Better Off Alone (Adopted by Brendon and Sarah Urie)

88. Sarah

Brendon was working so hard on his new album, having a lot of meetings, talks of a tour in the upcoming summer were floating around. Brendon was either out in his home studio all day, and a lot of the night, or down at one of the recording studios with his buddies.

It meant a lot of caring for Callie fell to me. I had her up and ready for school, drove her to and from (though Zack, Kala and Josh had all offered to help, and had picked Callie up on more than one occasion) before school let out for Christmas.

"Is Dad going away?" Callie asked one day on the way home from school.

"Not anytime soon, why?" I asked.

"I saw him talking about packing and cases and leaving. Is he leaving us?" She asked, worry in her eyes.

I pulled into a parking lot and faced Callie.

"Why would you think Dad is leaving us?"

"Because saw him say 'leave the girls"," Callie signed, slowly and sadly.

"Oh!  No, sweetheart. Dad is talking about going on tour for the new album in the summer. But they might leave before you finish school, so Dad would leave us here, and we'd join him when your school year is done."

She looked skeptical. 

"We can ask him when he comes in for dinner, if you want," I said. "He promised, since he was working at home today, that he'll have dinner with us."

Callie looked away, out the window. Brendon had said that he'd join us two of the last five nights he'd been home, and he'd wound up losing track of time, between work, mixing, and talking with the band, management, and so on.

"Callie," I said, getting her attention. She turned to look at me. "Dad loves us very much. He's very, very busy with the new album because they want to release it as soon as possible and now that it's almost completely done, he's busy. But he promised he's coming in for dinner. He said he set an alarm. Okay?  I promise. Dad loves you. And me. Very, very much. Okay?"

Callie nodded.

I turned back into traffic and drove us the rest of the way home.

"Want to stop at Starbucks for your after school snack?" I asked. She nodded and grinned and we drove to the one near our house. They'd recently installed a two way video screen in their drive through.

"Hello, Sarah and Callie!" The Barista, Alex, signed to Callie. Her eyes lit up. When we'd started frequenting this location, we'd gone inside a few times as well, and the staff came to know us and know that Callie is Deaf. At first, the staff just all learned some signs for things like 'hello', 'my name is...', 'how can I help you?', 'coffee', 'tea' and drink. Then they started learning more signs (we go to Starbucks a lot. Like - A LOT). Callie loved it.

And then the staff petitioned for the video screen. Literally, just for Callie, but we found out that some of her schoolmates and other members of the Deaf community started using the drive through. A couple of the kids in the upper school, the high school aged kids, had even gotten jobs at this location.

"What can we get you today?" Alex signed.

"I'll have a green tea and, Callie?" I asked, turning to her.

"A hot chocolate, please," Callie smiled.

"You got it! Drive through."

I pulled around and Alex was at the window. He carried on a conversation with Callie. I caught part of it.

"How's school?" Alex asked Callie. She shrugged.

"You know, it's school. Homework, lessons. Normal stuff," she said.

"Yeah, but it's better now, right?" Alex asked. He knew about the incidents with Melanie.

"Yeah. Thankfully," Callie said.

Alex handed us our orders and smiled and signed goodbye to us.

Callie sipped on her hot chocolate while I drove us home.

"Will you come walk the dogs with me?" I asked her.

"I have homework," she said. "And I want to finish it."

I nodded as I pulled into the driveway. I let us into the house and the dogs came bounding to the door. Callie said hello to them, scrubbed their ears and went into the kitchen area with her school bag. I got the dogs leashes up, went into the kitchen and told Callie Brendon was in the studio if she needed anything and I'd be back in about ten or fifteen minutes. She nodded and got down to her homework. I smiled as I put on sunglasses and went outside.

I said hello to a couple of neighbours, let their kids pet Bogey and Penny, and then headed back home.

Callie was concentrating when I got back home so I fed the dogs and checked in with her so she knew I was home.

"Has Dad come in yet?" I asked her. She shrugged and shook her head.

"If he did, he didn't make any noise," she said, an impish grin on her face. I smiled back.

"Smartass," I said.

I went out to the backyard and over to Brendon's studio. I could hear music being played and then stopping. I knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Brendon called out. I opened the door.

"Hey, babe. Callie is in the kitchen doing homework. You're coming in for dinner, right?" I asked.

He lifted up his phone.

"Got my alarm set for five thirty. We're almost done. I'll be there."

I blew him a kiss and closed the door. Going back into the house, I saw Callie setting the table for dinner.

"Finished your homework?" I asked. She nodded and continued her chore. I started putting dinner together. We were going to have home made burritos. I pulled out the meat I'd cooked earlier, and the rice, placed them on the stove to warm up and got the rest of the toppings together. Callie helped me bring everything to the table.

She placed her bag by the front door for tomorrow, washed her hands and then we sat at the table, waiting for Brendon to come in from his studio.

I looked at my watch and saw it was 5:45. I frowned and texted B to remind him he'd promised to be in for dinner with us. He responded he'd be in in just a minute. They'd hit a snag and he was just about finished. I told that to Callie and told her she could start eating if she was hungry.

"I want to wait for Dad," she said, smiling.

We waited. And waited. Callie had started picking at the tortilla on her plate.

"Callie, sweetheart, just eat," I said to her. She shook her head. I looked at my watch again. It was 6:30. The food was cold, Callie looked miserable as every minute passed and Brendon didn't appear.

At 7, Callie stood up. I signed at her to wait and I'd go make her father come in for dinner.

She shook her head and signed "I'm not hungry anymore anyway."

She went upstairs and I heard her bedroom door slam. I sighed.