A VIPER IN MY BOSOM?

My son is coming home today...but to which home?

I could tell his lady had changed her mind. She stays here only long enough for supper, baths and putting the boys to bed. They are not yet sleeping and she is out the door, heading back to the house that was supposed to be sold, but which she has lately been making noise about renovating.

Before my son left to work out west, her plans were all about making over my downstairs apartment into bedrooms and a playroom for the rug rats. It was to take place immediately when the apartment is vacated by my oldest grandson, who is finalizing the purchase of his first house. She had hoped to have it done before Christmas, and it was part of the conversation at each meal. Suddenly she stopped talking about it altogether.

Just as suddenly, conversations with my son were held only from her place....alone. Any news from him I received through her. In fact, I managed to talk him once, and I forced the issue because of a tax installment on the house; I wanted to make sure it was okay to debit his account, as had been in our agreement.

I know my son. He has never liked confrontation, even as a little fellow. I suspected that her speeches about joining us here, home for her being wherever he lived, had outlived their usefulness. I was sure that he felt stuck between a rock and a hard place, and was avoiding talking to me because he would have to renege on his promise to keep up my house expenses so that I could devote myself fulltime to taking care of the rug rats... to give up my clients and write. He would be looking for an alternative solution.

My daughter is not as patient as I am. When I told her that the DIL had moved all her clothes back to her place, and was now talking about taking back the cat and my grandson’s little dog, she got in touch with her brother and asked what was going on. It seems his lady has come up with the alternative, and is thinking of asking me to move out of my house; suggesting that I relocate into the downstairs apartment. I would still be on hand to take care of the boys, but would be out from under her feet. This in spite of my having said more than once how dark it is down there – how it is okay for bedrooms but that , personally, I would find it depressing without huge windows letting in the sun and with views of my trees. I can’t even fathom trying to fit my huge, comfy bed into any of the small rooms in the apartment...or any of my furniture in fact. Then there is my much loved Jacuzzi. It does explain why there has been no further discussion about how to set up the boys’ bedrooms down there.

It’s out of the question, of course. I expect that my son and his family will take up where they left off before the separation, except that the house is no longer his – he had it changed to her name when the event happened. And the rug rats??
I just don’t know...and don’t want to think about it right now.

I have a feeling that the conversation on our drive back from the airport is going to be, for lack of a better word, interesting.

(to be continued)

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.