A full week had passed since Katherine had hung up on Nick Reali and decided to ignore what he had asked her to do. She hadn’t even given him the time to give her Dani’s phone number anyway so it was not like she could do anything at all. Or at least that’s what she had decided to tell herself. She had told everything about it to Skyler who, as usual, told her he’d support her no matter what her decision was, because he loved her. Sometimes Katherine wished he would be a little more opinionated but well, they had already fought about that and now was not the time, she needed his support and his love, more than anything else.
It was a Saturday, and as usual on Saturday mornings, Kath was getting ready to go visit her mother who was now living on her own, and had moved from the family house to an apartment, still in Malibu, but a little closer to the beach, because with age she had grown to love going on short walks and end up feet in the sand. Maybe it reminded her of those days when the three younger boys were kids and she used to play soccer with them on this same beach just because she could. Maybe it reminded her of those days she had spent holding the camera for the band’s videos when the girls couldn’t find anyone to do it or when she just had some free time. No matter what the reasons were, Kath knew it made her mother happy to be close to the ocean, and after Mike senior had died, making her move from that empty house full of memories was the most reasonable decision, so Kath took it and Skyler and her, all alone, had made it happen. They never had gathered enough courage to sell the house though and sometimes Katherine just liked to go there and sit in the garden for a few hours, by the trampoline. And it was quite convenient to keep the house for those family reunions, even though they happened rarely and were mainly chores for half of the people there. She had found out the hard way that even family isn’t something that stays the same forever. People all change, even your own siblings can grow to become total strangers, she knew that for a fact.
Even though sometimes it felt a little heavy on her because she was the one who had to be in charge of everything, Kath was really happy she was the only one living close to Lynne. She felt like they had that special bond. When she still lived at home, Kath and her mom had never been the closest because as the social butterfly that she was, she was always doing many things with people, unlike Christina, Lisa and the little ones who spent a lot of their time home. But things had changed a lot since that time and all the others had left south California, leaving her in charge. A lot of things can come with getting older, and Lynne had never gotten over the shock and grief of losing her oldest girl, so she had become a very quiet person, and it was sometimes hard to grasp her attention. This had been reinforced since Mike Senior’s death. Sometimes she was there, actually having normal conversations, but other times she was just away, some place only her could go to, her eyes were lost in places she couldn’t come back from and she was just saying the same things over and over. Doctors were convinced it could be a form of Alzheimer’s and the episodes of unconsciousness were getting more and more regular, making it harder and harder to keep regular conversation going with her mother. Last time Kath had brought Skyler with her to visit, she had barely recognized him and asked him for his name a good 15 times before saying repeatedly “I know who you are of course, I’m not completely senile yet”. That was 3 months before and Skyler had never wanted to come back ever since. Kath understood, of course, it was not really a walk in the park to stay with Lynne for hours and just pretend things were okay, but it was hard on her too and she just wished he could have been there to support her.
She parked her car in the parking lot by the bulding her mom’s apartment was in and used her key to pass the doors. She then took the elevator to get to the 6th floor where her mom lived. She didn’t even bother ringing the doorbell and immediately opened the door with her own key, she knew Lynne wouldn’t worry, it was written on a note that every Saturday, Kath was coming to visit. There she was. Lynne Cimorelli. Sitting in a chair, by the bow window, staring towards the ocean, her arms crossed on her chest, as if she was waiting for something to happen that never happened. She used to sit that way every night after Dani left the house, waiting for her to come back, and those old habits were coming back a lot more, and Kath couldn’t help but notice that. She was surprised though, her mother looked incredibly calm today, the look on her face was less worried than usual and it seemed that she was just way more peaceful than she normally was. That was good news; it probably meant she was in a good mood today. She got closer to her and kissed her on the cheek, that was their ritual.
