Family that plays together- 1

It was a smoggy, overcast day, and that partially accounted
for it being so quiet, though it was the beginning of Christmas
vacation. Whatever the reason, Donna Howell was just glad that
the day had been so quiet, and she hurried to switch off the
lights in her classroom before the usual last minute gossip
wandered in, keeping her from leaving on time. It happened often
during the school term and ordinarily the attractive blonde
teacher didn’t mind in the least, as she wasn’t happy about going
home to an empty house. But this day she had good reason to get
home early, as she was expecting a phone call from her daughter.
Before the last of the lights were turned off, the young
teacher checked to be sure the list of instructions for the
janitor were firmly attached to the bulletin board. Everything
was in order, so she picked up her purse and coat, then walked to
the door. After looking back at the small room, she closed the
door and locked it from the outside. She glanced up and down the
familiar, but now unusually quiet, corridor, then walked briskly
out to her car, remembering that tomorrow she would be meeting her
daughter and son for a much needed holiday.
“Good grief!” she exclaimed out loud to scold herself for
having forgotten why she was in a hurry. Sheri was due to call in
half an hour, and Donna knew her daughter would worry if she
wasn’t there to receive the call. Sheri had become so mature in
the past few months that it was almost frightening. In fact, when
both the children had arrived home for a weekend last month, she
had been amazed at how grown up they had become since their last
visit. They seemed more worldly wise; a look about them that she
wasn’t sure how to interpret, and in some ways, she had been even
more conscious of the changes in her son.
Kevin was no longer her little boy, but instead he was a
young man maturing rapidly. Yet there was still that special
gleam in his eyes that made her feel proud, and as always she had
a hard time keeping her emotions in check. He was her boy, and
she would always want to hold and squeeze him, maybe even more
than a mother should. In fact, she had even trembled when he had
walked into the house, greeting her with an innocent childish kiss
on the cheek.
Her immediate concern was for her daughter, however, as she
had never really taken the time to discuss the things a mother
should pass on to a daughter. After Sheri had announced that a
boyfriend was coming to visit them during Christmas vacation,
several times in the few days that followed that statement, Donna
had wanted to call her daughter and talk about it. Yet she
hadn’t, and somehow she felt that Sheri was more aware of sexual
matters than she.
It took fifteen minutes to drive from the school to her
Pasadena home at a safe speed, and although she was in a hurry
that evening, Donna drove at her usual pace. She knew that she
would be there in plenty of time, yet she still felt apprehensive.
As always, there was that little nag, that tiny feeling of guilt.
It was her biggest regret in life that she didn’t have more time
to be a mother to her children, instead of their sole support.
Donna Howell, long ago, had decided that her children should
have the best education possible within her means, and to her way
of thinking this meant private schools. Her decision, influenced
by the necessity to teach in order to support herself and her
children, was also predicated on a belief that they would benefit
from the close ties and relationships of a private school that
would hopefully fill the gap left by her absence. This thinking,
however, was far from what either Kevin or Sheri really needed,
and while it was true that they both had developed intellectually,
physically and socially in the private school environment, there
was a glaring lack of parent-child love.
Donna Howell, in making her choice, had not only neglected
her own personal life, but had inadvertently alienated her son and
daughter from a family life of love and understanding they sorely
needed. Now that Sheri was in college, it only compounded Donna’s
financial responsibilities, and on the rare occasions when they
were together, she found that the gulf between them had
perceptibly widened.
It had been Sheri who had first suggested the Christmas trip
to Yosemite, and when Donna had eagerly agreed to the reuniting of
the family, she had no way of knowing what had really precipitated
her daughter’s motives. Nor at the time could she have imagined
what would actually happen–and happen in such a way that went far
beyond the bounds of family unity the young mother envisioned.
It was only on rare occasions like this that Donna Howell
questioned the way things went in her life, as she wholeheartedly
believed her main function as a parent was to do whatever was
required to provide for her children, a belief fostered by the
problems she had had to face at a very young age. She had been
the only child of a policeman, her mother having died shortly
before Donna’s tenth birthday, and although her father did
everything possible to create opportunities for her betterment,
she was left on her own shortly after she turned twenty when he
was slain trying to avert a bank robbery. Donna had been a junior
in college and dating Walter Howell at the time, but not until her
father’s tragic death did she attach any significance to Walter’s
romantic intentions. Shortly after graduation they were married
and Donna divided her time between teaching and making a home for
her husband, but with the birth of her daughter the following
year, all of her attention was required at home. A year after
Sheri was born they had their second child, Kevin, and Donna had
pretty well settled down to being a mother and housewife, a life
she was willing to accept.