The Space In Between

Chapter Thirty-Nine

HE WAS GONE. Waking up the next morning and knowing he wouldn’t be there stung me. Waking up the next week and Cooper still not being there was almost unbearable. Christmas came. New Years went. And I kept myself busy. Eric kept up his word that he would help with paying for our apartment in New York while I pulled myself together in Wisconsin.
I told him that he didn’t have to, but he informed me that Michelle had insisted. She went out of her way to allow Eric, Ladasha, and I to stay at the mansion while I collected myself. I secretly thought it was because she still had a semi-crush on Ladasha. Who could blame her? My best friend was beautiful. Smart. Funny.
After I scolded my mom for the way she treated Ladasha, she realized how much of a disappointment she had been.
“Andrea Mae…I…” Her head lowered as I sat on my parents’ living room couch, Ladasha next to me. My mom turned to my friend, “Ladasha Marie. I am so sorry for the way I have treated you.”
Ladasha smiled, revealing her dimples and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s all right, Mrs. Evans. I’ve come to learn that people treat you the way you allow yourself to be treated. I should have stood up for myself.”
Mom placed her hand on Dasha’s knee and shook her head. “You should have never had to. And Anders has told me how good you have been to her. Watching after her. I want you to know, if you ever need anything…know that my family welcomes you with open arms.”
That was true. Ladasha was my sister. If anything showed that, it was how harsh Mom was towards her—the same way Mom was harsh towards me. After Mom welcomed her as part of our family, she began to scold her about how dangerous stripping was and said Ladasha should have thought more of herself to stoop to that level. She turned to me, pointing her finger, and sassed me on the same topic. She informed Ladasha that she would, indeed, finish her college degree. She followed all the sassiness up with hugs.
It was kind of what my mom did—worried, judged, worried some more, and then hugged. I told Dasha that she would get used to it. She smiled and told me it was the most mothering she had ever received in all of her life.
Daddy walked into the room smiling at me with what looked like a toy robot in his hands. It was made of metal and stood about five feet tall with a weird looking tail. “Look at this.” His eyes glimmered through his thick-glasses that sat across his gray sideburns. All of us raised an eyebrow to Daddy’s newest creation.
“What is it?” Ladasha asked.
“It’s my automatic snow blower! I fixed it!” he squeaked with excitement. Mom’s eyebrows lowered.
“That’s nice, dear. Maybe we should wait until after lunch to test it out…” I giggled to myself when I heard the hesitant sound in my mom’s voice.
Daddy pouted when she said that. “But the snow just fell to the perfect levels.” He sounded like a whiny five year old who wanted his mom to allow him to go play in the snow. Walking over to Mom, Daddy pushed out his bottom lip and gave her the biggest puppy dog eyes I had ever seen in my life. He began to give her puppy dog kisses all over her face until she reluctantly agreed.
“For Christ’s sake, Walter! Fine. Let’s get this over with!”
Daddy jumped up with excitement and told us all to go get our winter coats on. I was pretty excited. I hadn’t seen one of Daddy’s creations in quite some time and I was ready to be impressed. As he sat it in the driveway, Mom made Ladasha and me stay behind the porch, in case something went wrong. Daddy made sure to hush my mom as he turned on the snow blower, but he too, stepped behind the porch with his remote to control the robot.
“This is going to be amazing,” he promised as he pushed the on button. Nothing happened at first. “Just give it time. It has to warm up.” We waited. The weird robot started to shake. Daddy insisted it was normal. The robot started to walk down the driveway, Daddy guiding it with his remote. It was working! It was a three foot, mini TinMan, shoving our snow. We all cheered for him as the robot finished clearing most of the snow. It approached the end of the driveway. Daddy shut off the robot and tossed his hands up in celebration.
“You did it!” Mom hollered as she kissed Daddy’s cheek. She was so proud of him in that moment.
“Um…Daddy…” I stuttered. I nodded in the direction of the robot, now heading out into the street.
“Oh no,” Mom murmured.
The robot started to smoke. Daddy flicked on his remote again and started trying to control the robot to come back to us. His remote started to spark flames. “Holy shit!” Ladasha and I hollered as Daddy tossed the remote into the snow. Mom pinched both of our arms for our foul language as we mumbled an apology.
The robot was still on the move. “Go get it, Walter! Before the neighbors see!” My mom warned him. He went heading to the robot but stopped right as he saw it blow up across the street.
Ms. Kathy came out yelling as she watched her newly replaced dog-shaped mailbox go up in flames with the robot explosion. I saw the doggie’s tail land on her roof. She started hollering and shaking her fist at us, saying words that would have made Mom pinch me to the point of drawing blood. Mom’s eyes widened as she looked at us girls and Daddy. “Run! Come on! Inside, go!”
As we entered the house, the four of us busted out into laughter, replaying the horrified look on Ms. Kathy’s face. It felt good to be back with my parents and able to laugh. It felt better than I could have imagined.