Hearts Of Glass #AdultFiction

Chapter 50

EIGHTEEN YEARS LATER

FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 17, 1995

Sarah walked into the kitchen of her small ranch home and headed straight for the phone; she checked the clock, as she pushed in the numbers on the cordless handset. It was 11:45 p.m. and she knew her mother was still awake.

"Working late again?" Jane was concerned. Sarah had been pulling double duty as the manager and a fill in waitress at the restaurant for two weeks.

"I know, I have to hire someone." Sarah yawned as she made herself a pot of coffee.

It was tax time, her busiest season. She also did the taxes for a major part of the town's population. She knew that she had a long night ahead of her. But she hadn't talked to her mother for two days, and she wanted to catch up.

After Sarah caught up with the latest news and the small talk dwindled down, she asked the question that she had asked her mother every couple weeks.

"Anything in the news?"

Her mother paused and Sarah could hear her flipping through her magazines. "No, nothing since September, when I showed you the article about his third divorce."

Blood Brothers was in the charts as a top selling band. They had a number of platinum records and awards. For several years, they were a regular on the top hits lists. It seemed like they were always on tour in the U.S and internationally.

Three years ago, a magazine had run a full feature on his storybook wedding to a famous actress. Sam looked gorgeously handsome, barefoot, in white pants and shirt, as he stood on a beach by the small blond in a long, flowing white dress. They honeymooned in Hawaii, then made their home in Hollywood Hills or so the article had said. The magazine made it sound like it was a match made in heaven.

The last article, as Jane had said, was detailing the messy divorce that was finally settled between the two. The actress was out for blood, the article said, from the lead singer of the Blood Brothers.

Sarah's life had taken a completely different direction than what she had expected. She planned on going back to school and graduating after Shannon was born, but it had never happened.

After living off and on with her parents for years, and a few unsuccessful relationships, she met and married an auto mechanic from the town of Longsboro, about a half hour away from Breezewood. After a few years of what she thought was a reasonably happy marriage, she found out that her auto mechanic was doing more than changing oil for certain ladies in their town.

She packed up and moved back with her parents, all the while, looking for a small house to live in. Dave found her one on an inland street within walking distance from her parents.

She had been able to provide a home for herself and her daughter and enjoyed her life, free of any men. She concentrated most on raising a teenager, one who had all the rebelliousness of her father and the impulsiveness of her mother.

Shannon made her appearance promptly on March 3, 1977, at 11 am. Weighing in at 8 lbs and 10 ozs  and 18 inches long, she was proclaimed by her tired mom and proud grandparents as the chubbiest, but most beautiful little baby they had ever seen.

Sarah's labor was as easy as the latter stages of her pregnancy, lasting only 6 hours. She had woken up early that morning, determined that she would go in to help with the breakfast rush, as she had been doing every Monday and Thursday for the last two weeks. But muscle spasms across her lower belly forced her back onto her bed. She sat and rubbed the soreness, then struggled to stand up, looking down in surprise as water trickled down her legs, soaking into the carpet under her feet.