Change

7

I met Izzy at a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. One of those little mom and pop restaurants you can find pretty much anywhere in the southwest. It had a generic decor of walls painted a burnt orange color, and sombreros, ponchos, and guitars hanging on the walls, along with a few of the mandatory desert scene paintings scattered around the place. The surroundings may have been a bit cliché, but the food was some of the best in town. Izzy and I usually took turns picking where we ate when we’d have the time to get together, and this was one of her favorite places. 

I’d already been seated at a table and was busy perusing a menu, trying to decide what I wanted to eat when she arrived a few minutes late, as usual. As Izzy moved around me and sat in the booth seat across from me, I noticed she carried the scent of warm chocolate with her. I wondered for a moment why she would eat chocolate before lunch but quickly dismissed the thought. 

“Hey, girl, how’ve you been?” I asked, laying my menu against the table between us.

“Good, busy as ever. You?” She smiled. 

“You know me. Work, play, family, it never ends.” I wanted badly to share the most recent changes in my life but knew I couldn’t.

“Speaking of family, how’s that sexy brother of yours? Still single?” She wiggled her brows at me. 

“You must be thinking of some other friend. I don’t have any sexy brothers, just annoying ones.” I pretended ignorance but knew what she was doing. Raine was just a year older than Izzy and me, and Izzy had been drooling over him since we were teenagers. 

“You know exactly who I mean, missy.” She gave me a mock scowl.

“Raine’s good. As far as I know, he’s not dating anyone but that could just mean he’s not serious, or that he doesn’t want to be teased about it.” Raine wasn’t interested in Izzy, but I didn’t know how to tell her it was a lost cause.

“I don’t know how the six of you manage to tease and torment each other the way you do and keep from being angry at each other all the time.”

“We know it’s all in fun. The teasing and laughter is how we bonded as kids, making the new kid laugh by picking at the others was a game with us. I’m sure it drove Mom crazy some days, but it’s a part of who we are.” 

“Your family still amazes me. Not just the six kids, but four of you being adopted, and to have a group like that as tight as you are. It’s really amazing.” The scent of chilies caught my attention as Izzy spoke, but I ignored it and focused on our conversation.

“We’ve all been really lucky. But how’s your family? Your mom, how’s she doing?”

The young, blond waitress came to take our orders. I caught a hint of caramel in the air as I ordered an enchilada plate. After Izzy chose the chimichanga, enchilada style, the waitress left us alone again. 

“She’s had a hard time since Dad passed away. I mean, we knew it was coming, but now she’s alone in the house and it’s hard for her. I’m trying to convince her to take a trip, maybe go visit Aunt Inez in Texas. If I can get her to leave, then my sister and I can get in there and box up Dad’s stuff. I think that might help. His clothes still hang in the closet next to hers because she just can’t handle boxing them up.” 

As Izzy spoke of her father’s passing away and how her mother was handling it, I caught an unfamiliar scent, one I couldn’t place. Something about the strange scent caused an echo of her sadness to run through me.

“That has to be hard. I can’t imagine having to go through that.”

“It definitely hasn’t been easy, but I think if we can get some of his stuff out of the house she might be able to move on.”

“Won’t she get more upset when she comes back and finds it all gone?”

“She might be a little, but she’s been saying she needs to clean out the closet, she just can’t bear to do it. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for her to see his clothes every day and be reminded he’s not coming back. His recliner in the living room next hers, now forever empty. And we’re not going to get rid of anything right away, just box it up and put it in storage.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Give her some time to heal with it out of sight, then she can decide what she wants to do with it all.”

“Yeah, well, we need to convince her to take the trip first. That’s proving to be harder than I’d hoped.”

“Have you considered calling your aunt and having her call and asking your mom to come out and help with something?”

“That hadn’t occurred to me. I’ll have to call Aunt Inez and see if we can come up with something.”

The waitress appeared beside the table carrying our plates, she set them down in front of us and my nose was assaulted with the odors of the beef and beans, the spices in the rice, and the chilies in the sauce. I couldn’t speak for a moment because of the sensory overload. I picked up my plastic cup of iced tea and took a long drink to cover my distress. 

“Is there anything else I can get for you?” The waitress asked. I just shook my head, still unable to speak, while Izzy answered. 

“I think we’re good for now. Thanks.”

We spoke little while we ate and as we left the restaurant, we both got into my car, leaving Izzy’s car parked there for the time being. We went to several chain stores first, with no luck, before deciding we needed to switch to boutique shops if we had any hope of finding anything like the boots I had in mind. I wanted something at least knee high but possibly as tall as mid-thigh, and with at least three-inch heels, in good, black leather if I could get it. They would be pricey but a good quality pair of boots would last years, which would make them worth the money.