April 2085: date night

April 2085: Barbara McCullough is 41, Phillip is 43, Ruby is 18.

"What are you wearing?" Ruby scowled at her mother. "Haven't you had that blouse since like, 1972?"

Barbara smoothed her corduroy skirt and sighed at her daughter. "You know it wouldn't kill you to be kind just once."

"It probably wouldn't," Ruby said. "But that would be so boring."

"Your father and I are going out tonight."

"Ugh," Ruby whined.

"Don't worry, Claude is going to watch William. You just go ahead with your path of destruction like you do."

Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Because you clearly have no idea what happens, do you? The consequences of your actions?"

"What did I do?"

"You stood up that Michen boy. At prom?" A few weeks later, Barbara was at the market hearing gossip about her daughter, who stood up Parker Michen for some greasy biker who -- if gossip was accurate -- was at  least thirty years old, covered head to toe in tattoos, and up to no good. Barbara had never been more embarrassed in her life. "Are you dating an old man?"

"An old man? Are you serious? And Parker Michen is not my problem. I went to prom with him, I never said I'd marry the idiot!"

"Don't you know who his grandmother is?"

"I basically don't give a shit who his grandmother is," Ruby said.

"You should. She's the mayor! It could be your father's job come next election, and that means your college tuition. Then maybe you'll give a sh--." Barbara didn't like to curse at her children, but Ruby really made her test her principals.

Luckily she heard Phillips footsteps on the stairs and Ruby slumped back across the couch. "Hi, daddy," she cooed.

"Ruby," he acknowledged her. Then turned to his wife. "You look lovely, sweetheart. The boys are upstairs building forts. Are you ready to go?"

---

Claude was fine with William, so they were able to relax for the night. Joey would enforce their bedtime if the boys stayed up playing too long. Ruby could do whatever she wanted to do. They weren't married when Ruby came along, and Barbara always worried she'd set the girl off on a bad start. They married after Joey, but before Claude. Maybe that couldn't possibly make a difference, but somehow their boys were remarkably more even-tempered than their girls.

They sat talking, hopefully not too much about the children, or at least not all of the time. With William in school now, Barbara thought about taking up a hobby. Phillip thought about the state of the Lake County school system, but he tried not to bother his wife too much with his work.

Phillip took her to the beach after the cafe closed, like he used to when they were in college, nearly twenty years ago now. They started a fire to keep warm, and ended up talking more about the children than they could help. 

Time went by so quickly. Ruby was eighteen now, and Barbara refused to consider herself the mother of an adult child. She didn't feel old enough for that, and perhaps Ruby wasn't as grown-up as she wanted to believe either. Barbara didn't feel old, just tired most of the time, and emotionally exhausted. Ruby going to college would be a much-needed break for them all.

They put out their fire and walked down the beach, watching the lighthouse turn its cycle across the sky. They stopped talking about the children and stayed out until the sky began to lighten again.

And by the time they finally made it back home, the house was perfectly silent. The only time of day this house was ever silent, at approximately four in the morning, each of their children breathing softly in their beds. Even Ruby.

Barbara stood at their bedroom doors and enjoyed it for a moment before she fell into her own bed.

***