Do Over

Faith Wainwright felt her mind wandering as she sat in her childhood home, listening to Mother talk about nothing in particular. Her gaze traveled around the living room of the home she'd grown up in. She hadn't lived in this house in over twenty-five years and yet, the memories made here were vividly etched in her mind. She smiled when she spotted the tick marks on the doorjamb between the living room and the kitchen. A lifetime of initials and dates marking the growth spurts of her and her two sisters were still there.

Since her husband Troy's work transfer nearly twelve years ago, she didn't get to visit her mother as often as she liked. Even though it was only a three-hour drive, real life seemed to limit her opportunities to come back home and lately she'd been feeling homesick. Something she'd never suffered from since she and Troy had packed up the kids and thirteen years' worth of shit and headed south.

Of course, she hadn't had the time to miss her sleepy little hometown during those years. Every moment of them had been filled with work and Little League, proms and high-school graduations. Now both of her kids--and a fair amount of her money--were in college and the home away from home she and Troy had built was empty, quiet. Suddenly she had too much time for homesickness.

She'd been in a funk ever since they'd packed their youngest up and dropped her off at college. The hierarchy of her world was out of whack--her kids had always come first--and now she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. When Troy suggested this weekend excursion back home, she'd jumped at the chance, hoping the trip would clear her mind, give her some idea of where to go now. And if not, at the very least, she hoped it would distract her from her doldrums for a while.

"Well, that's enough about me," her mother said, interrupting her thoughts, and Faith felt guilty for not listening. "I can see your mind is elsewhere. What's going on with you?"

"I miss the kids. I'm so lonely." Faith blurted the words out before she could even think to shield them and the emotion surrounding them.

"Oh, Faith. I wondered when the empty-nest syndrome would hit you. You took Jackson's departure for college in stride, never missing a beat."

Faith shrugged. "Jenna was still home and God knows she didn't give me time to miss Jackson, as every spare moment was spent driving her to track meets and volleyball games."

"You raised your kids, Faith, and you did a damn good job of it. There's nothing wrong with missing them, but it's time you figured out how to take a little time for yourself. And it's not as if you're totally alone. You've got that big, strapping husband at home there."

Faith laughed at her mother's description of Troy. She'd certainly been lucky in the husband pool. While most forty-three-year-old men were balding and sporting spare tires around the middle, her husband still had a full head of salt-and-pepper hair and a body most men a decade younger would envy. His job as a construction worker made it easy for him to keep his muscular physique, but Troy helped it along by exercising and eating right. A three-season athlete in high school, he'd passed the competitive spirit along to their children. Playing sports with the kids had kept Troy young and vibrant all these years, and Faith thought he was more handsome now then he'd been when they first started dating.