Mrs. Avery

Chapter 42 (5.5 months after death)

They went back to keeping their distance and the new normal fell into place as naturally as snow falls. The next month was filled with the usual chaos and then some lovely changes. Pam got a job waitressing just for fun because Big Chris didn't need to be baby sat anymore. He still had some garbled speech, but he could always sort himself out despite his frustration. Pam worked the morning shift at a diner, like the 5am morning shift and she absolutely loved it. Agnes, James, and the kids had colluded to surprise her one morning by showing up for her 5am shift on the dot.

Agnes shuffled them off to bed early; Liam was as overly excited as he ever was and Juli was her normal hot and cold self, ending the day on a cold note. She turned in early too. They were rounding on thanksgiving and customers always manage to create office wide chaos leading up to the holidays, which she was actively trying to mitigate everyday. She welcomed the early turn in and hoped she wouldn't be too much of a struggle when James turned up at 4am to get them ready.

Agnes crawled into bed at 8pm and was so excited she was afraid she wouldn't sleep. She was getting into the hazy stages when she felt eyes on her skin and she popped her eyes open. There was a small dark figure standing by the side of the bed.

Naturally, she shrieked before reality reminded her that the small figure was more than likely one of her own. Her eyes adjusted and she calmed her breathing. It was Juli sniffling and clearly upset.

"Oh baby, what's wrong?" She sat up and reached out to her.

Juli shook her hands off. "Why are you only his mom?" She sniffled.

"Baby, come here. What are you talking about?"

Juli tried to resist her grip again, but Agnes wasn't playing games this time. She pulled her in.

"Liam gets to call you mom, but I don't. Why is he the only one that gets a mom? Because you love him more?" She whimpered.

Agnes's brow creased and she frowned at Juli's pain.

"How could you think that?" She said astounded.

"Then why does he get to call you mom and I don't."

"Baby, he did that on his own. I never told him. And no matter what you call me – Aunt, Mom, just Aggie – I don't care. I don't love you any less because you don't call me mom."

"But what if I want to." She screeched a fit taking over. "It's not fair."

"I'm not stopping you." Agnes shook her head. "I never stopped you."

Juli just broke down crying. Agnes pulled her closer and then pulled her to lay down so Agnes could wrap her arms around her. She kissed her head and waited for the fit to be over.

"What about Mom-Mom?" she said quietly through a rough voice.

"She's still your mom baby. And like I said, I don't love you any less than Liam. You don't have to call me mom at all."

"I miss her."

"I do too." Agnes said quietly and kissed her head again. She was trying really hard to keep it together.

"Do you think she'd get mad?"

Agnes sniffled and thought it over. "I don't think so. I think she would want you to do what your comfortable with. You don't have to change anything at all if you don't want to."

Juli just stopped speaking then and rolled in to hug Agnes. She squeezed her back.

"Juli? Are you in here?" Liam's little voice came from just behind the ajar door.