Bobby's Diner by Susan Wingate Page A

ex-husband. Roberta   seemed blind-sided by it but Vanessa saw it
coming long ago. Her daughter was self-centered but good-hearted, selfish but
loving, intimidating but kind. She would watch Rick when Roberta talked, he
seemed ill at ease anymore and quick to anger. He’d leave shortly after dinner
and leave the women alone to hide out in his office. They didn’t make love much
in the recent months—he was pulling away and Roberta was sincerely surprised
when a man came to the door to serve her with divorce papers.
    Vanessa looked around Roberta’s
bedroom now. She remembered how difficult her own separation had been on
Roberta and now she was living it all over again. Vanessa had   survived her divorce from Bobby. But, Roberta
never forgave her father for leaving. Even, by that time a young woman, she
didn’t understand the ways of married people. She definitely was not around
during the initial fall of the marriage at eighteen when she went off to
college. And, she was too busy with her and Rick’s plan to marry not long after
they returned from school. As Vanessa sat on the edge of the bed and looked
around she   remembered the sadness upon
accepting the fact that her marriage to Bobby was about to end. It was imminent
but when she came along she blamed it on Georgette anyway. Georgette’s only fault
in the divorce was one of timing. She came too soon.
    “Roberta.” Vanessa got up slowly
as her daughter’s name slipped wearily from her mouth. She decided to tell her
now before it was too late.
    Roberta sat alone and looked
hopelessly onto the arid landscape. Only a few yucca and crepe myrtle were left
blooming. Every other plant took on its usual olive hue or brown bark. The
cactus garden was filled with thick- skinned   prickly succulents of light buttery yellow to dark magenta. Her head was
propped up in one hand on the arm of her chair and her feet were flung up onto
the glass table. The skin on her ankle above her sock was tan and smooth. A
sunbather from long ago, she remembered Roberta had just   spent a final weekend with Rick in Vegas ten
days before. Vanessa watched her for a second through the door then walked out
to  
    “Roberta, honey, we need to
talk.”
    She looked up at Vanessa and her
hand dropped from beneath her chin. “Grab a chair, mom.” Vanessa pulled another
chair   around so it was directly facing
her daughter. She leaned forward. With both elbows on her legs she grabbed her
hands in front of her.
    “Honey, I know this is hard. It
was hard for me too.
    But, at least I could see it
coming.” “What are you saying?”
    “Come on now. You know your dad
and I were living out the decline of our marriage when Georgette came along.”
    “No, mother, I didn’t know that.
Are you saying you would have probably gotten a divorce even if dad hadn’t been
fucking around on you?”
    “Roberta! Please don’t use that
language around me, I’m your mother, please!”
    “Well, what would you call it,
mother? Sleeping?”
    “Jesus, Roberta. You can be so
cruel when you want.”
    Roberta looked away momentarily
and then looked back. “I’m sorry. I just want you to know that with your father
and me there were signs, big signs. And, I wasn’t blind about it either. I saw.
I saw.
    “He didn’t want me anymore, you
know, sexually.
    He was at the diner until well
after it closed doing things that could wait or things if he’d wanted to do at
any other time, things we could have done together. But, he didn’t want to be
around me anymore. I changed after you left. I guess I got a little selfish. I
mean, I was getting older and feeling it. So, I went to the salon often for my
nails, for hair coloring, facials, and massages. It wasn’t like we didn’t have
the money, we did. But, I wanted to feel better about my aging,
empty-nester-self. In doing so, I forgot about your father, his needs. He was
working a lot and I was playing. By the time you left, we’d gotten a relief
cook and I was