Sephora sits at home alone,
anxious for Zawadi to get back from the
prom.
She
feels terrible that she could not pull herself together enough to help Zawadi get ready for the
prom and see her off as she left.
Feeling
her anxiety levels rising again, she decides to do a little laundry to try and
keep her mind focused and clear.
Finally,
Zawadi arrives home and
immediately looks for her mother.
“She’s
not here,” she says to herself out loud, disappointed to not be able to give
her mother the news of how incredible the prom was.
Suddenly,
Sephora reenters the
room. “Oh Zawadi! You’re home!” She says, happy to see her
daughter. “Is everything OK?” She asks
after seeing the look on Zawadi’s face.
“I
thought you
were
gone again,” Zawadi says quietly with a
tone of disappointment still lingering amongst her words.
“No
baby, I’m here…and I…I’m so sorry for not being here for you earlier.”
Zawadi is feeling so good
about her night that she quickly pushes aside her melancholy mood. “Guess what!”
She
doesn’t even wait for her mother to guess.
“I was voted prom queen! Can you
believe that?”
“Yes,
I can and I’m not surprised,” Sephora says happy to share in her daughter’s good mood.
Zawadi hesitates before adding the rest, not sure if she wants to share something so personal with her mother. “And Mitchell asked me to go steady!”
Sephora weighs the situation
before she reacts. On one hand she wants to lecture Zawadi on boys and being
careful with her feelings. On the other
hand, she’s never seen Zawadi so happy and doesn’t
want to encroach upon her good mood.
“That’s incredible Zawadi! He seems like a
incredible guy.”
Zawadi gives her mother her prom picture, but decides to keep
the crown for herself. Sephora hangs the prom
picture in a prominent place in the living room.
While
Zawadi takes her crown and
places it in her room to help her remember this incredible night forever.
Afterward,
she follows the scent of dinner to the kitchen counter.
Sephora is right behind her,
relieved that Zawadi is no longer angry
with her.
Just
before sitting down, Sephora revels in the joy
she feels having Zawadi speaking to her once
again.
“Zawadi, again…I’m sorry for
disappearing on you earlier,” Sephora apologizes once again to make sure that all is well
between them.
“That’s okay,” Zawadi says and for the first time in a long time she means it.
Zawadi walks into her room
and gets ready for bed. She too is glad
that the air has been cleared between her and her mother.
In
the middle of the night, Miles arrives home exhausted from a night of seemingly
endless rehearsals and performances.
Wordlessly,
Sephora walks over and
kisses him on the lips.
“What
was that for?” Miles pulls back
surprised.
“Our daughter is growing up and I’m OK with it,” she announces.
Before
Miles can respond, Sephora adds, “She has a
boyfriend now. Mitchell asked her to go steady.”
Sephora points out Zawadi and Mitchell’s prom
picture before abandoning him in the living room while she gets ready for
bed. Miles walks over to stare at the
picture.
Miles
closes his eyes as if he is in pain.
He’s glad that Sephora is handling the news
well, because of her anxiety issues. But
he is not able to share in her contentment.
In
fact, he feels as if he’s the one that’s going to have a breakdown.
“I’m
going to have to have another talk with that Mitchell,” he says to himself in a
threatening tone, not wanting to imagine Mitchell and his daughter engaging in
any of the things that teens sometimes do with each other.
Soft
barking at his feet captures Mile’s attention for a moment. “I’m going to have to train you to be a guard
dog…to guard Zawadi,” he says.
Dazzle
darts back and forth playfully, showing Miles that he is not much of a guard
dog. “Maybe I’d better buy a bigger
dog,” he concludes from watching the happy go lucky Dazzle.
Miles
gives in to his fatigue and calls it a night.
Miles
falls asleep quickly, but a thought crawls into Sephora’s mind and causes her
to wake from her sleep. She realizes
that although she and Zawadi have patched up
their relationship, she’s going to now have to act as a buffer between Zawadi and her father.
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