Reconnecting the Past and the Present: Chapter 6

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Sarah had spent almost 20 years trying to forget her painful and difficult past. She had overcome so much and had built a successful life, then one day her past comes knocking on her door.

Reconnecting the Past and the Present
Chapter 6

By Rebecca Jane
Copyright© 2017 Rebecca Jane
All Rights Reserved.


Author's Note: Well my muse was desperate to write last night so I tore apart my Bluetooth keyboard (even though it wasn’t supposed to come apart) and now ‘most’ of the keys work... One more short chapter leading up to Sarah’s preparty, hopefully I caught all the keyboard issue gaffs. ~Rebecca


 
 
Chapter 6
 

Once the small group had composed themselves, Ben continued on the rest of the tour. Sarah was just finishing up when they all came back into the room with her.

Sarah smiled at Ben, “Everything looks great Ben, I can’t thank you… ooof.” Sarah grunted, as her mom enveloped her in a tight hug. “Mom what’s that for?”

Joan let her go and smiled, “Sorry, Ben was just telling us some things… I’m just really proud of who you’ve become… I just couldn’t help it…”

Confused, Sarah told her, “It’s okay, I didn’t mind… It just surprised me is all…” Sarah then looked at Ben and asked, “Just what the heck did you tell them?”

Ben replied, “I just told her how you helped Carly, and also helped us too.” He then went over and hugged her and whispered in her ear, “I didn’t tell them the detailed part, you told me to respect Carly’s privacy on that, okay.”

At the mention of Carly, that reminded her of something that she had completely forgotten about with the way the day had transpired. Reaching into her backpack she pulled out a thick envelope, and handed it to Ben.

“What’s this? You didn’t…”, He stated, then opened up the envelope to find 4 tickets to the upcoming Taylor Swift concert. “Sarah… You didn’t have to do this.”, he started to complain.

“Ben, just hush okay… I appreciate that you took care of this yourself, and made sure everything was done as perfectly as possible. You could have easily waited till Monday but you didn’t. Just take them, I know the girls are wanting to go. Thank you for what you’ve done.”, she told him firmly.

“Look Sarah…”, he started to say before she scolded him.

“Say thank you Ben…”

Seeing the determination on her face, he just sighed, “Thank you.”

Grinning with the win, she teased, “See now that wasn’t that hard.” Then she reached up and hugged him one more time and said, “It will mean the world to the girls for you all to go, okay.”

Knowing that she was right, about how much the girls and the family would enjoy the concert, he gently shook his head and told her, “Girl you are something else… “

Laughing, she said, “and you better not forget it. See you all tomorrow for my party right?”

Ben laughed heartily, “If we didn’t go the girls would hitchhike to be there.”

With the part in hand, she waved once more to Ben and then she and her parents left. With only a minute or two delay so her Dad could get a better look at Ben’s car, they were on their way.

Sarah made the last stop to deliver the part, and after half an hour insuring it was installed correctly they headed back to her house. Her parents had hoped to hear more of her life, but after the day she had already had, Sarah refused to talk anymore about it. Instead she focused on talking about pretty meaningless topics, she was just too emotionally drained for anymore right now.

When they arrived at Sarah’s, it was just past 4PM, which left them not quite two hours till they were due to arrive at Steve and Dana’s for Sarah’s pre-party. Sarah had claimed she needed to get cleaned up, but in reality she needed some alone time to try to process everything before whatever was going to happen tonight. Trying to be nice, she offered for them to meet back here and she could drive them over, but her parents unsure as well of what was going to happen tonight, told her they would just meet her there. That honestly suited her just fine, in actuality she wanted to get there early so she could give Steve the third degree to find out why he had invited them. So just a few minutes later Bill and Joan had gone back to their RV, while Sarah ran herself a quick bath.

Sarah rarely took a bath, due to her busy life she normally opted for the speed and efficiency of a shower. The ups and downs she had gone through today though, made her think a nice soak would relax her. Unfortunately instead of relaxing as she had hoped, she ended up thinking and overthinking what had transpired earlier. There had been moments during the day where she had felt like her parents did truly love her, but those thoughts were soon replaced by others. If her parents did love her, then why had they gone almost 20 years without attempting contact once? Nothing made sense, they seemed to accept her, but then remembered the last time she had talked to them they had kicked her out of the house for being ‘out of her mind’. An act that was suggest by an evil man masquerading as a minister, an evil man that they had trusted more than her. The only family member who had always been there for her, supported, and protected her, was now gone and just relegated to a memory. After half an hour of the mental gymnastics she gave up and climbed out of the tub feeling no better off than when she started.

As she was getting ready, she almost slipped back into her comfort clothes, jeans and a tee shirt, when something made her pause. Even though her parents had seen her most of the day and treated her as a daughter, they had only seen ‘practical’ Sarah, and not ‘girly’ Sarah… She started questioning since she was in her comfort clothes that they might not have fully rationalized that she was all girl now… Thinking that maybe if they saw her completely dressed up and in her feminine best, it might shock them into being the parents she remembered… That thought was easier for her to accept then that they had really changed. Besides, even if tonight was a pre-party, it was a party nonetheless, which would be okay to get dressed up for. If Bill and Joan reverted back into the parents of old, she could then kick them out of her life forever. That was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

With more questions forming in her mind than answers, she diverted her attention to her appearance. She opted for her LBD, one that was sexy, but not too sexy. She considered it her flirty dress, not that she ever really got a chance to wear it anymore. After doing her makeup, in a slightly muted nighttime look that complimented her blue eyes, and then donning her 3 inch black heels she took stock of her appearance once again in the full length mirror.

She gasped as she saw herself, she didn’t remember the last time she had worn something like this and had forgotten just how good she could look when she tried. She hadn’t really been out on a night on the town since Dana had married Steve. Once her best friend had gotten married, the girls night out slowed down, and once she got pregnant those nights had stopped completely. Girl’s night now for her and Dana usually consisted of a trip to Toys-R-Us for the girls. She admired herself for a few more minutes, just to make sure everything was as perfect as possible before she finally walked out the door.

Arriving at Steve and Dana’s about half an hour early, she found her parents Prius already parked on the side of the road. She had completely forgotten Bill’s hyper-punctuality, he had always said that if he wasn’t half an hour early to an appointment he was running late. Silently cursing herself, she quickly tried to prepare herself for her parents, and how she expected them to act.

She noticed her parents had recognized her truck so had gotten out of the car and was walking up the driveway towards her. Taking a deep breath she grabbed her bag and opened the door to step out.

Bill said, “I see you still like to be early too…” His mouth dropped open ever so slightly when he saw Sarah step out of the Tundra. “Oh my god!”

Both relieved and a bit upset at his exclamation she grimaced, and asked, “What?” She was expecting Bill and Joan of old to suddenly show up, but was completely unprepared for what she head next.

Bill saw she was upset, unsure of what he had done to cause it. Bill had been married long enough though to know, if a woman is mad at you and you don’t know why, start apologizing anyway. “I’m sorry Sarah, I was just shocked… You look so much like your Mother did when she was younger… You’re so beautiful.” Bill had to admit he was pretty good, an apology followed up immediately with a compliment. He hoped that would be enough to calm his daughter down, he was worried enough about meeting her friends without her starting the night with her already mad at them.

Completely caught off guard by his response, she just looked blankly at them both for a moment, before she came to her sense and said, “Thanks… I just though since it was a party, even a pre party, I might get dressed up… I don’t really do this often…”

Joan came up and with a huge smile and tried to reassure her, “Sweetie that’s a shame, because you do look absolutely radiant… Although I don’t think I ever looked quite as stunning… Or tall…”

That actually got Sarah laughing a little bit, after all Sarah had gotten her height from her Dad. While he wasn’t a big man, he was still 5’10 and only 2 inches taller than Sarah, while April had apparently taken after their mom on that aspect since they were both 5’3.

Both of her parents seemed at ease now that she had started to laugh, the mood had lightened considerably in just the last few seconds. Joan then said, “Shall we? I’d really like to meet these friends of yours.”

Nodding Sarah just said, “After you two…” As her parents walked in front of her Sarah looked skywards as she blew a stray lock of hair from her face and thought, April just what in the hell have you gotten me into now?

 
 
To be continued.
 

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Comments

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm

NoraAdrienne's picture

Did you hiccup while putting this together. You repeated the whole thing from the time her mom jumped her about what she had been told about Sarah. TWICE?

It should be fixed

Rebecca Jane's picture

A few people had informed me a few minutes after I posted... I think my keyboard stuck when I hit Ctrl-c to copy and it stuttered... Sorry about that, but it seems to be okay on my phone at the moment..

I know I’m weird. The fact that I’m trans is probably one of the more normal things about me.

Well. We have estanlished

Bill is not a total idiot. I am going to be very interested why tSarrah's parents did not initiate contact in twenty years, That is a lot of water under the bridge and in its own way even more hurtful. I am looking forward to really meeting Sarah's friends I wonder if there is a boyfriend in there somewhere, or is Sarah more into girls?Still it would be even more sad if Sarah were truly alone all those years.

Is Carly TG?

GrandiaKnight's picture

I wonder if Carly was always Carly? It might explain a couple of things.

"The pen is mightier than the sword ... if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp"

Well

A lot has happened over the last 20 years so a lot of making up has still to be done.

Becca you have done it again got me hooked on one of your stories, how just come and reel me in.

Love and hugs
Sam

SamanthaAnn

Fear influences decisions

Jamie Lee's picture

After Ben told Joan and Bill what Sarah had done for his family, both had to be very proud parents. But also worried how their admiration of Sarah was going to be received.

While getting dressed for the pre-party, Sarah was worried how her folks would react seeing her decked out for the party.

All three were fearful how the other were going to react because of their past. And because of the past it took April's death before her parents wanted to try to make amends.

The past caused a lot of pain, but the three are here now and should not waste time dwelling on what had been, but on what now can be.

Others have feelings too.