Not Every Home Is Meant to Be Returned To novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Sorry You Feel That Way
I took off my apron and went out to the front of the diner.
It was the middle of the afternoon, and the counter was half full.
Four old men sat at the window with their coffee. A mother fed french fries to a toddler. Two women from the church sat in the next booth over, and they stopped talking when I came through the door.
My mother sat in the corner booth with her back straight.
She wore a clean blue blouse and her gold watch. Her hair was done.
The pie box was on the table between her hands, with a ribbon tied in a bow.
"Hazel," she said. "Thank you for coming out."
"I work here."
"Sit. Please."
I sat across from her and put my hands on the table.
She slid the box toward me. "Lemon meringue. I made it myself. I remembered it wasn't strawberry."
"Thank you."
"I've had a lot of time to think."
"You've had two weeks."
She smiled a little, and she opened her purse and took out an index card.
I saw that it had writing on it, and that she was going to read it.
"I want to say I'm sorry that you feel I wasn't there for you," she said. "I did my very best, under difficult circumstances. I'm sorry if my best wasn't what you needed. I hope that we can move past this and be a family."
She laid the card down.
I looked at it for a while.
"Is that all of it?" I said.
"I think it's a good start."
"Mom, I'm going to ask you something, and you don't have to answer."
"Of course."
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