No One Needs Rosalie

No One Needs Rosalie

“Just forget it.” Rosalie said. “It’s not important.”

               Rosalie’s husband furrowed his brow and contemplated his reply. He decided the best reply would be to make none.

               “Don’t you have anything to say? It’s your fault they’re not coming. The least you could do would be to say something.”

               “How is it my fault?”

               Rosalie felt her insides clawing to burst from her skin. “It’s your dog that is keeping them from coming over, Ray! No one likes her and now I won’t get to see my grandson!”

               Ray sat down in his chair and placed his elbows on the table, head in his hands. He massaged his temples slowly.

               “She’s a puppy, Rosalie. We knew she would be crazy for a while when we got her a few months ago. Nothing has changed and no one hates the dog.”

               “I never wanted a dog. You wanted a dog. I certainly didn’t want this dog, anyhow.” Rosalie got up from the table and went to the sink where she began to furiously wash dishes.

               “Ro, why don’t you just put them in the dishwasher?”

               Rosalie slammed the dish she was scrubbing back into the sink and turned off the water. “If you don’t like the way I do dishes, then you can wash them.” She turned and left the room.

               Ray looked down at the puppy chewing on his shoelace. “It’s not your fault Daisy. Mommy’s just angry that your brother isn’t going to be here for dinner this Sunday.”

               The dog looked up and tilted her head. Ray imagined the dog was perpetually confused. She was barely four months old, yet everything always seemed to be her fault. “Welcome to my world, girl. I’ve been around a lot longer than you and everything is always my fault as well.”

               Raymond heard sobs coming from the bedroom. Once again, he was at a cross-road. He could get up and go comfort his wife or he could wait it out and hope Rosalie called Becca. If he did the former, he would need to endure yelling, but if the latter played out Becca would fix the issue. For some reason Raymond could not understand, their daughter Becca could always make Rosalie see reason. It was amazing to hear the things that came out of his daughter’s mouth when she spoke to her mother. Just when Ray expected Rosalie to slam the phone down and claim Becca was an ungrateful child, Rosalie would laugh at herself and say she was sorry. Rosalie would apologize to Rebecca for being ridiculous!

               Rosalie would hang up the phone and reenter whatever room she had recently stormed from, this time with a smile on her face. It would be as if the world had not been about to end fifteen minutes prior.

               Ray sighed, relieved the sobbing in the bedroom had ceased. He was elated when he heard Rosalie on the phone.

               “Becca, that dog did it again. Tommy isn’t coming for dinner on Sunday. I never get to see his as it is! The kid is always so busy.”

               Things would calm down now. Ray had no idea what his daughter was saying on the other end of the line, but he did not care as long as it brought Rosalie down from her rage flight. He listened to the one-sided conversation.

               “Your brother was here. He just stopped in for a minute. I was so happy to see him and then that dog started jumping all over him. John pushed him down, but Daisy started nipping at his hands. She got John good, and then John was screaming at me. He said this was why Tommy doesn’t like coming here!”

               “Yes, he actually said that and I’m sure he meant it.”

               “Well, no. He didn’t actually mention dinner on Sunday.”

               Ray sighed. He imagined his daughter was saying much the same things he had said to his wife an hour ago after she had read the text from John. Ray never saw the text and Rosalie hadn’t read it to him, but he had discerned that John had texted a cancellation for Sunday’s dinner.

When the kids had moved out about twenty years ago, they had been over every Sunday night for a family dinner. Becca still came almost every Sunday, but John was married now and he had a son. That son was the best and worst thing that had ever happened to Rosalie. For the first five years of Tommy’s life, Rosalie had been an entertainer, babysitter, and applier of bandages for Tommy. Rosalie had loved having someone around to need her again. She seldom complained about her added responsibility and always had a smile on her face.

Tommy was now twelve. On the rare occasion he did not have a soccer game, football practice or Tae Kwon Do, he did not want to go to his grandmother’s house. Trips to Walmart to get a toy no longer qualified as exciting and he didn’t need his grandmother to play knock hockey or build Lego because Tommy had friends of his own.

It had been a shock to both Ray and Rosalie when Becca went off to college and John followed two years later.  Neither of them knew what to do with themselves. Ray started building a model train garden and Rosalie went and got a part-time job just to pass the time. They had only needed to stay busy for two years, and then Becca had moved back in. Three years later, both kids had purchased homes and moved out again, but they each lived alone and stopped in to see Ray and Rosalie often.

Ray rubbed Daisy’s head and looked into her sad eyes. “I really should have seen it coming, girl. I wasn’t as wrapped up in having a grandson as your mommy was. It didn’t occur to me to try to quell her excitement at being needed again. I knew it wouldn’t last long. I don’t think I saw my own mother more than once a year once Becca was born. I should have warned Rosalie that things would start to change once Tommy made friends. I knew it wasn’t going to be like having our own kids where they were hanging around the house all the time.”

Rosalie entered the kitchen smiling. Her eyes were still red from the tears she had been crying before her phone call, but the rest of her face had forgotten the sadness. That was what the emotion was after all. Rosalie wasn’t angry when she yelled at Ray and the dog. She was broken hearted and lonely. She missed being needed and hated that everyone’s lives were moving on without her. Ray hated being yelled at, but he did not know what to do but stand there and let Rosalie vent her false anger. Ray would do anything for Rosalie.

“Oh, Ray. I just had the best talk with Becca. She made a really good point about John. She reminded me that he has always had a tendency to react with anger, even when that isn’t the emotion he is really feeling.”

“Oh, she said that, did she?” Ray couldn’t help the curve at the corner of his mouth.

“Yes. Becca thinks John was just in pain, so he lashed out and yelled at me about the dog. She doesn’t think Tommy really said anything about hating Daisy.”

“Did our daughter have anything else to say?” asked Ray.

“She said to tell you she loves you and that she will see us on Sunday. She also said not to worry because she was sure John would be here with Tommy as well.”

Ray smiled. He knew he would get a call from his daughter later. She would explain how she convinced John to come on Sunday and remind him how much she loved him and Rosalie. Ray looked at his wife, loading the dishwasher and humming to herself. Maybe he would call Becca to say thank you before she had the chance to call him.