That afternoon at the Ellis house passed like a normal afternoon. Alexandria got back from her lunch with Patricia and got down to some work she had finished before leaving the afternoon before, but the meeting had gotten in the way, as it always did. She was a little annoyed with Patricia that she hadn’t given her a yes or no on the project that Tom and Jocelyn were to take part in. Much like her daughter, she thought that Patricia would not allow Tom to take part in the project, shame it did sound like an interesting idea, hard to believe that it was a student who had come up, but apparently it was.
It was a little after 6 when her family reassembled to eat. It seemed to Alexandria that these days, Jocelyn seemed only to want to see her when she wanted something or to eat. She looked over at her daughter, who was growing up to be a beautiful young woman, mind you, she was her mother, so she was bound to think so. She was sure that she had already learned to use her looks to get what she wanted; maybe that was the real reason that she had gotten so upset when she had to get her hair cut because of Tom’s prank. Maybe…
Alexandria had already decided to let Jocelyn take part in the project if it went ahead; it was all down to Patricia now, unless they could find another volunteer to take part.
Patricia McLaughlin had spent the last hour or so watching her two children closer than she had for a while now. She was a good mother and always made sure that they were safe, and she was there when they needed her, but work was causing her to miss out on some of the important events in their lives. She looked at Kathy, her baby girl was no longer a baby, but Patricia still thought of her as one. Patricia knew that it wouldn’t be long now until she brought a boy back home to meet her, and she was not sure that she was ready for that.
Then there was Tom; these days, he always seemed to be getting into one scrape after another, nothing serious but enough for her to be concerned about him. He would be graduating soon, and she wanted to make sure he got into a good college. So he could do without the school labelling him as a troublemaker, not that he was, he was just a normal boy, well maybe just a little louder than some of the others at his school, just a little.
She had made sure that it was Tom’s turn to do the washing up after what had happened earlier.
“Mum, do I have to?” He asked
“Yes, you do,” She told him without any explanation. Of course, he blamed his sister for it but didn’t say it in front of her.
Patricia made the call around 9 pm.
“Hi Alex.” She said with a smile on her face as Alexandria answered.
“One of these days, Patricia,” Alexandria replied with a grin of her own. She knew that Patricia was only calling her that as a joke, but she wished she wouldn’t.
“I have come to a decision about this project of the kids.” Patricia continued.
“What have you decided?” Alexandria asked.
