Mrs. Avery

Chapter 25

Visiting Pam and Chris became a weekly thing. At least once a week, if not more, and it was something that Agnes didn't run by James. She knew she should, but couldn't bring herself to do it for whatever reason. She wondered, if she was just afraid that he would tell her to stop. She could understand why he may not want her getting too comfortable with his parents and if he said the words out loud then she would have to respect that. Or it might have been just the general fact that she was indeed giving Chris a hard time as soon as Pam was out the door. She questioned whether she was right in that way either, but she figured that he would have told Pam or they would have told James together to get her to stop. None of that had happened yet so she carried on.

She was also fully adapted to the new lifestyle she was living. She completely understood that being alone was a luxury from this point on. She could take advantage of the weekends that James took the kids, but she often went to relieve Pam. Then, Pam could shop alone, get her nails done, get a haircut, or really just anything. She didn't want Pam to be trapped in the house. The lack of being alone and driving by Chris and Molly's old house wasn't helping her, but she was drawn back to the last set of parents she knew.

Whenever she drove past Molly and Chris's house, she seemed to have moments. Lately her head kept dragging up the anniversary party and Agnes fought so hard to push that memory out each time.

Even now it was trying to drag itself up as she went through her old laptop trying to find another photo for Liam. He was patient thankfully, but every picture that she had found so far was not the one. Agnes finally decided that he might want something old so she did a flick across the mouse pad and the computer scrolled back and back. She repeated this until she hit the end of it. She skimmed for a few moments and wasn't struck by anything she saw. She clicked into videos thinking she might be able to freeze-frame something from there. She started playing a few randomly and normally clicked out after a few seconds, but one video got her undivided attention and she turned the volume up.

"Where's my Juli-bean!?" She had yelled coming into Momma Jo's house.

Juli was hiding behind the recliner very obviously and giggling. This was not a focused recording so the camera was going everywhere.

"Well if Gramma is making dinner and Mommy is at the table then my Juli is here somewhere."

But then Molly turned around at the table. "No, I sold her. I got a pretty penny for her too."

"You wouldn't dare!" Agnes returned and dropped to her knees. "Not my Juli! What will I do now!"

"Ahhh!" Juli popped out from behind the recliner and ran so hard into Agnes that she pretended to be knocked over by the hug and of course the camera went back with them.

"I knew Mommy could never sell you." She said and hugged her back. The camera was facing the ground at this point, but you could still hear them.

Juli's little voice erupted, but she wasn't that great with speech yet.

"You're just my cutest little niece." She started to kiss her. "Some might even say you're too cute." She started to tickle her as well. "Oh no! I think we're just going to have to eat you up." Agnes bellowed.

"No!" Juli screamed through laughter.

"Alright fine." She said and put her down. "Will you at least take a picture with me?"

Juli loved having her picture taken so there was no resistance and you could hear the shuffle as she climbed back into Agnes's lap. The camera started to move again getting a swirled image of the living room and then the kitchen where Momma stirred something over the stove.

Agnes covered her mouth as she watched and Juli had come from the table to see what she was watching.

The camera flipped forward and there were the two of them smiling. Agnes had been taking screen captures while she recorded.