dinner with Sam

Ellie wished she could stuff a hot roll down her father's mouth. He was way too happy to see Sam. Thank God, Kyle didn't have Roxie on his arm. He was beginning to look naked without her.

Of course, his brother Sam kept teasing him about Roxie. "I bet she's not even real."

"I wish." Ellie said under her breath. But she felt half a person herself without Eric there. Of course, she'd been on the phone with him, before dinner, and was sure to call once it was over.

It was one of those comfy dinners with potroast and mashed potatoes. There was a moment Ellie thought she might choak on the mashed potatoes. She imagined everyone's reaction. The drama. When all along she didn't want any drama. Although, she felt for sure it would be fun to have some name calling. Perhaps a cleansing of some kind, but there she was all quiet, making an effort to smile. Watching Kyle and Sam make over their Mom. Really it was disgusting. How did that happen? How could they be there for her? Was it something in the genes? Were they raised with the proper care and instructions to love their mother, always? Even now? With Ellie's Dad?

Did her dad really think this would work? She kept wishing for Sam to hate him, but he was laughing at her Dad's silly jokes. He kept smiling at her as if he'd always wanted a sister.

"You think you can handle two brothers around instead of just a sister?" Sam asked after dinner was over and the boys cleared the table and washed up the dishes for their Mom. We're these two always like this, Ellie wondered.

"I hardly see my sister, anyway." Ellie hadn't meant to sound so forboding, but it was true. Her sister didn't want to talk to her. Lisa didn't even care she was back. Why was it so important to stick together?

But it was easy to see that Kyle thought the world of Sam, and Ellie envied that. She never had that fasination for Lisa.

Why was she suddenly feeling so much like her mother? She could hardly stand herself just watching the two of them chattering on about nothing. Ellie kept her arms crossed. Maybe she just wasn't suppose to be happy right now. Maybe that was something you just waited for like a moment of sunshine on a cloudy day. She knew it wouldn't happen until she called Eric on her cell.