reminiscing

A project with her 2 brothers that had been successful in providing the 2 boys with some practical skills that pretty much had determined their career choices since following graduation both of them had gone into the construction business.  Tom, the older had become a general contractor before going to school to become an architect while Kevin had never done much more than work in one construction job after the other. 

Only Vanessa and Anne had gone to the University, of the siblings and only Vanessa had received a degree that would get her a job in the city at the prestigious ad agency of Locke Communications. Anne had gone to university to acquire a husband, well her first husband.  Bill had dreams of becoming an engineer until Anne had announced that they were getting married and moving in with his parents.

Bill’s parents were pleasantly horrified and announced at the wedding reception that while they were pleased that Bill had found himself a wife, that the two of them had decided to become missionaries in Tahiti and their house would be up for sale at the end of the week; all this while the guests were being serenaded by a wedding singer singing “She’s always a woman to me” by Billy Joel. Bill  had folded after a year of apartment living and Anne’s insistence that all they really needed was some money and three to four kids in order to achieve the perfect life. Bill ran off with a young convert from Tahiti that her parents brought home and went back to school in Jamaica to be on the safe side from Anne.

Anne had shrugged off the disaster with Bill and went back to State U and snagged herself a doctor whose family had given the couple a house as a wedding present. Of course, the house had been across the street from her own parents but Anne soldiered on despite this hint at where she belonged. These days, one could find Anne with a baby on one hip instructing Dad on how to install the newest washing machine that her overworked husband offered up whenever he got to come home from County General. Vanessa gave an involuntary glance over her shoulder at that thought and was immediately relieved and guilty since there were no lights on across the street.