FREEWRITE: Buffer Zone

Katy parents were coming to visit her downtown apartment. They would be driving from their distant, quiet suburban house, miles away from the city, into the heart and hum of it all. She was never close to her parents, and a private dinner with them would be uncomfortable. Even back when she did stay at home for dinner, she would have a friend or two over as a buffer zone, to avoid conversation inching too close towards anything personal. Her father never complained, he was too much of a coward to impose any sense of authority in the household. Her mother was never really at dinner, she had a cell phone that she called her “mini-office”. And so, from her childhood until when she moved out to attend university in the city, she had her friends. Jane was always reliable.