Candidate

Part 2

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.

Harrison Ford

"Fine, I'll unwrap the wine glasses. It's not like you'll use them anyways," Jennifer ripped off the paper encasing the glasses, tossing it over her shoulder into a cardboard box. "I gave these to you as a gift five years ago and they haven't even been touched."

Carrie recalled that Christmas, where she had given Jennifer a sweater and she had received wine glasses in return, just hours after dropping another glass onto the floor, bending down to clean it, the glass scraping her thigh.

"They were a gift," Carrie smiled as she touched the scar on her leg, knowing that she was far too clumsy to appreciate the gift of something fragile. "I'll stick to my plastic solo cups when I want something to drink." Carrie sliced open another box with the box cutter, pulling out a stack of paper plates and an old stereo.

"We're not in college anymore, give me these. As an adult, I'm going to force you to use real cutlery and crockery." Jennifer stole the paper plates from the box Carrie had opened and threw them over her shoulder once again, most definitely not landing them into the empty box but shrugging it off.

"You moved out of our apartment in May. The last meal that we all ate was on paper plates. Last time I checked, you graduated four years ago."

"But now we're in an actual house, not some two-bedroom apartment in the heights that we tried to make into a four-bedroom." Jennifer stood up from the linoleum floor and took a rag to clean off the few porcelain plates that Carrie had packed, wiping off the dust and setting them into the sink. "I'm glad that you're finally down here. We missed you being away."

"I was only in New York two months longer than you and Mark were," Carrie said, taking a box cutter and tearing the tape from another box. "I stayed there to take the bar, not to bring back all of the shit that you didn't want to transport."

Carrie sighed, preparing to unpack another box, hoping that it was filled with something large instead of a million tiny trinkets, dreading the act of putting away something such as silverware. "I wasn't going to send my child off with you two for two months either, no matter how much you begged me to."

"Mark and I love Sara, she would have been fine," Jennifer playfully rolled her eyes, holding up a dish towel that was badly stained, tossing it beneath the sink to use for cleaning.

"For the first two days, she would have been fine. I'm not going to trust you two with another human being. You're better as her fake aunt and uncle." Carrie stood up to stand alongside Jennifer, taking a box from beside her that was empty and breaking it down. "Do you think she likes it here?"

"She told me that she misses the park, but we all miss that. I think she's better off here, a more suburban lifestyle, less to get into. We know how you were during your first semester of college, so if that's any indicator..." Jennifer started running water, squirting soap into the sink and smirking to Carrie.

"This is the largest house that I've ever lived in. Even when my parents had money, I think the most we ever got was a three-bedroom."

"You thought we couldn't find anything nice in D.C. That's funny." Jennifer turned the sink off and opened the curtains, overlooking the rest of the neighborhood and seeing that the trees were completely green. "Mark and I spent three summers here for Summer Stock theater, we knew where to find a good place for cheap. It's not that big of a house either, it's a rental and my room's the size of a closet."

"I wasn't too sure of this when I first visited a month or so ago when I was wrapping up classes. Mark's bedroom was bare, and it still is, but yours has gotten better. I hope that you've enjoyed my gift of silk sheets."