Fifteen
“Are you going to be mad at me all weekend?” Shannon asked after ten minutes of silence.
“Why did you do that?” Rachel’s voice was firm but she managed to keep from yelling.
“Neither one of you were going to say anything.”
“Do you think maybe there was a reason for that? Sometimes subtly is in order.”
“And sometimes you’re a chicken.” Shannon still acted like what she had done was funny. Rachel didn’t see any humor.
“I felt humiliated back there.”
“Why?” Shannon’s phone started chirping.
Rachel turned in to her parents’ neighborhood. The yards weren’t as big here as they were where she had been. Kids lined the streets here with their bikes and scooters when she was younger. The park was a five minute walk away and when you were old enough to take your first trip without mom and dad it marked the beginning of life as a big kid.
The kids she grew up with were starting to come home to visit with their fiancés, husbands and even some children. One by one they left her to move on to the wife club or the mommy club. Their discussions were of late night feedings and first words. More and more Rachel was isolated to a group of college friends who had pursued careers instead of minivans. They went to homecoming games at the Alma Mater and visited parties in the Greek village.
Now most of them were married too. The few who weren’t she had lost touch with a long time ago. When her and Nate had moved in together, against their parents’ wishes, she had imagined coming back to the neighborhood and joining the soon-to-be-Mrs group.
A small ache on the edge of consciousness threatened to grab her but she wasn’t going to go back there.
Shannon’s conversation was wrapping up. Whenever her answers became all uh-huh’s she was done.
Rachel wandered on to other thoughts. Was the home today her first step toward car pools and minivans? She was thirty, maybe it should be. Adam’s marriage may be on the rocks but they married young. You marry too young or too old and there’ll be trouble. Too young and you’re immature and selfish. Too old your set in your ways and selfish. She and Nate had been too young.
You are reading A Face in the Shadow by Tiffany Colter.
Tiffany is a writer, speaker and writing career coach. She is a frequent contributor to print and online publications in addition to her regular marketing blog at www.WritingCareerCoach.com
Get each new chapter delivered to you by signing up for the Tiffany Colter Fiction Blog using the link on the right.
This story is copyright Tiffany Colter. 2007. It may not be copied, distributed, sold or included in any larger work without the expressed written permission of Tiffany Colter.
Bloggers may comment on or link to this blog from their own blog. To link directly to this posting click the title then copy the address in the browser.
