Not long after moving into Glen Brook Acres, Julia stood in her new kitchen arranging coffee cups in a half-filled cabinet. Evan slept in his car seat on the floor. The phone rang and she checked the number. It was Tara. Julia answered the call, thinking her new neighbor was just calling to say hi. Immediately, though, she knew something was wrong.
“Are you okay?” Tara asked.
“Um, yeah,” Julia said. “Why?”
Tara paused. “Oh, I just . . .”
“What, Tara?”
“Nothing.”
Another pause stretched out. Julia’s tone grew sharp. “What?”
“I just heard . . . about the layoffs.”
Julia’s stomach flipped. Michael had just started his new job. They had everything riding on his salary at that point. If he got laid off . . .
“What layoffs?”
“At DuLac.”
Julia didn’t even think about her father. Not at first. Instead, all she could think about was Tara’s husband. “Kevin?”
“Oh, no. He’s fine. But I heard the composites division got hit hard . . . especially the chemists.”
“Oh,” Julia said. “Oh.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, distractedly. “I better go.”
“Okay.”
As soon as she hung up, Julia called her mother. The phone rang seven or eight times without the machine picking up. So she tried a second time, though the results were the same. Then she called Michael.
“I think my dad just got laid off,” she said to her husband.
“Are you serious?”
“I’m not sure. But, I mean, why would they lay off a fifty-eight-year-old chemist?”
“That’s crazy. Did you call?”
“I tried, but no one answered. I think I’ll run over and see if they’re home.”
“Okay, call me back.”
“I will, I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Julia hung up. She looked out the window, feeling disjointed. For just that moment, she felt strangely relieved. Michael was okay. His job was okay. She’d never admit that thought to anyone, but she would always remember it.
Julia rang the door of her childhood home. She would have walked in, but the door was locked. Strangely, her mother’s car was in the driveway. She took a step away from the door and checked out her father’s front garden. As usual, it looked perfectly tended. When the door opened, it startled her.
“Julia, and my little Evan,” her mother said, opening the screen and putting her hands out for the baby. “What are you doing here?”
“Hi,” she said. “Just checking on you guys. Everything okay?”
Her mother’s head tilted. “You heard?”
That’s when it first hit Julia. As bad as it might sound, up until that moment, she’d thought only of herself and Michael. Seeing her mother’s face, the concern so clear in the creases around her eyes, Julia realized that everything was not okay.
“Did he . . . ?”
Julia couldn’t say the words, but her mother knew what she asked. She nodded.
“Crap,” Julia said. “Are you guys going to be okay?”
“Why don’t you come in?” her mom said.
Julia barked out an awkward laugh. She hadn’t realized that they were having the conversation on the front porch. She walked through the door as her mother held it open with her foot, and the two women walked into the kitchen.
“Do you want some coffee?” her mom asked. “I just brewed a pot.”
“Sure,” Julia said. “Is Dad here?”
“No.”
Julia waited, but her mother didn’t add any more detail. So she left Kate cooing at Evan and poured herself a cup. She grabbed her mom’s off the counter and brought it with her back to the table.
“Is he at work?”
Her mother shook her head. “No.”
“Where is he?”
She shrugged. “Out.”
“Oh.”
They sipped their coffee in silence for a moment. Julia had no idea what to say. Her whole life, her father had been a workaholic. His brain worked like a chemist’s, so his penchant to remain working 24/7 never seemed all that odd. To be honest, she’d had a few conversations with her mother already about how retirement might not work out for them. But they had just laughed it off, really.
“Is he okay?” Julia asked, breaking the stillness.
Her mother shrugged again. “I don’t really know. He found out today. He had a sense it might be coming, but he wouldn’t talk about it. This morning, they came into his office, handed him a folder, and told him he could leave right then. He called, but I haven’t heard from him since.”
“Should we look for him?” Julia asked.
“No,” her mom said.
Julia blinked. Something seemed off. She’d never seen her mother like that before. She seemed detached. Or maybe resolved. It unnerved her.
“Should I stay until he gets home?”
“I’d love the visit,” her mother said. “But I don’t know when he’ll be home.”
“And you don’t know where he is?” Julia asked.
“No,” her mom said, looking at Evan. “I don’t.”
An hour later, the front door opened. Julia stood, but her mother remained sitting, watching Evan in the bouncy seat she had found at their neighborhood garage sale. Her father walked into the kitchen, his cheeks a little rosy but otherwise looking like his normal self. He stood straight as the wall with his gray hair cut close and his broad shoulders belying the profession he’d held for over thirty years.
“Jules, how are you?”
She hugged him. “Good. Are you okay?”
He looked into her eyes for a second, and then turned away. “Of course I am.”
Her father poured himself a cup of coffee and left the room. Julia watched him go. Then she looked at her mother, who said nothing, though the smell of alcohol had been so strong that Julia was sure she had noticed as well. Glancing back in the direction that her father had gone, Julia sensed something far bigger than she expected. And when she turned back around, she found her mother silently crying.