Midnight in Suburbia

NaNoWriMo Day 9: Chapter 9 - A Phone Call to Emily

Chapter 9: Daniella
Calls Emily

"Preston," Daniella said, as he stepped onto the front porch. "I think there might me something wrong with my mother."

"Did you get another letter from your Aunt Dolly?"

"No," she handed him the letter from her Uncle Rodger. "This is from Rodger, my stepfather's brother. Go ahead and read it, then tell me what you think."

He sit down on the swing next to her and began reading the letter. "Interesting, but I thought your stepfather was dead."

"He is, but the way Rodger talks, it's as if Mom didn't remember he was dead."

"Why would she think he was in Texas?"

"Papa Larry and Uncle Rodger 'kidnapped' Aunt Dolly's pure breed gray hounds and Siamese cats. They took them to an animal shelter in Texas and had all four spade and nutered sometime in the late fifties."

"Why?"

"Because Aunt Dolly son Joel killed are cat and Aunt Dolly refused to punish him, so..."

"So Larry and his brother decided to punish Dolly and take care of the overproducing pet problem at the same time." Preston grinned and began to laugh, he continued to laugh for at least five minutes. "That's the funniest revenge incident I've heard in a long time and I though my mother was the revenge queen of America, but obviously Larry and Rodger are her co-kings."

"It's not funny," and then she began to laugh. "All right, it is funny, but Aunt Dolly didn't think so at the time and I doubt if she finds it funny now; however, that isn't the question I ask you. I wanted to know if you thought my mother may have some mental issues."

"It could be a prescription reaction," he was still grinning. "I know my mother had a rather sever reaction to some of her medication, which caused similar memory issues. When you're in Oklahoma call her doctor and see what he says. He may not know she's having problems; especially if she doesn't tell him. I know my mother didn't mention anything to her doctor because she though that he would think she was getting senile."

"I suppose that's a good idea. I'll call Mom's friend Emily and see if she can make an appointment for the doctor a week or so before or after Thanksgiving."

"What's for supper," Preston ask as he got out of the swing. "Jesse's making turkey stew tonight."

"You letting Jesse make stew?!"

"Yes," Daniella smiled. "She's going to visit her mother for Thanksgiving." She got out of the swing, "It's their family tradition for the daughter who lives farthest away to cook left over turkey on Black Friday. So..."

"You're giving her your recipe for turkey stew."

"Yes," Preston held the front door for her as they entered the house. "Last year her sister and her husband were stationed Japan, so her sister made egg rolls with turkey in them. Jesse though stew might be a nice change and go over a little better then turkey egg roles."

"Turkey egg rolls," his brow wrinkled. "That sound interesting. Are you going to attempt them this year?"

"No," she laughed. "I need at least three weeks to figure out the recipe and experiment with the turkey and the spices."

In the dining room, Jesse had the table sit and the stew waiting to be served. "Please sit down," she indicated the chairs.

"You don't have to serve us Jesse."

"Yes, I do!" She laughed nervously. "It's tradition that the daughter who cooks the meal serves it to everyone at the table. The problems is that my father or one of my brothers videos the meal. I am not going put on a show like my sister did last year; fortunately, my father didn't have a YouTube or Facebook account then or it would have been all over the internet."

"He has those accounts now," Daniella said.

Jesse sighed, "Yes, my wonderful technological savey brother set up those accounts for Dad last Christmas and then he show him how to upload his videos. Fortunately, the Black Friday video disappeared between December 1 and Christmas Eve or Pop would have uploaded that.'

"Any idea what happened to that video," ask Preston.

"No, but I'm sure my sister knows."

After dinner, Preston and Daniella went into the living room, while Jesse cleared the table, put the leftovers away, and loaded the dishwasher. As Daniella sit down on the plush couch she removed her cell phone from the pocket of her blouse. "Preston, do you know what time it is in Oklahoma?"

"Well," he picked up the television remote. "It's 6:00 pm here, so..." he frowned. "I think it must be about 8:30 there. Why?"

"Because I want to call Emily before the Late Show comes on. She always watches the that talk show before going to bed." Daniella accessed her contacts and dialed the number.

"Hi, Emily. It's Daniella Coffey."

"Yes, Amity's daughter."

"I have a favor to ask you."

"I need you to contact Mom's doctor and make an appointment for me to see him sometime either just before or just after Thanksgiving."

"Yes, I want to talk to him about Mom's meds."

"Yes, Aunt Dolly contacted me, but it's the letter I got from Uncle Rodger that was destribing."

"He implied that Mom may have forgotten that Larry died."

"I suspect the problem may be the meds, but I need to talk to him to make sure."

"Oh, he won't be back until after Christmas. Who's talking care of his practice?"

"Then make an appointment with her. She has access to Mom's charts, so she should be able to tell me if there is a problem with the meds."

"Just give me a call and give the doctor my cell phone. That way she or her nurse practinitar will be able to contact me if t here is any difficulty with the appointment."

"I'm coming up on Thanksgiving this year, so if I have to come a little early it won't make much of a difference."

"I think Preston and Ruby, my office manager can handle things until I get back."

"Thanks, Emily." Daniella smiled, "All right, I'll call you Aunt Emily."

She disconnected, "Well that's taken care of. Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to take with me."

"You've already figured that out."

"That was before I planned to talk to Mom's doctor. I have to take a business suite to wear to the appointment, but I'm not sure whether I should take one with slacks or a skirt."

"What's the difference, Sweet Heart? You're not going for a checkup, you're just going to talk about your mother."

"Preston," she glared at him. "I'm going to Oklahoma and that is a conservative state. I suspect the doctor is also conservative and I want to make a good impression. I have to wear something a bit more conservative then normal."

"Why?"

"Preston," she shook her head. "You don't understand these things, with men it's no big deal how they dress for appointments like this, but it's different with a woman."

"Oh," he still did not understand, but he was wise enough not to push the issue. That was one of the reason's for his divorce from his first wife. He had attempted several times to push issues and all it had resulted in were argument. He finally just gave up and backed off when Mari had began getting angry. He continued that approach with Daniella.

Turning on the television, he chennel surfed until finally diciding on CNN. Then he watched, intent upon the action on the screen. Daniella knew better then to interrupt him when he was watching a news program, so she got up and went into the kitchen to get them something to drink.

"How'd I do," ask Jesse.

"You did fine, Jesse. I don't think you have to worry about making a fool of yourself in front of your family."

"It isn't my family that's the problem, Daniella," she sighed. "It's that damn video camera and Dad's Facebook account. I just know he's going to post this year's Thanksgiving and Black Friday dinner's on Facebook."

"Jesse, do you think I should take the video camera with me to Oklahoma."

"Are you planning on posting something to Facebook?"

"No, I want to have a video of Mom's Thanksgiving feast and..."

"And what?"

"And I want to video what ever it is that Aunt Dolly does this year to attempt to make Mom's life miserable."

"What's going on with your Mother and Aunt Dolly?"

"Aunt Dolly dislikes mother, she thinks that Papa Larry married beneath him and she..."

Jesse laughed, "Sounds like normal sibling rivelry to me, but in this case you would think that adults would act like adults."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but... well, I don't have much room to talk because my father and his brother act the same way. The only difference is that they can now post the sibling battles on Facebook and YouTube."

"I never thought of that, but I think I'm much to mature to do that. I just want to find out if Aunt Dolly is really stealing the antique silver that Grandma Hattie wanted to go to Ethan."

"That sound more logical then what Pop and Uncle Joe do to each other." She took three mugs out of the cupboard and then removed a container of death by chocolate ice cream from the freezer. "Daniella, would you and Preston like some hot chocolate, it's my mother's own recipe."

"Of course," Daniella watch as Jesse put a scoop of ice cream in each mug and the poured the hot chocolate on top. Picking up two of the mugs, Daniella went back into the living room and handed one mug to Preston.

Preston took a sip of the chocolate, "This is delicious! A new recipe?"

"The recipe is one Jesse's mother makes."

"Ah, so now you are exchanging recipes."

"Yes."

"My Dear, between your cooking and Jesse's cooking I'm going to gain twenty pound before the holidays even starts."

"Shall we join a gym in 2014?"

"That's not a bad idea, especially if I can find one that is willing to display some of the paintings we have at the office."