Episode 1106: Vulnerable

“I guess it’s break time to take stock of the inventory,” Ryley noted. He and Adria stood on the sidewalk very near their daughter. Ryley placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “I know you haven’t had the chance to spend time at the hospital the last couple of days. If you want to leave, it seems like she’s close to calling it quits on trick or treating, I can stay with her while you go visit your brother.”

“No, I want to be here, Bas would get that, we always wanted our parents to do stuff like this with us and it never happened. Besides, Bassie always has plenty of people there waiting for him to wake up and it’s probably a good thing to take time away from all that and emotionally recharge. There’s no more enjoyable way to recharge than seeing my little one dressed as the Queen Of Hearts.”

Adria was thrilled that her theater’s production of Alice in Wonderland had been such a fun experience for Miranda that it had inspired her costume choice. It was a nice thing to see for Adria’s ego and an equally nice excuse to delay another hospital visit.

Every time Adria walked into that hospital she had the horrible sense that she was turning into her father, her mind consumed with suspicions about the accident. It was better to run the opposite direction from those instincts before she behaved as accusitorily towards Ava as she had towards her sister Justine.

Paul escaped into the bathroom. He’d thought the party would be an escape from the everyday malaise of his life. Neither briefly leaving his company nor returning seemed to have provided any sort of spark in him. He’d thought maybe he could at least enjoy getting together with friends, chatting about frivolous things while dressed as his childhood super hero.

It hadn’t occurred to him that with so many of his friends settled with spouses and kids that there would be talk of little else. It was a night long reminder of what he didn’t have, a significant person to share his life or a child. Technically he did have an eleven year old but only technically.

“I’m not a baby,” Hope argued, arms crossed over her Peter Pan costume.

“Eleven is close enough to a baby,” Curran countered. “And that’s what everybody will think if they see me still trick or treating with my parents. If I can’t go with my friends then I can’t go. I’ll have to say I’m sick or something and miss out on everything.”

“You’re being melodramatic, true friends would not-”

“Will Jenny’s mom be any part of this beyond a chauffeur?” Michael asked.

“She said she’ll honk the horn if we go beyond the sightlines of her car and nobody wants to be honked at, it would be so embarrassing.”

“That sounds okay,” Michael allowed. “Roberta’s a good mom, I trust her. As long as you swear you girls will stay in sight of her, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Curran shook his head at his wife. “Are you forgetting that one Halloween Hope just so happened to end up at her birth mother’s door? What’s to stop her from doing something that leaves her that vulnerable again and with neither of us there for support?”

Episode 1107: Rebel Rebel