The Weeks Between • HS

Week 26: Part 2 • Harry

When I drive away from town, towards my mum's house, my anxiety always falls away. Everything that seems impossible somehow becomes something that I can handle. Every place in my life where I feel unsettled, coming home always settles. My mum has this amazing quality of reading people and innately knowing what they need. Not only that, but she can give them what they need in the kindest of ways, never offering up and judgements or unsolicited advice. She simply offers love.

My thoughts are confirmed when we pull into the drive and find my mum standing on the front steps, pretending to work on some sort of decoration, but I know she is just waiting for us, and has been since I told her we were about ten minutes out. Since then, Nola has been staring out the window in awe. I get it. When I was younger, we would drive down the streets in this part of town and look at the decorations and lights, admiring them. Not that mum didn't make our house festive when she lived closer to town, but it just wasn't as inspiring when nobody else around us decorated for the season like we did. Now, mum's house is one of many that I enjoy taking in every Christmas as I drive through my hometown. It seems that Nola is enjoying taking them all in right now, as well.

When we exit the car, Mum moves towards Nola first, so I step back. "Nola, so nice to see you again." I give them a chance to greet each other while I help the twins get unbuckled. What I hadn't planned on, when I helped them get loose, was that the girls would weasel their way to mum before I could. They get their moment until my mum can finally greet me. "How was the drive, darling?"

"It was good- nice to take a break in the middle, but it made for a long day for Nola and me," I tell her, because it really was a lot to get them all ready, pack them, dress them for outside, take them sledding, undress them and drive the rest of the way.

Mum sets down Lottie and tells me, and Nola because she is in earshot, "you two go on upstairs and take a rest. I have some projects they can help me with."

"Are you sure?" Nola asks her and she basically pushes her upstairs. "We are perfectly fine and you two are just upstairs if I need you."

I'm excited for dinner, but I am still hungry after our drive. I didn't partake in the hot chocolate at Pinnacle, but if there is one thing I know about mum it's that she has some cookies stashed somewhere. "Do you have any biscuits?" I ask and mum laughs because it is a dumb question, but I am a grown-ass man and I shouldn't assume these things.

"Of course, but I made them with maple syrup instead of sugar. You'll have to let me know what you think." I've noticed her making little shifts in her baking and cooking that make things a little more healthy, which makes me happy because I want her around for a long time. As suspected, I find the treats in the middle of the island under the glass dome that mum puts her best ones on display under. The burnt ones, or the mis-shapen ones, end up in a container next to the fridge (that I typically raid in the middle of the night so the dome doesn't make noise). I take a handful of cookies and two glass water bottles and guide Nola upstairs.

"What are these cookies?" she asks me.

"Apple cinnamon oatmeal raisin." 

Her face scrunches up and she obviously thinks they look gross. That's fine. More for me! "Ewwww... No chocolate?"

"Nope." I answer, but then I make her take a bite, somewhat forcefully. "Don't tell me they're gross until you've tried them."

She takes a bite and her face shifts. Her eyes raise in surprise as she chews. "OK. Those are good. I want another." I use my height to my advantage and hold them high above her head.