Well, folks. Two hours of driving and twenty dollars worth of tolls later, it transpires there was no mother effing party.
Me: did you have fun playing with all the kids? S2: there were no kids, just cousins 1 and 2. Me: wasn’t there a party? did anyone else come? S2: no, we just had a marshmallow cake and went to the park.
So it seems that one or all of them lied about the ‘party’, which they were so busy prepping and purportedly took all day, in order to duck the responsibility of collecting and returning S2. What lovely people.
When I dropped him off, they all came out on the front lawn to meet us. Awkward, I was hoping to exchange quickly at the front door. First MIL and the birthday girl, then FIL and the baby I’ve never met, then SIL... my heart rate increasing each time. They greeted me and it was incredible. Just over the top false and sugary sweet after a year of pointed silence between us. I replied hello in a neutral tone, said a few parting words to S2, and went straight back to the car.
Pickup was more of the same. I knocked on the door and S2 came running. They all followed him outside demanding one last cuddle, one last tickle, one last conversation. I took his bag and stood silently to the side feeling uncomfortable. MIL said thanks for driving him and SIL chimed in. I nodded and buckled him into his car seat— they followed again, tapping on the window until I wound it down. Even once I pulled away from the curb, they still stood there waving.
This was a hard day for me. I kept thinking about the time MIL spoke to my mother on the phone when X kidnapped S2 and called us both liars. My mouth was dry, tongue-tied, unable to speak. Probably seems dramatic. But it was not easy to be in their presence for even such a short time. SIL told her daughter to thank me for the birthday present. I wanted to say it’s not from me, it’s from S2. It says so on the card. By your own decree, I’m not her Aunty anymore.
