Saturday

This Saturday afternoon I tried to tidy up the bedroom. It was sad to go through Abbie’s clothes because every single piece reminded me so much of her, of certain day, of certain occasion. It was as if these clothes were still warm with her body. They were not just some material but each one was alive with some memory. Abbie was gone but so much of her were still around and that made it hard to believe that Abbie would never come back…It took the whole afternoon for the chore. Later on, Lan joined in going through Abbie’s jewelry. I told her she could keep whatever she liked. Once she took out a pretty snub bottle and said it smelt like mom. I told her she could keep that too and she took it.

It was late to prepare dinner so we decided to go eat out at Friendly. That was not a fancy eating place where the whole family used to hang out and had some good time together for whatever reasons. We used to know the owner who came from Azerbaijan. He was very friendly and chatted with us every time we came to the shop. Now he was no longer there and the shop had a new owner.

Lan said it would be fun if mom were here tonight. It was just a wish! Then we went on talking about school and about the coming trip to Vietnam in February. Lan was so excited and talking nonstop…

On the way back, usually we walked across the street and down the slope and a few blocks more. Lan used to climb up to the high platform of the building and jumped on my shoulder for a ride down until the end of the slope. Liem always chuckled and shook his head. But now she was too big for that. We continued to talk about the trip until we got home.