all,” Joanne murmured. “Not sure where I packed my tissues, but you always carry some in your purse, right?”
"I was so upset when I left the house, I forgot to bring it.” She sniffed loudly. “Thank goodnesh that lovely man at Lotus Blossom let me put my Buddha’s Primrose Delight on a tab. Forgot to tell him to hold the MSG. Makes you fat, you know.”
No, Joanne didn’t know. Nor did she care. But now that her sis had calmed down enough to discuss food additives, she needed to address something.
“Shannon, you know better than to drink and drive.”
“My bad,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.
“How many drinks?”
She held up her index finger...then added the middle one. “Strawberry daiquiris.”
“Which are economy-sized at the Lotus Blossom, so it’s more like three.” Joanne released a heavy sigh. “You’re lucky you didn’t cause an accident. I don’t care how upset Josh was with your recent shopping adventure, that or anything else is never an excuse to drink and drive. You hear me?”
She nodded. “Next time I’ll drink at home.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a solution,” Joanne muttered.
It surprised Joanne her sis had drowned her shopping sorrows in alcohol as Shannon had never been much of a drinker. A few glasses of wine at parties or special dinners out, otherwise she stuck to zero-calorie sodas or ice tea.
“Now you know how out there I was,” her sister whispered shakily, looking out the window at two laughing teenage girls walking down Graces Avenue. “I’m going to be thirty-five soon…where’d my youshgoo?”
Had to mean where’d my youth go . "Where everybody else’s goes. Somewhere between Circus Circus and the Hard Rock Hotel,” she answered, naming two Vegas casinos. “Let me get a towel and I’ll clean up your face.”
A few minutes later, Joanne gently wiped the tip of a moistened towel on her sister’s cheek. Funny how easily they fell back into their childhood roles at times. Shannon being needy. Joanne taking care of her. Their mother had always been attentive to their physical needs, sometimes to the point of suffocation, but had paid less attention to their emotional wants.
Joanne had always figured their mom was just wired that way. After her own mother died when she was twelve, Rosemary became a mom to her four younger siblings while their dad worked twelve-hour days at his small gas station in Colby, Kansas. She cleaned house, cooked meals, and washed clothes. At eighteen, her dad became engaged to his bookkeeper, a divorcee with two children of her own, Rosemary decided it was time to leave the nest. “My brothers and sisters were old enough to take care of themselves, and my dad’s new wife needed to make the home hers.” After reading that the Flamingo was hiring showgirls eighteen to twenty-eight, slim, no dancing skills required, she took a bus to Las Vegas, but failed the audition. “I got nervous and kept tripping over my feet.” While working as a waitress in a coffee shop, she met a young college student named Larry Galvin. “We fell madly in love.” Considering how her mother cautiously chose her words, that was a powerful statement.
Joanne got her emotional nurturing from her dad, a sensitive man who wasn’t ashamed to tear up over a beautiful sunset or write love notes to his wife and leave them on her pillow. She grew up a daddy’s girl whereas Shannon always strove to be a clone of their mother. Sometimes Joanne wondered if her sister strove to emulate their mom because she didn’t know how else to be close to her.
“Do I smell…cookies?”
Shannon slid a heat-seeking-missile glance around the room, locking in on the enemy cookie plate within nanoseconds. Alcohol might slow others’ response times, but not her sister when it came to detecting evil calories.
“They were a housewarming gift.”
“Jo-Jo! That plate is half empty. Do you know how much fat—”
“Shut up,” Joanne said as gently as her tense jaw
"I was so upset when I left the house, I forgot to bring it.” She sniffed loudly. “Thank goodnesh that lovely man at Lotus Blossom let me put my Buddha’s Primrose Delight on a tab. Forgot to tell him to hold the MSG. Makes you fat, you know.”
No, Joanne didn’t know. Nor did she care. But now that her sis had calmed down enough to discuss food additives, she needed to address something.
“Shannon, you know better than to drink and drive.”
“My bad,” she said, her bottom lip trembling.
“How many drinks?”
She held up her index finger...then added the middle one. “Strawberry daiquiris.”
“Which are economy-sized at the Lotus Blossom, so it’s more like three.” Joanne released a heavy sigh. “You’re lucky you didn’t cause an accident. I don’t care how upset Josh was with your recent shopping adventure, that or anything else is never an excuse to drink and drive. You hear me?”
She nodded. “Next time I’ll drink at home.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a solution,” Joanne muttered.
It surprised Joanne her sis had drowned her shopping sorrows in alcohol as Shannon had never been much of a drinker. A few glasses of wine at parties or special dinners out, otherwise she stuck to zero-calorie sodas or ice tea.
“Now you know how out there I was,” her sister whispered shakily, looking out the window at two laughing teenage girls walking down Graces Avenue. “I’m going to be thirty-five soon…where’d my youshgoo?”
Had to mean where’d my youth go . "Where everybody else’s goes. Somewhere between Circus Circus and the Hard Rock Hotel,” she answered, naming two Vegas casinos. “Let me get a towel and I’ll clean up your face.”
A few minutes later, Joanne gently wiped the tip of a moistened towel on her sister’s cheek. Funny how easily they fell back into their childhood roles at times. Shannon being needy. Joanne taking care of her. Their mother had always been attentive to their physical needs, sometimes to the point of suffocation, but had paid less attention to their emotional wants.
Joanne had always figured their mom was just wired that way. After her own mother died when she was twelve, Rosemary became a mom to her four younger siblings while their dad worked twelve-hour days at his small gas station in Colby, Kansas. She cleaned house, cooked meals, and washed clothes. At eighteen, her dad became engaged to his bookkeeper, a divorcee with two children of her own, Rosemary decided it was time to leave the nest. “My brothers and sisters were old enough to take care of themselves, and my dad’s new wife needed to make the home hers.” After reading that the Flamingo was hiring showgirls eighteen to twenty-eight, slim, no dancing skills required, she took a bus to Las Vegas, but failed the audition. “I got nervous and kept tripping over my feet.” While working as a waitress in a coffee shop, she met a young college student named Larry Galvin. “We fell madly in love.” Considering how her mother cautiously chose her words, that was a powerful statement.
Joanne got her emotional nurturing from her dad, a sensitive man who wasn’t ashamed to tear up over a beautiful sunset or write love notes to his wife and leave them on her pillow. She grew up a daddy’s girl whereas Shannon always strove to be a clone of their mother. Sometimes Joanne wondered if her sister strove to emulate their mom because she didn’t know how else to be close to her.
“Do I smell…cookies?”
Shannon slid a heat-seeking-missile glance around the room, locking in on the enemy cookie plate within nanoseconds. Alcohol might slow others’ response times, but not her sister when it came to detecting evil calories.
“They were a housewarming gift.”
“Jo-Jo! That plate is half empty. Do you know how much fat—”
“Shut up,” Joanne said as gently as her tense jaw
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