Wake in Love.

Love might make her heart sing, but Jodi woke up on her milestone birthday, and sighed deeply. Here she was, now forty years old. She did not need to peek in the mirror to check the glowing wrinkles which crinkled around her eyes. Jodi tried not to fret, but she knew she had to front up to her mother's emotional blackmail, and script reading about her grandchildren. Jodi realised she did not have to keep thinking the same thoughts, and making the same responses. She just did, she felt trapped in a web of manipulation and comparison with her sisters. Many a long afternoon had been devoted to listening to her mother, never quite game to ask either of her sisters what they were really thinking. It had all become a distorted family magazine that never resembled everyone's glossy photo opportunities.

"I have to face it," Jodi told herself, "It is going to be the usual helpings of old arsenic and slander." This year was to be a lunch with her mother, as both her sisters were unavoidably busy elsewhere. Jodi imagined them both flapping chicken wings, any excuse to dodge their unendearing mother. Jodi's older sister had somehow wound up in a bottle shop, permanently needing at least two bottles of hard liquor to be anywhere near her maternal influence. Her younger sister more than once turned on her answering machine, and refused to respond to her moans and emotional games.

Jodi checked her appearance before she headed off to lunch. As an experienced classroom teacher, she could readily feel her inner dragon rising to defend herself. "Best not to participate, just nod and make agreeable noises." With this lifehack she set off, but knew full well that she would be lured into some new web of drama her mother had invented.

Jodi had once been not quite so cynical. She had long ago graduated from teacher training, full of hope and keen desire to become a role model as an educator. Way back then, she had been considered reasonably attractive, no slouch at having dates. But her first day as a solo classroom teacher of a large grade of very reluctant learners presented numerous challenges. Jodi had gone home singing their song, "We don't need no education!" Disappointed, she had thrown away all those notes on educational philosophy and the student-centred approach, and gone to bed, thinking a new lyric. "Tomorrow, you are going to get an education." Soon, Jodi's inner dragon emerged, quite triumphantly, the scholars' education was achieved. They all did very well, and got promoted onto teachers of the next level, with Jodi's best wishes. By now, she decided that she had achieved a satisfactory standard of being an educator.

However, the nature of her role had changed. She was assigned district committees to serve on, she was expected to lead curriculum development. Her days were awash with children who would not seem to focus, behaving disruptively, and often assessed with syndromes. Their parents expected each young Einstein to have total individual attention, and sent Jodi a zillion emails about some complaint. Her teaching days and evening increasingly revolved around testing and correcting, completing checklists and administrative work. Jodi wondered if she was feeling burnout, but maybe she had woken up on the grumpy side of bed.

Jodi just knew her mother would compare her to both her sisters who had married young, and were somehow still married. That was spite of their mother's fierce opposition to what was, at that time, an unexpected tasteful white church wedding for young attractive lovers in love.

"So, good luck to them," she told herself, "I am still going strong, a single woman in the solo nesting team. Living a simple life is the best." She did wonder why she was fantasizing about a very early retirement, but maybe she was getting the cold or flu again. As she drove into her mother's driveway, she felt like Little Red Riding Hood, with her mother cast as the scary female wolf, La Lupina. Being a teacher kept Jodi very young at heart. It was her vocation.

Her mother was soon off and leading the game playing, as normal. "Do you ever catch up with that nice mature Nicholas you used to see?"

"No, mum, he's dead. No, mum, I am not going with him. Chance would be great thing."

"No need to talk like that," her mother said, "Shame you never married him and had children."

Jodi did not want to think about that. She had been in May/Winter romance, but the time had never been right to make that decision about reproducting, merely so her mother could stuff up another generation too. Finally, lunch was finished, and her mother did give her a nice nightie and card. Jodi checked her phone before driving off home, she had some kind texts from her super sisters and a couple of gal pals she had stayed in touch with for some time.

The afternoon was still young, so she had planned to join in a large community event near her suburb to celebrate Lunar New Year, there would be food stalls and fun, people gathering in friendship. Something for a change anyway. Jodi parked in the designated space alloted, and squinched her ample curves between the cars to enter the fun zone.

The food stalls were doing a roaring trade, all sizzling and tempting delights were on offer. Jodi hoped she was there in time for the traditional dragon dance. Her phone was ready to take some artistic photos of the celebrations and fireworks.

The dragon dance did lead Jodi to see how she could resemble her inner dragon on Monday mornings at 9 am. Just as she was turning to go home, someone bumped into her. He grabbed her arm, saying, "Jodi! Is that really you? I'm Evan, one of your student teachers. You gave me such good tips. How have you been?"

Jodi smiled, it was great to be appreciated. Evan led her to a nearby hotel, and there they shared a few drinks. He was a few years younger, and had left full time teaching to start his own tutoring journey, working online at home, guiding individual learning. Jodi shared her birthday with him. Evan offered her more than a promising change in her teaching journey, which she did accept.

And that was not all. He was still handsome, divorced, and even now had a crush on Jodi. Their business thrived, employing other staff. Jodi realised a year later, that she did enjoy no longer being single. Her mother did not approve, but that was normal for her. It was another example of " men, women, and anything goes."

It was a new creed in words, or thirds. Daily, Jodi woke up in a tangle of sheets, bit sticky, but enjoying slow and languid loving. Her inner dragon was fading away. Jodi and Evan woke up in love.