Foolish Notions Read Online Free PDF

between
wholesomeness and sheer determination as she began to speak. “Please,
Lord, have mercy on me and I’ll never ask that question ever
again nor will I ever—ever—”
    “Don’t bring the Lord into
this.” He watched her wince when he interrupted her prayer.
    “He’s the only one who can
save me now.”
    “Perhaps. However, I have a
feeling you’re about to make a promise you can’t keep,”
he said dryly.
    Marie drew her eyes from the ceiling to
glance at him. “Oh, I’ll keep it if the good Lord spares
me this conversation.”
    “You will not be saved today,
Mom,” James said as he moved back into the room. “Let’s
see, where shall I start?” His finger popped in the air
suddenly. “Let’s start when I was six and I had the
chicken pox and wasn’t able to go see Santa at the mall.”
    “Must we really do this?”
Giving up on the prayer, Marie found her way back to the edge of the
bed and let out a long breath as she sat. “I’m beginning
to feel tired.”
    “I bet you are.” He watched
her take the coffee from the tray and sip it slowly. “You
brought Santa home.”
    She shrugged her shoulders. “Naturally,
you start with the Santa story—”
    “I start with the Santa story
because—”
    “I know, I know. Because,
according to you, it’s the most traumatizing of all the things
that I’ve done.” She thought for a moment. “I
didn’t want you to be disappointed. Besides, it’s what
any good mom would have done.”
    His eyes widened, and when he spoke his
voice was an octave higher than normal. “But you reconstructed
the entire wonderland in the living room and Santa’s workshop
in the dining room.”
    Marie nodded and smiled at the same
time. “It was magnificent wasn’t it?”
    “Mom—”
    “You were surprised when you came
downstairs, weren’t you?”
    “Startled was more like it.”
    She waved a hand at him. “Oh,
that was just the fever.”
    “Mom, there were reindeer in the
kitchen.”
    Marie shook her head in objection.
“Don’t exaggerate. There was only one reindeer and it was
supposed to be Rudolph.” The delight on her face grew as she
thought about it. “In retrospect he should have remained
outside on the deck. And that red nose wasn’t a very good idea
either.” She took another sip of her coffee. “I should
have listened to your dad on that one.” She looked up at James
and smiled. “Live and learn.”
    James’s eyes narrowed in
disbelief. “And you see nothing wrong with that. You don’t
feel that’s overdoing it just a tad?”
    “Nope.”
    He watched her for a moment, wondering
if his mom was truly a sane woman. “Do you know any other
mothers who did anything like that?”
    “Nope, but that doesn’t
prove anything.”
    “It proved everything,” he
snapped. “It proves that no one is crazy enough—”
    “Crazy? That’s a little
extreme.” She pointed a finger at him. “I like to call it
creative, not crazy.”
    “What about the time—”
    Marie lifted her hands helplessly.
“Will I be tortured for the rest of my life just because I
tried to be a good mother?”
    James shot her a look. “I don’t
believe you’re the one who was tortured.”
    “You know, you don’t always
have to be right.”
    “But I am right about this.”
James paused for an instant.
    Someday, he swore to himself, he would
make her see how crazy all of it was. “On my tenth birthday,
when I requested a cowboy theme, reconstructing the Bonanza set was
going overboard.”
    “Maybe, but you had a great
time.”
    “There was a blacksmith in our
back yard.” He could do nothing but walk out of the room when
he heard her gleefully go into detail of how the horse corral had
been created.
    “It’s not like I committed
a crime,” she called out to him as he went down the stairs.
“And if I’m so crazy then why did all your friends want
to stay the night at our house?”
    * * * * *
    James smacked his hand against his desk
as he looked over to his