“ma. . . Mama!”  Daniella blurted out sporadically. “Why. . . When did. . . what in the world are you doing here!”

"Dani baby! I was so worried about you! Stanford wanted to surprise you. . . ."

“Didn’t you get my message, honey?” Stan propounded ever so calmly.

“Honey?” Daniella stood there puzzled. What is the universe possessed this man to all of a sudden become a human mood ring? What was up between him and her mother?

“Yes!” Eileen perked. “Stan called when he was picking me up from the airport just about an hour ago. Didn’t want you to worry about no one being home, with you being gone way past midnight. He tried calling you on your cell phone but for some strange reason, I can’t imagine why at all with you running around all by yourself at night unescorted and everything that . . . . “

Yadda yadda yadda! Danielle had flipped the “off” switch on her mother at this point.

“. . . .and beside all of that dear, I just don’t see how in the world you can leave the side of someone so yummy!”

“Mama! Please!!! Stop going on like that. . .”

“I can’t help it baby girl. This may be my son-in-law but oh my goodness, if I was just thirty years younger. . . ooh my goodness!” Eileen chortled to herself.

“Mama” Daniella questioned, mouthing  each word slowly.  “Just-why-are-you-in-Herrington?”

“Oh honey, does a mother ever need an excuse to visit her only child?”

“Well, considering your last visit was five years ago and I haven’t heard a word from you since, I’d say some kind of excuse was in order.”

“Dani, baby is that any way to welcome your mother. I mean she just got off the plane.”

“From where this time”

Stan interrupted like an NFL referee throwing a penalty flag.

“Mother Dixon, didn’t you say you just came back from Switzerland?”

Eileen sat down in on one of the loveseats in the hotel lobby. “Actually Stanford, it was part of one of those singles tours for seniors. You know, take a boat, then a plane, then a boat. . . my goodness it’s a wonder I could keep up with all those amazing junkets we were on!”

 Daniella silently thought, “It’s amazing she found her way back to the United States of America.”

“Gee whiz Mama!” Daniella snapped sarcastically. “Don’t they still have telephones in Europe Mama, or did they decide to rough it and go back to the Ice Age for old time sake?”

Stan scoffed at his wife''s sarcastic taunting. “Dani, that’s enough! C’mon Mother Dixon, we’re going home now.”

 “What do you mean, Home!?” protested Eileen’s distraught daughter.

"Yes. . . H-O-M-E. . . HOME! You know, the place you evidently forgot to come back to?"

Now Daniella was fuming inside. “Stan, I DID go home. I DID check my messages. You said, and I quote, “You’re late!” End of story. No explanation.”

"Well, actually dear. . ." interrupted her mother. . . . 

 "Whoo-wee! There goes that Mr. Wonderful fake-ass façade of his again” Daniella was becoming much more than mildly miffed by this unplanned event.

“. . . .You know good and well that Mother Dixon hasn’t been to the house in a while. Figured you wouldn’t mind fixing us a nice home-cooked breakfast. Just like it used to be, before she left the country to travel.”

Daniella amended her husband’s Oscar-winning line in her head. . . .He meant before she abandoned my father.”

"C’mon now ladies!  The three of us have a lot of catching up to do. The limo driver’s been waiting for awhile now in the parking lot and I''m paying that sucker by the hour!"

The concierge motioned for the bellperson to pick up Eileen’s luggage. On the way out the door, she looked at her only child only to comment:

“Goodness daughter, you really should do something about your hair dear! I’m sure your wonderful husband can afford it!”

Daniella thought to herself as she got into the limo, “This is truly going to be a night from Hades” 

To be concluded Saturday October 22, 2005:

"Exhibitions--The Choice."

 © 2005 cynth''ya lewis reed
all rights reserved.