot and me to come down to dinner, this time it was only for Elliot though. “Food’s Ready! Come down and get some before I throw your portion into the trash.”

My empty threat prompted a smug smirk to quickly spread across my face. That should get the little food goblin to come down in a hurry.

Wait, food goblin…? Were those a thing?

I shook my head dismissing the silly thought about whatever crazy monsters that may or may not be lurking out there. For now, I should just focus on spending time with my family.

Just as I predicted, I soon heard the rapid patter of feet as Elliot dashed from his room and jumped most of the final steps of the staircase to arrive in front of me at the entrance of the dining room.

He was only slightly out of breath from his desperate run to save the meal I had so cruelly threatened. Still, seeing him out of breath and the reaction I provoked did force a small giggle from me.

When he noticed though, I quickly hid it behind another evil and condescending grin.

“Well, well, well, look who arrived early to supper for once in his life.” Based on the look he gave me then, he’d finally realized I made up the part about throwing away his food.

I almost let out a menacing witch cackle for additional effect, but decided that it would be a bit too over the top at the moment. I’d save it for later.

“Why are you the one yelling at me to come down to eat? What’s Mom doing?” Elliot demanded, still annoyed with me for falling to my obvious trick.

“Don’t worry about it.” I told him. “She’s still gathering up the food we made and should be bringing the rest of it out shortly. Or, you could go into the kitchen and help bring out some of the stuff out yourself.”

“Uh…nah I think I’ll just not and avoid doing any extra work thanks.” He told me churlishly before walking past me and into the dining room.

‘Little brat’ I thought to myself. Deciding to let him have that one, I returned to the kitchen to check on Mom and continue the procession of food and dining implements.

Eventually, the table was loaded down with bowls and platters of food. Mom even had me break out the nice plates and utensils for us to use this time. We usually only used those on holidays or special occasions.

I guess that’s what she was trying to make all this into though. Hopefully, it went well. Clearly, Mom was putting in an extra effort to fix things, and I was all but certain Dad felt the same. Still, knowing something should happen wasn’t the same as the thing actually happening.

Resigning myself to waiting, I sat down in my chair at the table beside Elliot and across from Mom. The three of us sat in a slightly uncomfortable silence as we waited for Dad to finish changing clothes and come down to eat with us. Looking over I could see Elliot practically drooling onto his plate as he struggled to hold himself back from digging into the piles of food that were mere inches away from his face.

That almost made me giggle again before I decided that watching Elliot drooling all over his plate was actually pretty disgusting and so I decided to turn away in an effort to avoid the horrific sight.

Mom on the other hand looked unusually uncomfortable sitting in her chair. I felt like I should say something to make her feel more at ease, but I found myself at a loss for words. Maybe I should just trust that she knew what to say, and that everything would work itself out.

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A few minutes passed before the sound of new footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs, and then heading in our direction. Dad quickly and without any fanfare made his way into the dining room and then sat down at his spot at the table.

If we were all waiting for someone to arrive, this was usually when Mom would say to everyone “Okay let’s eat.” or something like that to give everyone the green light to dig in. This time though, she was just sitting there silently, trying to look comfortable and casual, but also not making eye contact with anyone.

Elliot must have picked up on the weird vibes also because he way too loudly whispered to me. “What is she doing?”

I softly kicked him under the table, causing him to jump slightly. He quickly kicked me back and gave me a pointed look of irritation.

I decided that instead of trying to explain everything to him in super obvious whispers, I’d try and steer the dinner back on track myself.

A bit awkwardly I cleared my throat and said. “Um, food’s ready, everyone can dig in.”

Elliot, not caring one bit about the change of person making the announcement, dove right into collecting piles of food onto his plate. Stew, bread, veggies, whatever he could reach he scooped some and added it onto the ever growing mound that was being created on his comparatively small dinner plate.

Mom gave me a grateful look at my intervention, but she also still seemed a bit too uncomfortable. Dad also looked uncomfortable and unsure of himself, but he, like Elliot, had decided that eating large quantities of food was the correct course of action at the moment.

“Mmm, wow this all tastes pretty amazing tonight hun.” Dad praised, but Mom was still sitting there silently, unsure of herself and what to do or say.

Deciding I needed to intervene again, I answered for her. “Uh yes, we made it all together actually. I’m glad you like it.”

Truthfully, I was pretty happy he seemed to like it. I didn’t have much experience cooking for others, and seeing Dad, and even Elliot, enjoying the food Mom and I worked so hard making, was a pretty nice feeling.

“Really?” Dad asked me, surprised. “I didn’t know you did much cooking, except for maybe some eggs and toast for breakfast that is.”

His comment caused my expression to morph into an annoyed pout. “I know how to cook, I just don’t usually don’t have the time to for it. Besides, Mom is a great cook, and she is the one who does the cooking most of the time.”

I deftly steered the topic onto Mom, while also highlighting and complimenting something about her. A surefire way to get them talking.

“Ah yes, that she definitely is, you won’t get any argument from me on that one.” He said with a smile. “The food is really great tonight honey, thanks for making it.”

This time when he said it, his words seemed to be directed solely at my mother, and the tone of his voice was somehow much softer and more comforting to the ears.

I looked at Mom to gauge her reaction, and I could see a small blush beginning to appear on her cheeks that she seemed intent on not letting others see. At a small table this size, fit for only four people, it was an impossible task.

Progress. Only a little bit more now, and they should be back to at least talking again.

“The phfood is aptfphully pretty good sis.” Elliot told me with his mouth full.

“Gross Elliot.” I told him.

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth dear.” Mom instructed, bringing an end to her period of self-imposed silence.

I smiled. Almost there.

Looking in her direction, I saw that she had been looking back into mine. Not sure what else to say or do, I gave her a small nod of encouragement.

It seemed that was enough, and all that she needed because she loudly cleared her throat then, getting all of our attention.

“I just want to say I apologize for being…distant with all of you, I was…am still upset about what happened last week, but shutting myself off from the rest of you has only done more harm than good.”

The rest of us at the table were sitting there in completely attentive and respectful silence.

“There is still a lot for us to discuss.” She said this while looking in Dad’s direction. “but to do so requires actual communication. And as we all know, any successful relationship depends upon things like good communication between partners.”

She just can’t help herself. Even at this moment, she felt the need to lecture all of us. I suppose maybe she was just falling back on the things she was most comfortable with.

She continued on with her speech that I was beginning to suspect was something that was pre-written and possibly even something she practiced beforehand. “And that is what I want…still want for us, a successful relationship.”

Mom finally turned her head then and smiled at him, this prompted him to lean forward and give her a small kiss on the lips which she, to the relief of everyone in the room, didn’t reject.

I decided the appropriate thing to do at that moment was to politely clap. After I had started clapping, I kicked Elliot in the shin again in order to prompt him to join me, he reluctantly did so.

Turning back to look at us, my mother said. “Stop it you two, you’re being silly.”

She said the words, but her voice told me she didn’t truly mean any of them.

It looks like even if things aren’t completely mended, at least they are back on the right track now. Hopefully, if they can talk more openly and honestly about their feelings, they can find a way to move past it, and maybe things can go back to normal for our family.

For them at least. I was probably never ever getting back to anywhere close to normalcy again.

The thought made me feel my stomach turn a bit sideways, which I tried to push down and suppress with another bite of bread and stew.

This seemed to set off a chain reaction at the table, as everyone else also got back into eating their meals as well. We all happily dug into the fruits of Mom’s and my labor. The food did taste pretty delicious I had to admit. Maybe I should try cooking more. If my skills in cooking got super high, would I become like this amazing super chef that could literally blow people’s minds with my food?

As I mused and began to imagine people’s minds figuratively and also literally exploding just from eating my food. Dad started up another conversation.

“So, how was going back to school today Jenni?” He asked innocently.

“She got a ride home from some guy in a red convertible.” Elliot blurted out.

My eyes turned into murderous daggers as I turned them in Elliot's direction. I kicked his leg again, this time my kick was actually pretty hard.

“Ow!” Elliot said in what sounded like genuine pain.

“Dear, don’t kick your brother over simply stating the truth.” My mother stated politely.

“Et tu Mother?” I replied, before also kicking her in the leg.

“Ow!” She exclaimed loudly.