WHO: Eliza Weiss, Anja Weiss, & Harrison Exley WHEN: Friday, May 4th. WHERE: Bellowes Inn, lobby & Harrison's room. . SUMMARY: Mama has arrived with much warning, or, really, any warning. As you do. WARNINGS: General family awkwardness and anxiety? It's not super problematic.
Fall City was not all doctor’s appointments and walking around abandoned buildings. Eliza did actually have a job, one that she took at least somewhat seriously. Which is why she was poured over set notes for next week, going over the filming schedule and where and who she would be following around to help. Most of what she did was whims of the moment among people higher up than her, which was everyone. But there was some plan that she had written out carefully in her notebook.
Friday night for now seemed a good time to prep, to go over notes from the past week, and to card her fingers through Harrison’s hair as she did.
Harrison flipped to the next page in his paperback as he leaned into Eliza’s hand. He read a paragraph or two in comfortable silence before speaking. “When are your office hours over?”
“Did you have other plans?” she asked off hand as she kept reading.
“Not yet,” he flipped another page. “Just thinking ahead.”
“Then until you think of something better.” Eliza shrugged slightly, letting her fingers trail light against his ear.
“So much pressure …”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” A page was turned.
Eliza's phone interrupted them, the image on the screen showing her mother's face.
“Can you grab my phone?” The hand in his hair left to hold out her palm as the Silent Hill theme started to play. He leaned forward and reached for it before passing the phone back.
When the phone was picked up, it was Anja's voice on the other end, curt and to the point. "Hello Eliza dear, which room are you in again?"
Her notes were quickly forgotten as she sat up at the sound of her mother's voice and the meaning of her question started to sink in. “I never told you what room I was in.”
Harrison turned to look at Eliza eyebrows raised.
"Well, no I suppose it wasn't important then and I didn't ask. But the very helpful lady here at the desk will not tell me which room you are in, and also tells me there are no rooms currently, and apparently there is only one hotel in Fall City?" The implication that it was not much of a 'city' was said loudly in the tone, if not in actual words. "At any rate I'd rather not drive back to Seattle tonight, or at least not without seeing you. Which room should I come to?"
“Why would you be in Seattle?” Eliza swung her legs over the side of the bed and getting up. Nervously she ran her hand through the tangle of her hair as if that would somehow smooth it out. “You're here?”
Beside her Harrison tossed his paperback onto the bed and listened intently.
"Yes, I'm here." Anja sounded as if she were trying for patient. She lowered her voice slightly. "Where else would I be under the circumstances?"
There was a high red color in Eliza’s cheeks as simultaneously the rest of her face went pale. “Home?” she managed to get out.
Anja considered this for a beat before she glanced at the, admittedly quite nice, Bellowes Inn desk worker, and she stepped away, pulling her rolling carry-on bag with her across the lobby. . "I'm not needed at home right now. It's review week and my graduate assistants have it. They'll send finals here overnight next week so I can look at them." Another beat, and Anja wished for a coffee, or maybe a cup of wine. "Do you really want to have this conversation over the phone?"
“No.” Eliza, closed in on herself, shoulders hunching forward as her head ducked down. She didn’t want to have this conversation at all. “I’ll come and get you.”
Body language was a thing you could read, supposedly. Harrison didn’t know exactly what this translated to, but it didn’t seem to be anything good.
"All right, I'll see you in a moment then," and Anja hung up, sliding her phone into her pocket and unnecessarily alerting the front desk worker that her daughter would be down momentarily.
Eliza’s hand fell to her side, the phone shaking for a moment before she pocketed it. “I. My mom’s here.” she explained to Harrison before heading out the door to walk down the stairs.
“Okay …” Harrison mumbled confusedly at her departing figure.
There was a conflicting torrent of emotions coiling up in Eliza as she walked down the stairs. Her mother being here somehow made all of this more real, like there was consequence and weight. Everything her mother did was purposeful, it always seemed that way. Ordered, direct, pointed. And yet here she was before the semester was technically even over.
Her breath started just slightly as she reached the end and saw her mother in the lobby. Eliza took one step and then another. Until she stiffly closed the distance and then wrapped her arms around her mother tight, burying her head against her shoulder.
"Oh Eliza," Anja murmured against her daughter's head. She had wanted to be here so much sooner. It felt like the sort of thing a mother should be, when her own baby girl was looking at having a baby of her own. Maybe not. She'd never expected it of her own mother, but for Eliza, it had been a foregone conclusion from the moment she had opened up expedia.com. Obviously she would be here, and sooner rather than later.
When she pulled back, it was to press her hands to Eliza's face, and look at her. Did she look different at all? Anja couldn't say. "I cannot believe this town has only one hotel, is that really true?" Business. There would be time for the other things later.
Eliza let herself be held in her mother's hands because right now that felt easier. She was here, and that mattered in a way that Eliza couldn't quite find a way to quantify. That bundle of emotions was still there looking at her mother but they could be held back for now.
“It's a really small town.” Eliza gave as an answer. “I'm. Harrison and I are upstairs.”
Anja nodded, it occurred to her suddenly that perhaps Harrison and Eliza were in the same room, so her being here would be a problem. Well, if she needed to drive back to Seattle, she would. And there likely was something a wee bit closer than the airport. She’d just have to get online and figure out.
“Can I come up?” She asked. “How are you?”
“Yeah. Sure.” Eliza hesitated for a moment before walking towards the stairs. She looked over her shoulder and motioned towards her mother's bags. “Do you need help?”
Anja waved her hand with a smile. "No, I've been hauling it all over the airport and airplane, so I'll be just fine, besides - you shouldn't be carrying things." Probably she didn't need to worry about that just yet and Anja was being over-cautious. "I've got it," she filled in. She wanted to ask about the appointment, but she thought she should probably wait until they were in the room. "This is a quaint little inn isn't it?"
That high color went to Eliza's cheeks as she ducked her head. “I'm not an invalid.” she muttered in German before focusing on the stairs in front of her. She could focus on them instead. “Yeah. It's fine.”
She opened up the door to the room. At least this wouldn't be the first time Harrison met her mother. Small victories.
Harrison stood awkwardly, not far from the spot where he’d abandoned his book minutes before. He gave a low, almost imperceptible wave before he spoke. “Hi.”
Anja pulled the bag forward in so that it would not be left in the hall and stepped forward briskly, to shake Harrison's hand. Perhaps she ought to give him a hug, since he was apparently the father of her future grandchild, but at the moment she couldn't say that she was feeling overly welcoming. "Hello Harrison, how have you been?"
A handshake. Oh. Well, that was … he didn’t know what that was. Harrison’s gaze drifted towards Eliza for a fraction of a second before returning to her mother. How had he been? There was the polite small talk answer and the truthful one. He opted for something in between. “Oh … you know.”
Anja raised an eyebrow, but kept the smile on her face. "Indeed," she said simply, and turned back to Eliza, hoping that she would take charge of the situation a bit.
She would prefer to speak to her daughter alone, but she would prefer not to resort to German, or asking Harrison to leave out-right. She should have called her from SeaTac as she had initially planned to do before getting transportation sorted had turned out to be a bit of a fiasco.
Eliza stood there, shoulders slumped as her mother looked directly at her. There went Harrison as a buffer. “We have a second room?” ‘Had’ Harrison mouthed that Eliza responded to with a quick, narrow eyed glare.
Well that was something at least, Anja thought, but aloud she said only. "I'm sorry, Eliza. I didn't think about it being booked up like this. If it's too much trouble I can see what might be nearby."
Harrison shoved his hands into his pockets and offered a bit of trivia that seemed relevant as he once again glanced back toward Eliza. “The room we -- the other room has two twin beds.”
“It’s fine, mama.” Eliza shoved her hands in her back pockets. “I. We can get there through the bathroom?”
"Well, that will do for now," Anja could feel the beginnings of a headache. "Of course, Eliza. Lead the way, will you?"
“Sure.” her front teeth gnawed at her lower lip as she walked to the bathroom door before leading her mother into the room. The one she had been assigned to begin with. “We. I mean. We’ve mostly been in Harrison’s. So this room should probably be free.”
“Probably,” Harrison echoed. “We could double check with the front desk.”
"If one of you have the key for it, I doubt it has been given out to another," Anja pointed out. "And if there are two twins beds in it, they can hardly complain about both being occupied. But we can look into it later. I'm certain it will be simple enough to get sorted." She paused and looked over at Eliza reaching out to grab for her hand, and squeeze it. "You look well, though. I want to hear how the appointment went."
Her hand tightened around her mother’s, a sharp breath at the contact. It was a connection, reassurance. Her mother was here and that meant something. “Have you told papa?” Eliza asked instead, her voice cracking slightly.
This felt like something private, like the sort of conversation where it was best to excuse yourself from the room. But something told Harrison that maybe that wasn’t actually the right answer, and he was willing to listen to the small voice, for once. And so he waited, hovering awkwardly in a conversation that he wasn’t sure how to take part in.
Normally, perhaps the answer would have been yes. It was something momentus that required planning and attention paid to it. "Not yet," she said simply, her tone somewhat gentler than the simplicity might have suggested. "I wanted to see how things were here first."
Eliza nodded, able to breathe after hearing that. She wasn’t sure why it seemed so much more terrifying to tell him, to tell Alexi. Her mother was here, they should know. But not yet. “The appointment was fine.” she shrugged one shoulder up. “I mean. Around three months, getting closer to four. There wasn’t really a whole lot.”
Anja had more questions, but first things first, and lodging was one of those first things. She nodded. "We'll debrief and figure out telling your papa later, but for right now let us get the room sorted, and you can let me know a bit of your schedule, and then we will have a better idea of where to go next. Perhaps food," she glanced back and included Harrison in this suggestion, despite better judgement on some level. "Is there food in this place?"
“Yeah.” Eliza looked back to Harrison. She pulled away from her mother gently, reaching out to take one of his hands. “We’ve food here. Or there’s a diner? But we can go down to the front desk?”
Anja nodded, accepting Eliza's question as a statement, rather than something that needed to be answered. "Lead the way then, let's take care of the basics first."