The Prodigal Son

I was one of those moms who cried when September rolled around and the kids went back to school.  While the rest of the neighbourhood moms were gleefully waving good bye to their little darlings as they climbed up the big steps onto the school bus…I was standing towards the back of the crowd with big sunglasses on so no one would notice my swollen eyes. When Little Darling #1 went off to college, I mourned for months.  The day we moved him into his dorm room, I went through an entire box of Kleenex.  Everyone told me the first was the most difficult, the second would be easier. When we moved Little Darling #2 into his dorm room at university, I went through a box of Kleenex and a roll of toilet paper.  OK so the first and second were hard but surely the third one would be a piece of cake. The day we moved Little Darling #3 into his dorm room at university, I went through a box of Kleenex, a roll of toilet paper and a bath towel. My husband started building a boat….he was sure we were going to have to row home.  I went home and sat on the edge of his bed and looked around his room. I found a sock sticking out from under his bed, picked it up and clung to it…sobbing.  The baby was gone.  Our nest was empty, the baby birds had flown the coop.  Steve tried to console me with talk of this being a new season in our lives. “We’ll be able to travel…to have our special time together,” he said. He painted such a rosy picture, that I started to get excited about the prospect of the empty nest.  My mind started to race with ideas. We would turn one of the bedrooms into a craft room.  I had been a basement dweller for years… scrapbooking by a single light bulb dangling from the rafters of the basement ceiling.  Oh the thought of scrapping above ground set my heart a flutter!  Another thought struck me…with no offspring around to make comments about my breasts racing my butt to Florida, all my inhibitions would disappear and I could embrace nudity.  I found myself doing the Dance of Joy!  My celebration was short lived…..our plans were put on hold…..they all moved back home when they finished school and found they couldn’t afford to live in the real world.  Little Darling #1 left the nest when he got married three years ago.  The other two are still here.  We drop hints….some are subtle…some are not.  We’ve sort of resigned ourselves to the fact that Little Darling #2 and #3 will be here for the long haul…but we figured #1 was gone permanently. We were wrong. Now before you go jumping to conclusions, there is no trouble in Paradise. Happily married Little Darling #1 and Darlingette have purchased a new house but they can’t move in for two weeks. Darlingette is living in their new city already because she has a job there.  She’s renting a single room….there is no room at the Inn for #1.  So home he came…along with four giant bins of clothes, a few bottles of beer and mustard…and two cats.  Rufus is ignoring the cats…Remy is not.  He has been stalking them since they arrived 24 hours ago.  This morning just as Squishy (#1 and Darlingette have some unique names for their pets) was dozing off to sleep in a sunbeam, Remy decided to practice his surprise attack move. He climbed up onto the bottom step of our main staircase and leaped…landing with a thud, just short of where Squishy was sleeping. Squishy sproinged up and ran for cover….hissing and spitting. This prompted Rufus to join the party. He ran over to Remy and grabbed his ear. Remy in turn bit down on Rufus’ tail and hung on for dear life as Rufus started bucking around trying to shake him lose. Soon the two boys were zooming around the house, knocking knick knacks and chairs flying while the two cats cowered under the table, quivering with fear.  It’s going to be a long two weeks.