After tucking Amy to bed Kevin went to the living room where his mother was doing another one of her fine needle table sheets.
"She is a sleep, little feverish, but sleep. I don't want her to leave the bed tomorrow; I'll see if I have something to make it easier on her, you know how flu should go" Kevin told her as he started looking in his medicine cabinet
"Darling, when are you going to stop babying your sister?" his mother asked him, putting her needle work a side.
"Moma I have to take care of her, I promised….." He was about to continue but then she gave him one look that made him look at her silently
"I know that you promised your father, but one day she would want to decide her own way, she is already 21 and you keep treat her like 6 years old child, I know you care about her but sooner or later she'll tell you that she has fallen in love and she want to move in his place, and in the end she will leave this place."
"Did she talk to you about that Moma? Is she dating some one?" he asked.
He was looking for a clue to tell him if there is someone in his sister's life.
"Not yet, she didn't say anything but you know mother's heart can't fail her, I can see it in her eyes, just the way I see it in your eyes when that Kristin calls, or this evening when you saw her in the theater"
"MOM… there is nothing between me and her." He went defensive.
She smiled at his reaction, for sure that hit a nerve here
"Kevin, I told you a mother's heart can't fail her, never the less let Amy grow, give her the space she needs."
"Moma I don’t want her to hang around the wrong guys, I have a feeling that she is hanging around someone that is no good for her, and I can't set and wait till I see her heartbroken, she deserves better than that"
He told her, while placing a bottle on the table and some pills.
"Those would make her feel little better, if she felt worst call me and I would see…." Again his mother interrupted his sentence.
"Since when you decide what is good and what is bad to her Kevin."
"Moma I am a doctor, I can describe her some flu medication" he looked at his mother.
"You know that is not what I meant, do you know anything about the guy you assume that Amy is dating?" she asked him.
He sat on the couch in front of his mother " Well I have this feeling that she is dating someone who works with me at the hospital, his name is Mclean, Alexander James Mclean, a neurosurgeon and he is half Irish, his reputation has exceeded him, I have already called some people in Dublin and they told me what kind of life he lived when he lived there, that is why he came here to work."
"Kevin.. Have you ever seen him drunk, having drugs or even in a misconduct situation? Did he earn himself such a reputation here?"
"No, but he has a child there, does she know about that, his child lives with his mother in Ireland and he is living here"
"Have you ever taken Amy to any of your trips to Europe before Kevin?" his mother looked at him, again through out her firmness she was filled with kindness.
"That was impossible, she was a child and I would never be able to ….. " he understood what his mother wanted to say, it was indeed hard situation, if Mclean loved his child he would never bring him or her to another country and another world without being sure that it is the perfect environment, it made some kind of sense to him that he left his child just across the ocean.
"Have you ever tried to hang around him, he is well mannered and any one who can socialize with Carter I think is worthy the trust, you know how picky is Carter, did you try to contact and trust him?"
"Moma … why are these questions?"
His mother was defending a guy she only met for five minute this evening and it made him feel jealous
"When you went to the university, I was told that you were having a wild life too, but did I let it break our relationship, no my dear, because I trust you, you should learn to trust Amy's choices, you have done the best you can, you are the kind of fathers she never had when she was growing up, but now she has grown up to be a beautiful lovable lady, now give her the wings she needs to fly."
How he loved the way his mother talked with them, she knew how to melt the ice with one sweet word, no wonder they stuck together for all those years, no wonder they all lived near her, not wanting to move to another city or another place.
