Free Back to Square One (Brandon Bay Babes) by Noni Calbane Page B

morosely.
     
    Gladys spoke up.   “Jasmine was telling me about you selling your first painting.   Why didn’t you tell me you started painting again?”
     
    Kit shrugged.   “I guess I didn’t think you’d be interested”
     
    “I don’t see why not” she said, then turned to Jasmine “I used to paint myself, but of course, quite a while ago”
     
    “Yeah, you painted mom” Kit said, unimpressed. “You also did macramé, yoga, photography and what else was there, oh, the infamous copper enamelling.   You almost burnt the house down with a Bunsen burner with that one, if I recall correctly” Kit sarcastically commented.
     
    Her mother was visibly hurt and Kit cringed.   Gladys’ eyes quickly filled and she looked down at the table.   “I don’t know what I did to deserve that, although I know you weren’t happy that I wasn’t a mother like Mary Calder.”   She raised her eyes to her daughter.   “But I did my best Kit.   Life’s not always a bed of roses, but you have to deal with it as best you can.   I’ll have you know, that maybe you were embarrassed by my peculiar hobbies, but by selling them I managed to put food on our table after your father up and left us”
     
    Kit was well and truly chastened.   She had no idea that her mother had sold her crafts to support them.   Where was she, when all this was going on?   Oh yeah, she was escaping to Barnaby’s sitcom of a house reliving “Father knows best” and in later years, mooning over Jeremy.  
     
    Kit suddenly felt incredibly ungrateful and a complete brat.   Her mother was not highly educated having gone straight from high school to wedded non-bliss.   She’d done what she had to, to make ends meet.   It wasn’t her fault the ends kept getting further apart.   She may have not been there all the time in body or in mind, but she was always there.   Even now, she had taken Kit in without complaint, in fact in all her twenty-seven years Kit had never heard a word of complaint from her mother.   That must be some sort of record!
     
    Putting her hand over her mother’s she squeezed it hard.   “I’m sorry mom; I didn’t know you sold all that stuff you made.   I guess I didn’t realise how tough it was for you.   And I certainly didn’t help any by ignoring what was going on.   I’m really sorry”
     
    Gladys gave Kit a small smile and Jasmine looked on, pleased as punch.
     
    Kit perked up a little.   “Well it seems I’m just following in the family tradition of selling my artistic vision, doesn’t it?” she said returning her mother’s smile with glistening eyes.  
     
    Gladys chipped in, “I must say, I never got anything close to eight-hundred dollars for anything I did”
     
    “Well, I want you to have some of the money.   I may have moved back home, but I still want to pay my own way.   Now that I have a Gallery contact in the city, who knows, this could be the beginning of something big for me” Kit grinned.
     
    “Tell me Miss Davidson” Jasmine asked in what Kit guessed was a pseudo English accent, “will you still remember us little people when you’re a rich and famous artiste ?”
     
    “Oh no my dear” Kit replied in the same manner, “I’ll have no time for you peons when that happens”
     
    Gladys cut in.   “When you two are quite finished, can we order, I’m starved”
     
      “Lobster and caviar for me” Jasmine said regally.
     
    Kit nudged her.   “ Can it Queen Elizabeth, you’ll get burger and fries and like it”
     
    “Oh, yummy” Jasmine clapped her hands.
     
    *****
     
    On the drive home, Kit was pensive.   Having dinner with her mom and Jasmine had been an enlightening experience.   She found that her mom was relaxed and talkative with Jasmine in a way that frankly, made Kit a little jealous.  
     
    When the subject of Barnaby and Jeremy came up, Kit had tried to tell Jasmine to pipe down with her mother there, but Jasmine went relentlessly