not that barry had solutions. not getting where people were going with things and not having solutions aren’t the same thing.
he didn’t see the value in that, i guess.
anyway, past that it was time to get the towels ready for later. the youth group would be coming by the church for thursday studies, so there would be things to do there. and then there would be some cleaning. and then a few of the kids would need a ride back here to the gym.
a silence.
“but you hear i’m just saying that it’s unfortunate. that’s what i’m mainly saying. you know right?”
“i do”
___
is he back home yet?
“you’re looking alright, son.”
“hey, mommy. i am.”
that old vacuum was still in the same corner, all these months and years later. still collecting dust. she was using the better one that ronnie got her, that was fine, but i guess she just liked the look of that old one. still works, i bet, if you plugged it in.
think they bought that thing sometime in the seventies. sixties. big as a tank. took two people to move it, or at least it looked like it did. if you could imagine two people operating a vacuum at the same time.
she looked him up and down. it was good that he came back from… all that. that’s what she called the war, the conflict: “all that”.
she had done that in the time leading up to it, too. it was a peculiar habit of hers. ronnie didn’t think that she particularly minded him joining the service. it was a job like other jobs. they paid for a bit of schooling, eventually; she liked that.
but she also didn’t go too much into it. that could have been her was of dealing with him being in the middle of it, or just simply her way.