The Heirs of Sonriso I was not released until a year and a half after its expected release date. The second anthology, World Back Together, was the next book published by Diana Owler. The last third of the book was a novella. It featured four characters, two men and two women, all very different from one another, who quit their jobs and live extraordinarily passionate lives, finding their destinies at the same place: an all-night diner. While the critics didn’t know what to make of any of the anthology, the public embraced it. No one could say why they enjoyed it. The novella in particular was extremely dramatic, but most people couldn’t but feel it was hilarious. It was just so perplexing. Sales of the book were steady for years. People kept buying the book. Many of the buyers had already bought the book, but had given it to a friend and were buying themselves a replacement. Diana received letters from some women who had bought third and forth copies. One woman said she purchased twenty copies of the book, and all but one was given away in the next three months. Men, for the most part, as the demographic reports showed, didn’t buy the book, but they read their wives’ and girlfriend’s copies. And they received their fair share of the anthology as gifts.
It made the Bestseller’s List, but Diana was stayed completely ignorant of the rating.
* * *
Diana searches through the mail, avoiding the work needed to be done on her recently started third anthology. She finds an ornate letter and is surprised by the return address: Christopher’s. No, she thinks, he would never not tell me if…
Inside, she finds a smaller envelope with “Mr. and Mrs. Terrence Henderson, Gloria and Andrew,” embroidered on it along with a sheet of tissue paper. She opens to find a wedding invitation. “Nuh-uh,” she yells, “not without telling me first they wouldn’t!” She reads the invitation carefully and laughs. The wording matches a wedding invitation exactly, but, in reality, it’s an invitation to a very classy, upscale restaurant in
Andrew comes toddling into the kitchen, tugging on Diana’s leg. “Sweetie?” she asks.
Holding on leg for support, he looks up, his azure eyes showing the utmost curiosity. Donning a ridiculously thick Southern accent, Diana asks her son, “May I help you?” Andrew looks unamused, almost irritated, still holding up his arms into the air in the common gesture. Diana picks him up, or rather heaves him. “Buddy, as little food as you actually get into your mouth, you’re growing remarkably quickly.” Andrew wiggles, trying to get onto the counter. Diana sets him down and he grabs the electric bill and starts to crumple it in his hand.
“I know that feeling,” Diana tells him. He drops the letter on the ground. He holds his hands up in the classic “All Gone!” fashion. Diana can’t help but giggle. “Listen, Big Guy, I got to go work on my anthology right now, okay?”
“No,” he manages to get out, holding out his arms.
“No? Well, what would you have me do?” she asks, picking up according to his desires. He wiggles his way down. Diana rolls her eyes, thinking, Great, I’m nothing more than an elevator for my son now. But Andrew tenaciously pulls her into his room, and hands her a yellow “K” block, with a looks up at his mother with wide, impatient eyes. “Well, Buddy, what would you like me to do with this? The anthology isn’t going to write itself.”
Andrews takes the block back from her and lays it on top of another, and faces his mother again.
“Baby, I got a deadline.”
Andrew continues to stare at her with his wide eyes, clearly portraying the message, “I have no idea what you just said, but whatever it was, it’s preventing you from playing blocks with me.”
In that moment, Diana could hear every word her son just thought. She smiled, sat down, and built a castle for her son. He knocked it down, and Diana was so inspired by his actions that she told him a story.
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