Fall came and left; and then it was winter. Helen decided to go and see her parents for Christmas since Steve was working. It was more than ten years since she had left home and had not heard from them! However, she knew they had known about her whereabouts through an aunt that she contacted sometimes! She told Steve on the phone of her intention. His response after some screaming and cursing was:
"How come all of the sudden you want to see them?"
She had no answer. She did not know herself why she wanted to see them. However to minimize Steve's suspicion, she said:
"Why don't you come, too? You've never seen them!"
Even though she knew Steve was against it, she bought some Christmas present for her parents, and bought an air plane ticket and went to Chicago a day before Christmas. Although she had called them and told them she was coming for a visit, there was no one at the airport to welcome her. She took a taxi and went to her childhood home. It had been ten years since she had left. So much had changed and happened. The city was changed a lot, but no change, no change at all at her parents' home. They received her so cold and unwelcoming that Helen thought to ask the taxi to take her back to the airport again; but she did not.
Steve called her in the evening. She knew that he would. He called because he was suspicious not because he missed her. He even talked to both her mother and father to make sure that she was where she had said she would be, not at some old flame! He never told her, but he had investigated the phone number and the address of her parents to make sure that she really was there.
At dinner time, father said:
"This is good. It seems that you got yourself a good husband!"
She did not answer. They had nothing for her or her baby she was carrying under their Christmas tree. They did not respond to her inquiry about her sister.
"We don't hear from her." Her mother answered indifferently.
She left the morning after Christmas day. They looked almost please that she was leaving and not staying a whole week that she had told them. Yet father said:
"We thought you're staying for a week!"
"I changed my mind!" She murmured.
"Some people never change!" Her mother said with a bitter grimace on her face. They even did not take her to the airport. She cried all the way to the airport in the Taxi!
☃
On May 27Th, 1969, her baby was born, a little girl. It was not a hard delivery like Jacob's son a year earlier on an exact day. Steve named her Elizabeth Ann. He even did not ask Helen what name she liked ...!!!
To Be Continued
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