FISHER HOME
"I can finish that up," Matt says,
pointing to one of the pans on the stove.
"Are you sure?" Bill asks, though
he is clearly grateful for the offer. His attention is being pulled in
several other directions by other parts of the meal.
"Yup, no problem." Matt steps in
and takes over the stove, allowing Bill to move, a little relieved, to
other matters that need attending.
"Should this come out yet?" Claire
calls out, peeking into the oven.
Bill glances quickly at the clock.
"Give it two more minutes. It should be perfect then."
Claire shuts the oven and looks around
for a second, hoping to find something to do. It looks as though Matt and
Bill have everything covered at the moment. She kneels down by Travis.
"Hey, kiddo, how are those Pokemon doing?"
"Good," he says, not even looking
up from the toys. He finishes a play battle between two figures and then
hands his mother one of the figurines. "You can be him."
"Oh, I can? Well, thank you." She
holds the figure up as Travis imitates the characters' voices, outlining
some secret plan. Claire has to chuckle at how lost she is in the world
of Pokemon.
Another glance at the clock proves
that she needs to turn her attention back to the food, so she hands Travis
the figure and stands. "Mommy has to finish getting dinner ready. Hold
that thought."
"Okay," Travis says, taking the figure
back. Then he looks up at her and says,
"Samantha should come play this
with me."
"I know," Claire says after a moment
of silence as she swallows the sudden lump in her throat.
"Why can't she come back yet?"
"Because," Claire says, still not
sure what to say. "Because it's not time. She's with
her other mommy, remember
how I told you that? They have to have some time together." Her attention
is only half on the oven as she turns it off and puts on a pair of oven
mits.
Bill turns away from preparing the
meal and leans over beside them. "Travis, you can go play with your cousin
Victoria. I bet she wants to play." He holds out a hand for Victoria, who
has been standing in the doorway, to join in.
The idea seems okay to Travis, but
he still grumbles, "I want to play with Samantha."
Bill and Claire share a pained look.
Neither of them has the heart to continue the line of conversation right
now, so they let it fade. But it stays with both of them as they get back
to preparing the meal -- the Christmas meal that Samantha won't be sharing
with them.
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