Chapter 6

As Bette reheated the small
containers that held her Thanksgiving dinner she had ordered three days earlier
and kept frozen in her freezer she looked around her home and told herself that
she should have gotten use to the silence by now.

For many years she celebrated the
holidays like everyone else did.

But not anymore.

Family had always been important to
her and although she never had much blood family other than her father and her
sister Kit she was thankful for them.

When Tina came into her life and
she fell in love with her she became family too.

Then there were the friends she had
left behind in LA for many years she thought of them as her family although
they had no blood ties.

 Maybe this was the reason she never celebrated
this time of year because she was so alone,

Melvin had passed away years ago
before she left LA.

Her beloved sister Kit was killed
by a drunk driver about five years after she moved here shortly after retiring.

She had only stayed in LA long
enough to contact her attorney and assign him to settle her affairs while she
flew home to Connecticut with her body for burial.

It had given her some measure of
peace to know that her sister rested close by and occasionally she would go
talk to her just like she use too.

Tina moved on with out her with
someone new.

And she had lost most of the contact
with her friends when she left LA so really she had no one but herself to blame
for the loneliness she felt this time of year.

Oh she had made some friends since
her relocation 14 years ago but none that she ever dared to let to close to
her.

Kit had once told her that she let
people see what she wanted them too and at the time she didn’t understand that
statement but looking around her home now those words took on a whole new
meaning for her.

As Bette lay in her bed with the
open book on her lap her lonely thoughts turned to Angelica.

She hoped that while at home she
was enjoying her time off. She really was a beautiful and intelligent young
woman.

Tina had done a wonderful job raising
her.

But it worried Bette from the
little Angie had revealed to her that afternoon because Angie felt distant from
her mother.

But Bette knew it had not always
been the case what could have caused a child whom she was certain was loved by
her mother to grow up feeling this way.

What had happened in her life to
make her feel this way?

Had Tina done something or had it
been Henry?

Bette knew she would never have the
answers.

But she knew Tina had been the best
parent she knew how to be.

She had given her child the
traditional family model.

So why were things so messed up for
the two of them?

Maybe the time apart would mend
what ever the wound was between mother and daughter and this Thanksgiving could
be a new beginning for both of them.

At least that’s what she hoped for
as she closed the book on her lap, turned out the lamp on her bedside table,
and snuggled down under the blanket to drift off to sleep.