An Open Book

Emilia smiled as she settled into the window seat and opened her book. When she got the book for her birthday she could not wait to start reading, but life got in the way. Now, she finally had the time to do what she loved, grab her favorite cozy blanket, sit in the window seat, rest an open book on her legs and read.

The last book Emilia opened was one of her four-year-old son’s books. That seemed to be all she was reading lately. She was happy that her son was always so eager to sit with one of his books and read with her, but she missed reading the romance novels she loved, like the one that was currently open in her lap. Her husband had agreed to take their son to the park for an hour so she could have some time for herself. She smiled as she turned the last page on the first chapter until she heard her son crying. Emilia hadn’t heard the door open but decided to look at the clock. It had only been fifteen minutes, which meant something had happened to force them to come home early.

She sighed as she stood up, flipping the book down onto the seat. She refused to put a bookmark in it because she was determined to come back and get the rest of her hour of reading in. Also because she had no idea where any of her bookmarks were, despite the fact that she had several. Emilia headed downstairs to see why her son was making such a fuss.

When she got downstairs, she saw her husband trying to usher their son into the house, her son was crying and saying something she could not understand. Then she noticed he was completely covered in sand. “What happened?”

“He wanted to go play in the sand box and while he was sitting there some dog ran over and started kicking sand up at him. I tried to pull him away but wasn’t able to before sand was kicked into his face. He refused to wash his face off in the bathroom at the park so I just brought him home. I’m sorry.”

Emilia shook her had and bent over to her son. “Do you want to go take a bath?” she asked.

Her son shook his head at her. “If you take a bath and get clean clothes on we can go out and get some ice cream, but you cannot go if you are covered in sand.”

He stopped crying and whispered, “Okay” before taking Emilia’s hand.

Before they walked toward that bathroom, her husband said, “I can handle the bath and give you a little more time to read.”

She looked down at her son who was still holding her hand. “It’s okay. I can find another time to get some reading done.” At least she had made it through the first chapter of the book while they were out. That was more reading for herself then she had done in the last few months. She was determined to get back and read at least one more chapter of her book today.

She got her son bathed and when they got downstairs, her husband was ready with the car keys to go get the ice cream she promised her son. Unfortunately, the line at the ice cream shop was long, which made sense as it was a hot summer day, but did not bode well for having more free time later on to read.

They were gone for almost an hour before they got back home which meant they only had twenty minutes before they needed to head to her in-laws house for the weekly family dinner they had. Emilia decided she couldn’t just leave the book open upstairs, as the chances of her having time to read were slowly drifting away. As she headed out of the room to try and find a bookmark her son said, “Aren’t you going to play with us?”

Emilia took a breath and turned back into the room, deciding the book would be fine staying open for a while longer. She did not want her son to start throwing a tantrum about her not playing with him before going to her in-laws. Any other day she would have let her husband handle it but anytime her mother-in-law hears anything about Emilia doing something for herself she gets a lecture about how being a mother is about being there for her kids, and that was not a lecture she wanted to hear today.

After fifteen minutes of sitting on the ground, pretending to know what her son’s imaginary scenario with his toys was about, they headed to her in-law’s house. By some small miracle, they made it through dinner without her mother-in-law lecturing her. Then it was time for dessert, pie and ice cream. Her son excitedly said, “I can’t believe I get ice cream twice in one day!”

That led to her mother-in-law questioning her and her husband about why he already had ice cream when they knew she always served pie and ice cream for dessert. After their explanation they got a lecture about how they should not reward temper tantrums. Everyone at the table tried to change the subject, but nothing was successful until her niece asked, “Can we watch a movie before we have to go, grandma?”

Her mother-in-law smiled and agreed. Emilia tried not to look disappointed. All she wanted to do was get home and get back to the book she left open on the window seat, but once her moth-in-law said yes to the movie her son challenged his cousin to a race with picking the movie as the prize. Emilia made her way to the couch, sitting down with her husband. Once her son triumphantly declared what movie they were watching he came and sat on her lap.

By the time they got home, it was past their son’s bedtime. Her husband offered to do the bedtime routine and Emilia thanked him before heading upstairs. She grabbed the book off of the window seat, put a piece of paper from the desk in it as a makeshift bookmark. Emilia decided she should change into her pajamas before doing anything else, so she set her book down. It waited for her on the bedside table but as she got under the covers Emilia decided she was too tired to read. She had already closed the book anyway.