Chapter 22 - lucy asked if loving brooke meant betraying her mother
At thirteen, Lucy asked during a drive.
“Do you love Brooke?”
“Yes.”
“Like Mom?”
I nearly hit a pothole.
“Different.”
“That’s adult answer.”
She had become unbearable.
“What do you actually want to know?”
Lucy stared out the window.
“If you marry her, does Mom become before?”
Ah.
Chronology as hierarchy.
I pulled into a parking lot.
Some conversations deserve parked cars.
“Your mom is part of our family forever.”
“Brooke is somebody we love now.”
“One does not beat the other.”
Lucy’s eyes filled.
“What if I like Brooke more someday because I remember her more?”
That broke me.
“You do not owe your mother equal memory.”
She cried.
“I barely remember her voice.”
“I know.”
“I remember Grandpa more.”
“That’s okay.”
“It feels bad.”
“I know.”
We sat.
No solution.
That was the solution.
Later Brooke joined family therapy once.
Lucy told her:
“I don’t want you to be Mom.”
Brooke answered:
“I don’t want that job.”
Lucy laughed.
Brooke continued.
“I’d like to be Brooke.”
“Can I be that?”
Lucy nodded.
May you like
Over time—
she was.
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