Joseph Ch. 01

*

"Maybe," her mother agreed. "If anything changes we'll let you know. I'd better get going, there's an open house for the new professors. We'll talk again soon- we love you."

Lainie hung up thrilled that her mother was coming. Their relationship hadn't always been good and that was no fault of her mother's, but her fault and her fault alone. It was in the past, as her mother said, but it was never far from Lainie's mind. The memories always came up whenever her parents did something phenomenal for her as they were doing now. She didn't deserve the way that they loved her but accepted it gratefully. She wiped her eyes and logged on to her laptop and wrote an email containing the information that her parents had requested. There were two small bills that she didn't add because she felt like she needed to do something for herself. She would also keep the babysitting job unless she became so busy with her studies that she couldn't do it. She sent the email and got ready for work at the coffee shop. She would tell the owner/manager that she would be quitting in a month thus giving him more than enough time to replace her.

She glanced at the acceptance letter that lay on the bedside table and grinned. She was going to be a lawyer.

****

Dinner at Nathan and Louise's had become a weekly event. He went there on Sundays and to his parents on Fridays. Joseph still only talked to Nathan about their family and found that he was beginning to feel better. He realized that he really had been a powder keg about to go off. He knew that he needed to talk to his father and uncles, but he wasn't ready yet. He also knew that he needed to talk to a professional. There was only so much that Nathan could do other than to lend a sympathetic and empathetic ear. He still had the feeling that Louise could help him but he wasn't ready for that either. One night as he worked, he had to wonder what it would take to get him ready to do what needed to be done.