Free After All by Lynn Emery

and quiet of my own home. So sue me. I notice you
don't live at home anymore. And I know why.”
    Michelle held her tongue for a moment,
and then spoke. “I'm sorry. Okay, so their fights get to me, too.
But a lot of it is Daddy's fault. Mama just wants to get his
attention. Though why she bothers is beyond me. He's so cold and
critical.”
    “ Michelle, stay out of it.
There are things between them that have nothing to do with you,
things that only they can deal with.”Brian went back to his
desk.
    “ What things?”
    “ All I'm saying is, you
can't play marriage counselor.” Brian avoided returning her gaze.
“And you can't make Dominic into a hard working adult. He has to do
that himself.”
    For as long as she could remember,
Michelle felt a need to be the glue that held them all together.
Maybe it was her craving for order. Or maybe her love for happy
endings.
    But she would not stand by and do
nothing. She never had in any situation even as a child, and
dealing with family difficulties was no different.
    “ Fine. I'll talk to Dad.”
Michelle took a deep breath.
    “ Chelle, I want things to
work out as much as you do. But maybe Dad is right.”
    “ I promised Dominic I'd try.
Bye, big brother. As usual, I can't stay mad at you any more than I
can at Dominic.” Michelle gave him a fierce hug.
    “ You're too hard on Dad.”
Brian looked at her.
    “ For the last seven years,
Daddy has been even more critical and withdrawn than he was before.
I think he could do a lot to make things better. ”Michelle picked
up her purse.
    “ Michelle, nobody is
perfect. In any relationship, there are two sides to every
conflict.” Brian kissed her cheek lightly before opening the
door.
    The trip to her parents’ home was
silent. Dominic sat brooding, his chin propped on his fist as he
stared out of the window. Michelle, already exhausted from a long
day at work, was in no mood for conversation either.
    Something about her exchange with Brian
bothered her. Try as she might, she could not put her finger on it.
On the surface, he had said nothing in particular that she could
remember. She replayed their discussion in her head as though it
were dialogue from a play.
    “ Thanks for trying. Brian
gets more like daddy every day.”Dominic continued to stare ahead
morosely.
    “ No problem, cher.” Michelle
was still wrapped up in her own thoughts.
    “ What am I going to do,
Chelle?”
    “ I'll talk to Daddy,
Dominic.” Michelle tried not to sound irritated.
    But truthfully, defending him was
practically a full-time job. The least he could do is make some
effort to make it easier. Still, Daddy had been tough on Dominic
since he was a little boy. Unfortunately, it had the opposite
effect he was after. Dominic did not like following schedules or
being on a time table. Efforts to change him were a source of
constant conflict. It got worse as Dominic got older. Now, here
they were. Adults and she was still fighting his battles. Brian's
words came back to her. Maybe she was hurting him. Lately, it
seemed she spent a great deal of time and emotional energy on
either Mama or him. Maybe it was time she spent some of that energy
on her own personal life.
    Anthony. That is what she meant, wasn't
it? Until he walked into the newsroom and back into her life three
weeks ago, all she thought of was her career. After all this time,
a simple lunch was enough to set her dreaming like a love sick
teenager. Sure she had felt a strong infatuation for him, but that
was a long time ago. As he said himself, they had grown up since
then.
    “ What did you say?”Michelle
snapped out of her reverie. Dominic's last words caused a kind of
nebulous recognition, somehow associated with the puzzle of her
older brother that had been nagging at her.
    “ I said, Brian doesn't think
much of me either. Though he doesn't say it outright the way Dad
does. But you know Brian; most times it's what he doesn't say that
counts.”
    That was it. It was what Brian