my mom say over and over again how much she wishes she had gấc fruit so she could make this particular dish she loves. You can’t buy the fruit anywhere that I’ve found, really. The guy at the grocery store who orders special things for her was only able to get me three pieces of it, but each one has about ten seeds inside. I did everything I knew to do to get them to root and start growing, and out of the 32 I planted, I’ve got 14 vines. But they haven’t produced any fruit yet. Tet is in a few months, and I wanted some fruit to give my mom as a gift. She can cook with what my plant produces and have those seeds to plant some of her own.”
“That is the most thoughtful thing I’ve ever heard.”
“She’ll be happy.”
“You think?” I asked sarcastically. “I gave my mom a mixer for Christmas, Rason. A mixer. And she was happy about it. I’ve got to step up my game. Your mom’s getting this precious gift from your heart. That’s some work to grow something just so you can give it to someone to bring them joy. And doing it to remind your mom of her home on her favorite holiday is the best reason for giving a gift that I’ve ever heard. I don’t think you understand how close I am to tears just thinking of how happy your mom will be with your effort.”
“She’s going to cry.”
“I’m going to cry for her. Probably soon, if we keep talking about it. I’m also going to do whatever it takes to make sure your vines produce enough fruit for your mom to have a good new year party and enjoy the dish she remembers.”
5.
“You’ve seen mine, so now it’s time for me to see yours.”
Eliza
ELIZA
“Now tell me about this man that came into the bookstore looking for you.” My mom huffed beside me as we power walked our way around the track at the high school. We’d met this morning at 6:30, like we did three times a week, but today, her focus was on my dating life instead of her heart rate. “He was handsome. Very handsome.”
“He is handsome. His name is Rason Harper. He’s a mechanic at that place they took your car after your accident.”
“Of course he is.” Mom laughed. “I was half in love with the man I talked to on the phone those few times, with his ‘yes, ma’am’ and ‘no, ma’am’ manners. When I went to pick up my car and met him, I almost swooned. Big, bearded guy. And then he walked me through to where my car was parked in the rear, and it was like someone had taken the men off of a stack of romance novels and put them in a garage.”
“Swooned, Mom? Really?”
“I’m back on a historical romance kick, honey.”
My mom was an avid reader, and she’d passed that obsession on to me. My father used to joke that he owned a bookstore because there was no other way to support our reading habit. For as long as I could remember, my mom had used words that coincided with the genre she was reading at the time. It was a funny quirk she had, and I loved it.
“If I introduce him to you, are you going to get the vapors?”
“I already met him, albeit unofficially.”
“Well, did you get the vapors?”
“I felt a flutter,” she said with a silly sigh.
I laughed loudly. “You crack me up.”
“Stop changing the subject. Now tell me what you know.”
“Well, he’s a year younger than me, served in the army for six years, loves his parents, has two siblings, and is into gardening.”
“And he’s beautiful.”
“That too.”
“I can’t believe I get to say this,” my mom said happily. “Have you told your brother and sister about him?”
“Isn’t it weird to say that? I love it! I told Mesha and Jayla. Jayla is stoked, but Mesha reserved the right to stuff his body parts in the disposal.”
“Oh! I read a true crime book last year that had a scene like that. I think it happened in the northwest, but I could be wrong. There was this woman…”
I let my thoughts wander while my mom talked about how this crazy woman disposed of her husband after she poisoned him. Mom was off in her happy place, babbling away. I was usually right there with her, but I had a different happy distraction in my life for once.
Rason