Chapter 29
“Amanda! Raven! Come down, dinner is ready!” Amanda’s mother called them from the down and they had to suspend their discussion and left the room.
In the dining room, Mrs. Holland served the sumptuous dishes which only by its aroma, had Daisy’s stomach somersaulting in hunger. “Thanks, Mrs. Holland.”
“I have told you on more than one occasion to stop calling me that and call me mom, Raven. Yin makes me seem old.” Daisy laughed.
“I will remember that next time, mom.”
She hummed in response and went to serve her husband before returning to her chair to sit down and started eating the sweet porridge she made.
They are utterly silent that Daisy was for once happy in this new development in the Holland family. She was enjoying herself so much and didn’t want any distraction while at it. That was until…
“So, Daisy, who is the man in your life now?”
“Mom!” Amanda cried. “I thought we discussed this. No more talking about men…”
Her mother stoned her a murderous glare. “I am talking with my goddaughter and just because you have decided to die single doesn’t mean she did too, am I right, Raven?” she asked her.
“I am not dying single, ma…” Amanda muttered through a tight lip, her eyes meeting Daisy who stuffed her mouth with food and looked down at her plate.
“We are not dying single, I can assure you, mom.” She finally answered, picking up her glass of wine after emitting her plate. There was something about mom’s food as they say. “We are just… trying to make sure that we make the right decisions. Well, for me, but Amanda has found someone…” Amanda choked on her food as her eyes snapped to Daisy and the latter bounced her shoulder, meaning Why wait for the inevitable?
“What!” Her mother’s spoon fell on her plate, her eyes dancing in merriment. She looked at her daughter. “Why didn’t you tell us? No wonder! I told your father that your homecoming had something attached to it. You never come like this.”
“What Daisy is trying to say, mother is that…” Amanda hesitated, words lacking in her throat. Daisy smiled to encourage her. “That I might be getting married!” She snickered wearily.
“That’s the same thing, isn’t it, Roland?” She asked her husband.
“Exactly the same thing,” He confirmed.
“Mother, I’m not exactly what you think I am, I can’t, I haven’t been honest with you two from the start,” Her hands fell on her laps and Daisy took the right one to squeeze gently. Tears shone in Amanda’s eyes. Daisy knew she was deeply afraid. How did she think she could do this on her own before? “I don’t think I can do this!” She let out, shaking her head at Daisy as a tear fell.
“You can do it, Mandy. C’mon, you can!” She encouraged her, looked up at Amanda’s parents who were looking verily out of place.
“Mom, Dad, what Amanda is trying to say is that…”
“I love women!” Amanda blurted.
Her mother started laughing, and her father joined in. The girls looked at themselves in awe. What is going on with them? Daisy mused.
“What’s so bad about loving women? I am your mother, you love me. Daisy is your best friend and you love her too. There’s definitely nothing wrong with that. I mean, I recall when you were in college and your lecturer reported you were cheerleading a faction for the women’s revolution and all that gender equality bullshit! If that doesn’t convince me that you love the women’s race, what else?” The older woman rambled on, her misty eyes racking about.Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.
Daisy knew now that she probably knew what Amanda was talking about and was trying to pretend it wasn’t, or this was another major fluke. “What she is trying to say is that…” She looked at Amanda and swallowed, their fingers tightening in each other. “She is into women like she… she finds pleasure with women…”
“That is the same thing!” Mrs. Holland howled, her husband deciding to have no say in the matter. He might have grasped the situation by now unlike his wife. “My daughter has always been…”
“A lesbian!” Amanda blurted energetically, her face turning pink. “I have always been a lesbian, mom, dad.”
Her mother’s eyes were saucers, her mouth open l, no word coming out. And when it did, it was a voiceless, “how?”
“Since I came to know the difference better homosexual and heterosexual, mom. Dad?” She looked at him, and to the greatest chagrin, he was smiling. Like, deadbeat smiling. He made them all baffled.
“Roland, what’s funny with anything she said?”His wife asked. “Our daughter just confessed to being a lesbian, our only child, do you understand what the means?”
He nodded and dropped his glass that had been perched in his hands for a long time. “I have always known, darling,” His timbre voice relayed. “I just didn’t say anything because I know you will be mad and of course also because if there was anyone supposed to say anything, it should be her.” He indicated Amanda.
“Dad!” Amanda clamored and rose from her chair and ran to hug her Dad. “You should have confronted me.”
“Why should I? It’s your life, baby. I wonder how you endured being with Rolex like that…”
“I wanted to give you grandchildren so mother doesn’t live out her life bearing grudges against me,” She said and sniffed, lifting her arms. Daisy wiped a tear that had fallen on her cheek. It was so sentimental.
“I still don’t believe this! Daisy you too?” She pointed at her.
Daisy’s eyes widened and she lifted her hands. “Uhmmm, if you mean if I am also a lesbian then I will tell that I I’m not. But I have no problem with her being one since it makes her happy and she has someone she loves so much and is likely to marry anytime soon.”
“Ohmygod. What is going on? How am I going to be able to have two females in one house answering husband and wife? And who will impregnate the other! I was hoping for more grandchildren!”
“Mom!” Amanda screamed while leaving her fathers seat. “I have already given you two!” She gestured with her fingers. “If you need more, then, we will happily adopt. This is for me, please, accept for me the same way I endured getting married to a man just to make you happy.”
Her mother’s eyes misted and when she looked at her husband, he nodded, his face scrunched in deep passion.
“Okay! But you will give me time to think about this, baby. It’s not every day one learns their daughter’s love for the feminine community goes beyond the need to feel seen!”
“Mom!”
“I’m serious. I was hoping deeply for a husband for you and poor me,” She tapped her temples. “I have even gone to tell the pastor about my daughter who just arrived in town.”
“Maggie!”Her husband cried. “I told you not to…”
She jutted her chin out. “Well, you didn’t give me any reason not to… Forgive me for looking out for my daughter’s happiness. Happiness which she has found in the arms of the same gender anyways!” From the way she sounded, Daisy didn’t think she could ever be cool with this. She might play along, but somewhere down, she will still look down her lashes at the idea.
“So, since Amanda is unavailable, and God knows I don’t have the heart to lie to them about my daughter or break their heart when like me, they are so passionate about getting him married off…” Her eyes rounded on Daisy who was drinking from her glass and at once, Daisy’s juice went the wrong direction in her throat and she choked on it. She started coughing fervently and Amanda, who was trying to roll in mirth, stretched a glass of water to her.
“If it’s my proposition for you to meet the Parson’s son that made you choke on your wine, I’m so sorry, Raven, but once you are recovered, we will continue from where we stopped. You are my Goddaughter and I should like to think that I have some right to fight for your happiness.”
“Mother, just stop,” Amanda chided her mother as she was on the brink of dying from excess excitement. “Daisy’s heart is already claimed.”
“What! By who? I will relax from thinking she is also like you, since she denied it before, so who if I might ask and why haven’t you said something?” She asked Daisy.
“Well,” Amanda surged since Daisy was tongue-tied and was still recovering. “The father of her child came back.”
“What! That loser!” She cried. It appears Amanda’s mother always took the side of Daisy, knowing she never cheated on Ethan. And had been cursing at him from day one. “How could you allow that cow dung back into your life after everything he did to you!”
“Mom, you of all people teach forgiveness, so it’s time we all practice it, don’t you think so?” She asked a hint of accusation in her voice.
There was a knock on the door getting all their attention at once. “Did you invite anyone over, Roland?” She asked her husband.
“No, I think it’s one of the fieldmen. I told Robert to send someone over with the report from the day’s work.”
“Oh, okay..” She sighed.
However, that wasn’t the case. The voice they heard the next minute made Daisy nearly faint from anxiety.
“Monica, Monica, my dear friend, where are you?” came the voice of Daisy’s mother from the sitting room, coming towards the dining room. And Daisy, even though wanting to hide, had nowhere to hide.
…