Jennifer's Big Request (closed for Ukstud69)

[wickedpen]

A woman sat in a coffee shop booth on a rainy Thursday afternoon drinking coffee. She was in her mid twenties with long blonde hair, tamped down with a few days since her last shower and a Yankees baseball cap pulled down over her eyes. Her entire world of belongings hardly filling her over sized purse and small black suitcase next to her.

She wore ripped blue jeans and combat boots from an army surplus store, a white tee shirt under a red flannel which all gave her a dangerous look. The truth was so much the opposite. When one is running from her husband in the middle of the night, when he comes home dosed up on meth, you grab whatever you can and you run.

"Planning my next move." she thought to herself as she stared out at the rain as her hand continued to stir the black coffee in the cup.

Next to the napkin sat her phone. The seven year old Samsung phone her parents had given her for high school graduation still worked, barely, and had so many miles on it the screen was nearly opaque. It began to buzz as "Home" came up on the display.

"What the fuck?" she thought to herself, "Someone must have died." It had been since before she left for college that she had gotten a call from there. Her mother used work phones to hide her calls.

"Hello?" she said, her voice soft with caution after all this time.

"Ellie, it's mom." her voice was smaller than she remembered. The lion of the house she used to think, watching her standing up to her husband. Standing up to Ellie's dad. Not so much tall but had a fire. "Oh no." she thought as it struck Ellie, her mom may be sick.

"Hi mom." she was suddenly transported back to being a nervous school girl answering her phone at a party after curfew.

"You need to come home." was all she said and hung up. The words echoed in her head as she wondered what could be recalling her with such force? She deduced it was most likely not good.

She scraped together enough money for a bus ride back to her suburban home town a world away. Her shabby chic wardrobe was a little too shabby to be chic, but she went to the house anyway. The next afternoon they hugged and cried, before even a word was spoken.

After about five minutes of that they moved into the kitchen and she explained about her cancer. Ellie explained about her husband, and they cried some more.

"Get cleaned up and put on something from your closet. I think this all needs to be trashed." she said with a sympathetic smile.

"It's your father's sixtieth birthday tonight. He is going to be so happy to see you." she beamed.

"It's good of you to have come." she said reaching up and holding my hand.

I held it together until I got in the shower when suddenly life became incredibly real.

 

[wickedpen]

Ellie froze as she heard, "Jennifer" drive into the walls with a tone of arrogance. "Daddy." she thought hearing his voice again and in that "I am God here." voice. She finished drying her hair nervously, and now confronted with him she needed a defense, something she knew would soften his dominating ways.

Walking naked to her dresser from the bathroom, her toes sinking into the thick beige carpeting that covered the whole house. It felt divine after years of wood, if not concrete floors in cheap apartments and friends floors. She looked at herself in the mirror on her dresser and felt old. Her body was still good she thought as she looked down at herself. Looking back into the mirror it was clear she was not the spry eighteen year old virgin who last looked in this mirror naked, awaiting Billy to come and they were going to do it.

Her nipples hardened at the thought of Billy, so nice and cool and her boyfriend she trusted enough to be her first.

"Ridiculous." she scoffed and pulled her drawer open and pulled on a pair of white cotton panties and a bra.

She then moved to her closet knowing a dress was worth a lot. "He rarely got mad enough to yell at anyone in a dress." she thought as memories flooded her head. She pulled down a white sun dress. "So the upside down." she thought feeling so different than she had shuffling up to the house. She slid the dress over her self and felt it was big, having been on a meager diet of poverty for a few weeks.

She grabbed piece of black lace laying over her bracelet stand, from a teenage habit she had forgotten, and tied her thick blonde hair back in a pony tail with a bow.

Standing at the door her heart was racing. She took a deep breath and opened the door stepping out barefooted into the hall. She saw her mom at the top of the stairs with a weak smile. She held out her hand to face him together.

 

[wickedpen]

Ellie's mouth frowned followed by Jennifer's as she looked at her husband with a look of control and he better hope he did not just fuck this up.

"Hey Dad." Ellie said looking nervously down the stairs at everything but his father. She had so dearly missed him it was hard for her to realize until right now. His strength and intensity weakened her knees as she squeezed her mom's hand.

"We are taking you to your favorite restaurant honey." Jennifer said forcing an upbeat optimistic tone over the undeniable tension in the room.

As they walked down stairs Ellie grew nervous to hug him. "Was he still angry? Did he want her gone? His eyes were intense on her taking her in head to toe as he had when she was younger." she thought.

As her foot hit the bottom of the landing she smiled up at the large man, raising her hands towards his neck to give him a hug.

"Happy Birthday Dad!" she managed, terrified he would smack her across the room yelling "slut!" and "whore!" as he had when she last saw him. She took a deep breath and hoped for the best.

 

[wickedpen]

"Yes Robert, dinner as a family." Jennifer said annoyed he was trying to mess this up. There was so much she had to say and do before. She nearly broke into tears every time she thought about the fact her cancer was back and her oncologist had only given her a month. One month to try to help the man who had provided for her so well, all these years, and her daughter, the lost beautiful soul. The fact it took her dying to get them back together really spoke to the rift.

"At least they are speaking." she thought as they walked out towards the car. They did not say much as it seemed all questions kind of ended awkwardly. We did make small talk about distant relatives and the news, but not much else.

They were seated at the booth in the back of the steak house where they went on special occasions. They had not been there in years The kind of place where it's too dark to read the menu or see how raw the steaks tare, but there is plenty of wine and whiskey and that is what Jennifer needed, they all needed, right then.

Jennifer decided to let everyone drink and eat before explaining the purpose of this meal. She hated it was on his birthday but somethings happen at bad times. She had to tell them she was dying, and needed to know they would be OK.

A tear welled in her eye as Ellie reached over and squeezed her mother's hand, somehow knowing something was wrong. Jennifer smiled at her daughter and then at her husband who was clueless, and just so happy to have Ellie back, he could not take his eyes off her.

She reached over the table for Robert's hand and he took it as he noticed her concerned look through three scotches and some wine.

"I have some bad news." Jennifer began looking at them each, deeply. "I went to my oncologist and that cough I could never shake, is worse than I let on. He said I only have a few weeks." said fighting the urge to break down in tears. Her heart raced faster than when the doctor had told her earlier in the week, but she was heartened when Ellie reached over and took her dad's hand.

The older woman smiled at Ellie and said, "you are a good girl Ellie." holding her eyes and wanting to live in that moment, just the two of us. But Robert was so quiet, stunned and just staring out into the restaurant silently.

"Honey?" she said after a minute. "Are you OK?"

 

[wickedpen]

The situation had gone sideways as Ellie watched and listened and avoided the questions from her father about her life and boyfriends. God if he only knew half of what she had been doing, he would probably beat her mother into the cemetery with a heart attack.

Jennifer seemed to feel a little better having told the two of them. Ellie realized she was still holding her father's hand. He looked at her realizing the same himself, and letting the lust burning inside him flash across his face for only an instant before releasing her soft delicately strong hand. Ellie was well acquainted with that look having lived on her own for a while, but here, now? She dismissed it thinking she must have misread it.

"Maybe we will skip dessert, I am a little tired.:" Jennifer said as her husband's confusion and lack of support was depressing her, yet it was not unexpected. When you take care of someone for most of their life they take you for granted and this was becoming very apparent.

Ellie, sweet Ellie squeezed her hand and smiled sympathetically, "I am so sorry mom." her words soft and genuine.

"Sure, Daddy can you pay the check? I will step outside with mom." the young woman said taking charge of the situation she knew she would have to for the time being. They were both going to need her help.

As they sat on a bench in the chilly autumn night air Jennifer looked at her daughter and smiled softly.

"Baby girl I am sorry, I never meant to put this on you.:" she said apologizing to her daughter. If she only knew the situations Ellie had been in before her call, homeless and broke, again, she might not feel so bad.

"It's OK mom. I am glad to be here and so sorry..." she said putting her arm around the woman, remembered as much bigger. A sadness filled her as the situation hit home.

Robert came out of the restaurant noticeably drunk but nobody was saying a word. His sour disposition registered with both women, as he barked at the valet who had been checking Ellie out as they waited.

"Yes sire, right away sir!" the young man, probably around Ellie's age, said trying to appease another obnoxious drunk customer.

Robert said nothing as they waited in the awkward silence their family existed in before, and Ellie held her mother next to her on the bench.

"Sorry about your birthday Robert." Jennifer said meekly in hopes of breaking the ice that had formed between them. The car roared around the corner and lurched to a stop in front of. Robert who got into the drivers seat, like he always does no matter his level of sobriety. Ellie helped her mother into the front seat then sat behind her.

A few miles down the road Ellie asked nervously,."Is there nothing they can do?"

"No honey." was all she said, as Ellie sank back into the plush leather seat fighting back tears. We were almost home when Ellie began to notice her father glancing at her through the rear view mirror. It was awkward, she did not know what he was doing and she wished he paid more attention to the road. He had always been her white knight, even overbearing as he was, but he never needed anything from her. Now things were changing, unlike the familiar street, driveway and house she had grown up in, as the car managed to overcome the curb as Jack Daniels took the wheel for the last forty feet and screatched to a stop.