Mary, Mary

Chapter 84

LUNCHTIME CAME QUICKLY, and Mary was terribly disappointed to find she had only twelve dollars and change in her purse. A small pizza and a drink to share were going to have to be it for herself and the kids.

“There's green stuff on it,” Ashley said as Mary set the food on the table.

“It doesn't taste like anything,” she said. She wiped away the flecks of oregano with her napkin. “There. All the green's gone, all gone now.”

“It's under the cheese, too. I don't want it, Mommy I'm hungry, I'm really hungry!”

“Sweetie, this is lunch. There won't be anything else until we get home.”

“I don't care.”

“Ashley”

“No!”

Mary took a deep breath and counted to five. She tried to get control of herself, tried so hard. “Look at your brother. He likes it. It's so yummy”

Brendan smiled and took another bite, the picture of obedience. Ashley only ducked her chin and completely avoided Mary's eye contact.

Mary felt the tension building in her shoulders and neck. “Ash, honey, you have to have at least one bite. Ashley! You have to try it. Look at me when I'm speaking to you.”

Mary knew with all her heart she should just let it go. Not eating was a self-correcting problem. Ashley's problem, not hers. “Do you know how much this cost?” she said in spite of herself. “Do you know what everything costs here at Fantasy- land?”

Brendan tried to intervene. “Mommy, don't. Mommy, Mommy”

“Do you?” she pressed. “Have any idea?”

“I don't care,” Ashley fired back. The little bitch, the awful girl.

The tension took hold, shooting from her shoulders down into her arms and legs. Mary felt a sharp prickling in her muscles, and then all at once, a release.

Ashley didn't want the food? Fine.Just fine.

Her hand swept across the table.

“Mommy!” Brendan cried out.

Paper plates and slices of pizza slid to the concrete patio floor. The one soda tipped over, its sudsy contents sloshing onto the open stroller where Adam was sitting. His shriek was almost instantaneous. It resonated with Mary's own.

“Do you see what you've done? Do you?” She barely heard any of it. Her voice was like something on the other side of a door, and the door was closed, and locked.

Oh, this wasn't how it was supposed to be. She and the kids were at Disneyland for God's sake. This was so wrong, so wrong. Everything she'd worked so hard for was going down the toilet. This was a nightmare. What else could possibly happen to spoil everything?