Charity Stones
May 02, 2020 12:32 AM
This time of year is hard for me. by Charity Stones
Things were, on the whole, going well. Michaela was growing, she was bright, and she was beautiful. She seemed perfectly normal so far, and Charity couldn't help being relieved about that. Evelyn had been her pride and joy, but she'd messed that up, and Charles James was too magical to ever really feel like her son. All the same, this time of year was hard. All of Charity's babies were born during the summer. CJ came first; technically he was in Spring. Then Michaela in July and Evelyn in August. The first Evelyn.Every time Charity had to take her baby girl to the doctor and fill out paperwork, and every time someone asked about her full name, Charity had to suppress the urge to scream. She supposed it was her own fault to some degree. She'd told Todd about having been married before, and about CJ, but not about her firstborn. Bringing Evelyn up felt like opening a can of worms she wasn't ready for, and it wasn't her story to tell anyway. What had happened was between Evelyn, her father, and her father's boss. Charity needed nothing to do with all the nasty business that had ensued, and she only regretted that it had taken her so long to see that and get out. Ironically, it was both a pregnancy that had kept her there and a pregnancy that had given her reason to leave.
With Michaela nearing two years old now, and her big brothers coming into their own - Casey had just finished first grade! - Charity was starting to feel like perhaps this new family was her new normal and everything was going to be okay. There were no explanations that needed to be given. At least, not on the Graham side of things.
This year's birthdays were particularly difficult because Evelyn would be sixteen this year. When she'd been little, they'd talked about going to a salon and getting their hair done up fancy for the occasion and then going to the DMV together. Evelyn wouldn't have really had time to practice driving of course, but they could get her a permit then, or a license, or whatever they could get. They had laughed a lot about that. Evelyn had seemed so perfectly happy to stay home and stay normal. But everything went wrong before that dream could become reality, even when things seemed promising. Still, a sixteenth birthday ought not to be ignored.
Michaela was down for a nap, and the boys were playing in the backyard, which gave Charity enough time to really think about what she was going to write. It felt like she'd been thinking for a long time about this, but nothing came out when she tried to put pen to paper. She turned the TV on, hoping that something to break the relative silence of the indoors on a summer day might relieve some of the pressure of this whole thing.
She had crossed her legs and uncrossed them, then crossed them again. She had chewed on the end of her pen and glared down at the blank page, willing it to have the right words already there. It didn't, but the pen cap came off in her mouth and that gave her a reason to stall another moment. In the end, she'd given it up as hopeless. When Todd got home from work, she gave him a kiss and explained that she needed to run to the store for a few things. He didn't stop her and Charity spent a long time in the birthday card aisle until she finally picked one of the only ones there that said "16" and wasn't pink. White letters stood out against a background of orange flowers, simply saying "Happy Sweet Sixteen!" and the inside was a picture of a birthday cake. It was not half as cool as the cards Evelyn might get from magical people, but Charity wasn't one of those anyway, was she?
Her purchase consisted of the birthday card and a box of diapers, and Charity filled out the former on the steering wheel, in the privacy of her own car.
Happy birthday, Evelyn!
I'm sorry I can't be there to celebrate with you. I know this is a busy time of year for birthdays, and I've been trying to figure out the best way to tell you that you ought to add one to your calendar. You're sixteen now, and growing into such a beautiful young lady. Your brother is three now, and Michaela is two as of July. I hope someday that she can meet her big sister.
Yours,
Mom
She reread it several times over and immediately regretted having written it in pen, but there was nothing to be done for it now. She put Heidi Wright's professional address on the front, with Evelyn's name and the c/o for the social worker on there since Charity didn't have an owl. She wasn't sure what else to do and was glad that Heidi had taken the time to get a Muggle address too. She was confident the woman would get it to Evelyn. As she put the stamp in place and dropped the card into the store's USPS drop box, she wished she could be as confident that Evelyn would want to receive it.
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Charity Stones
This time of year is hard for me.
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