Her own relationship with her mother, her last truly living family, wasnât any better than Quinceyâs. Caught out as the only daughter, the youngest child and potentially the next one threatened by the strange malady that plagued the Sohn line, Henrietta was as much babied by her mother as she was estranged from the woman. In one breath, she could be told not to stray far, and in the next, she was invisible to her - Mrs. Sohn focused instead on her Everett, breathing artificially in the room. Maybe it was a little cruel of her to tell Quincey that he had to be the one to talk to Mrs. Sohn; Henrietta had a talk that she had to have as well, though. Doubling down would only make that woman feel like she was backed into a corner.
Then, she and Quincey would lose.
âI wonât make you do it alone, you know.â Reminding him, that she had his back. As best as she could, in this house where every breath felt stagnant and somber, sheâd have his back. Lightly, she traipsed around the kitchen and prepared some food and drink for the two of them, falling into a role as if imagining her motherâs voice in the back of her head: Henrietta, sweetheart. Go get the boys some drinks and a sandwich. Even if Quincey was helping himself to the coffee, giving her pause - abruptly bereft, before she slid their plates onto the table and flopped herself into a seat too.
âIâm thinking,â and she thumbed her bottom lip, âpizza, with movies. Something about food you can fold. Plus, leaving some for later nâ shoving it in the fridge means cold pizza for desserts.â Henrietta had no trouble deciding that, and placed the order. It was the least she could do, to give Quincey some time with her brother.
Once sheâd waited for the coffee to brew, once sheâd done the dishes and located where her mother had hidden the dog food away in the cabinets over the fridge (because, of course Mrs. Sohn would keep food for Quinceyâs dogs â), she gave Kane and Hogan a little treat (or three), and went to see where her not-brother was. The last of her brothers, and not a brother, in whole. Standing in the doorway, she listened to him. Him talking to Everett, the way sheâd look in and see the two of them chatting in bed - their fingers held together and some hopeful thing in their smiles.
She stepped back, out of the doorway, to give them some privacy. And then sheâd come in, announcing her tread with a racause sound: âYou know,â she declared, âthey really donât make women like they do outside aâ Pleasance. Thereâs this lady that came to town, and my good God Almighty in Heaven â E, she is something.â
"I know, Ducky - an' it's somethin' I knew I was gonna have to talk to her about anyway," he admitted. With the grip she had on Everett, trying to help her could be seen as saying she wasn't doing a good job. It didn't matter that she was in her seventies and had her own health concerns. "An, yeah - pizza sounds great."
The good part about not really being part of the Sohn family is that Mrs. Sohn wouldn't ask him to leave out of fear of being seen as impolite. Instead, she'd get angry at him, maybe serve him a smaller piece of pie, and then slowly come around through conversation. He had it easier than Henrietta would, especially since she was planning a vacation for her mother.
After he and Everett caught up, he moved to the couch and sat down, picked up Hogan and set him on the floor where he determined that the dog would stay for the evening just to save Mrs. Sohn from having to vacuum more than she already did. "You found yourself a pretty lady, huh?" he asked, stretching one arm over the back of the couch and giving his full atention to his friend. "You gonna ask her out proper or just make moon eyes?" he asked, a true smile lighting his face. "I know, you grew out of that stage, but it was funny when you were younger. You'd get the softest look to your face when you were sweet on somebody... an' hell, looks like you still got that look."
