Coming home

chapter 21

“What is wrong honey?” Claire inquired when she found Elizabeth on the porch staring at the newly painted swing.

“It doesn’t look quite right,” Elizabeth said almost under her breath as she wasn’t quite sure it needed to be vocalized.

“What do you think is wrong with it?” A trick Claire learned in her profession. The idea was to let people decide on their own what the problem was. The problem would be received better if the person could spot it themselves rather than to point it out to them. People got defensive if they thought they were being criticized or judged.

“ I don’t know. It’s like something is missing. Maybe even a flaw somewhere,” revealing Elizabeth’s dilemma.

“Oh you mean like, it’s not perfect?”

“Yes, that’s it,” Elizabeth announced.

“Perfection isn’t something to be proud of… Let me finish,” Claire inserted when she saw Elizabeth’s doubtful look. “ Perfection is only one person's ideal of what they think is perfect. Some people think something is perfect if everything is the same.” She paused, assessing if Elizabeth was absorbing what she was saying. Elizabeth frowned.

“Okay, let’s try it like this. Would you think if you and Susan were exactly the same? Same hair? Same clothes? Same shoes? And the exact same life?” Elizabeth asked.

“ I don’t like some of Susan’s clothes or shoes. She’s not allowed to go outside to play in some of her outfits.” Elizabeth wrinkled her nose.

“Exactly,” Claire said, bringing her point home. “And if ya’ll had the same parents, then you wouldn’t be able to either,” she paused. “Now with being perfectly imperfect, you get to have your own likes and dislikes. I think that makes us all unique in our own rights, flaws, scars, and all. Do you see it now?”

“So this swing is unique,” Elizabeth declared with a smile.

“Yes it is,” Claire confirmed.

“So we can make it more unique if we want to?”

“You can make it as unique as you want it to be.” Claire encouraged and didn’t really care if Elizabeth wanted to put poke-a-dots on it. Whatever made her happy and showed her, even though she didn’t have the same people in her life as her friends, that she was special in her own right, so she didn’t need to feel like she didn’t fit in.

Claire and Elizabeth finished their night by eating the pizza that Luke had been sent after and putting a puzzle together in the living room. Luke had opted to be a party pooper, claiming he didn’t like doing puzzles. His delusions of thinking he was just going to sit there and creepily watch the two of them were quickly doused when both females banished him from the living room. But not before requesting ice cream, Luke thought while retrieving two bowls from the cabinet.

Luke wasn’t sure how he went from waiting on the younger female to waiting on both. He had thought Elizabeth was supposed to be helping Claire, not him doing for both of them. Maybe he was the problem. He was the only common factor here, wasn’t he? No. There was also the common factor of sharing DNA between the two females.

Luke was prepared to march back into the living room, taking his newfound stand on how unseeingly unfair he was being treated when the sound of laughter hit his ears, stopping him in his tracks. He leaned up against the door jamb with their bowls in his hands, taking in the scene. Claire was relaying a story about an incident from her childhood.

Luke stood there like the creeper he had been accused of just moments before. Elizabeth was laughing so hard she barely stayed upright and off the floor. Claire tells the story from the point of the child’s eyes that she was back then. Luke couldn’t help but imagine this would have been what life would be like if him and Claire didn’t have the big misunderstanding they had. Or, to admit his own role in things, if he had tracked her down and made things right.

“Luke,” Elizabeth demanded, bringing him out of his daydream. Yep, he decided, this was the life he wanted. He wanted a family with Claire and he was going to find a way to get one.

“You just can’t help yourself, can you?” Claire jokingly said. “You just have to be creepy.”

“Me,” Luke innocently said, putting their bowls down in front of them. “I wasn’t the one who fell in the toilet.” Bringing another round of laughter from Elizabeth and making him have to dodge a pillow that was thrown toward his head as he made his getaway.

Lucky for Luke, the pillow was the only thing within Claire’s grasp and that she only had the one arm to try to lob it with. He remembered how fast her temper used to spike, but he also remembered the way he would calm it right back down again. This thought put a smile on his face as he gathered some paperwork he needed to catch up on and headed to the bedroom he had claimed for the stay here.

Luke finally finished up with his paperwork and noticed it was after 10. Feeling a little guilty about hiding out, he went in search of the females that had become a major part of his life. But they banished you. He reminded himself to lessen his guilt.

Luke found Elizabeth nestled under the covers, already asleep. He stood there watching her sleep, wondering if he had really done right by her. Right by her, Wade, and Nancy. He recently had his doubts about watching Claire with her. He had tried to make sure she felt stable, made sure she was fed, had a roof over her head, possessions, and a future that she wouldn’t have to depend on anyone or have to worry about it.

Seeing Claire with her though, Luke realized that he hadn’t really reacted to her enough to get to know the little person she became. He vowed that he was going to change that. There was a list of things he needed to change. He pulled Elizabeth’s door closed and went in search of Claire.