Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Elyssa Friedland
- Language: English
- Genre: Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 4.7 MB
- Price: Free
Sophie
“ ,” . “’
considering we were at Mom’s grave less than ten minutes ago.” She tilted
the syrup dispenser and let it ooze over her pancake stack.
“I am too,” Noah said, lifting a forkful of scrambled eggs. “But these
eggs are awful compared to the ones at Chegg.”
“You think everything is better at Chegg,” Sophie said, referencing the
Chicken or the Egg, one of the famous eateries on Long Beach Island.
“It is,” the rest of the table responded, a chorus of voices that included
Noah, Matthew, Laura, Laura’s husband Doug and the patriarch of the
Jacobson clan, Leo.
“For the hundredth time, you did not get food poisoning from Chegg,”
Laura said to Sophie, lowering the gigantic Kenilworth Diner menu she’d
been using to hide her tear-streaked face. “You were puking because you
drank too much of Dad’s Chivas Regal. I saw you.”
Leo raised an eyebrow at what apparently was coming as news to him.
Sophie considered Laura’s claim. Maybe she had been conflating
memories. The night of her alleged food poisoning was nearly twenty years
ago.
“I thought the gravestone was very nice,” Matthew, the oldest Jacobson
sibling, said. His comment brought them back to why they were gathered in
northern New Jersey on a sunny afternoon in June. It was for the unveiling
of the gravestone marking the place their mother was buried. “I think Mom
would have approved.”
“She more than approved,” Leo said, wiping Tabasco sauce from his
mouth with a paper napkin. “She designed it.”
The siblings’ gasps quickly gave way to wry chuckling. They shouldn’t
have expected anything less from Sylvia Jacobson. Sophie considered the
tombstone inscription with renewed appreciation, especially the line about
canasta, the card game that was their mother’s addiction.
SYLVIA ROSE JACOBSON
FEBRUARY 6, 1947–JUNE 30, 2023
DEVOTED WIFE, BELOVED MOTHER TO THE FANTASTIC FOURSOME, BOOK LOVER,
VOLUNTEER, JERSEY GIRL
“AWAITING SPECIAL HANDS IN HEAVEN”
“Did I ever tell you that Mom emailed me a detailed description of what
the girls and I should wear to her funeral, including accessories?” Laura
said. “Oh, and that Doug shouldn’t wear a navy tie.”
“And I didn’t. I wore yellow,” Laura’s husband said proudly.
“When she could barely speak anymore, she managed to mime that pink
lipstick washes me out,” Sophie said, puckering her burgundy-painted lips.
“I listened too.”
“I added the ‘devoted’ and ‘beloved’ to the inscription,” Leo said. “She
didn’t want it to be too schmaltzy. This may be the first argument I ever
won.”
“I can definitely see her finding a regular canasta game in heaven,”
Sophie said. “Where she will win many special hands.”
“Did anyone feel like they were waiting for directions from Mom
today? Like where to stand, what to do,” Matthew asked. “It’s so weird to
all be together and not have someone boss us around.”
Sophie knew exactly what her brother was saying. She’d been staring at
the plot of earth under which her mother lay buried, expecting a wagging
finger to poke through the dirt.
Their mother had been the protective force field surrounding them at all
times, instructing their next moves, sharing her opinions whether they were
welcome or not. Even Leo took direction from his wife as though he were a
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