Coraline-Reconsiliation Part I

"Well get yourself cleaned up. We're going out tonight," Mel gave a concise grin as she lightly punched her husband in the shoulder.

Charlie staggered slightly but stood up to his full height to add to his wife's happiness, "We've got a lot to celebrate!"

Coraline looked a little crestfallen, "You're taking about...your garden catalogue?"

"Of course, what else?" Mel asked with a tone of ignorance. She proceeded to walk out of the room when Coraline said, "But look at the snow on your clo - " Stopping to see the snow she had indicated was currently melting off her parent's clothes and hair.

Mel turned to her daughter, "What's gotten into you, Coraline?" she looked to her husband in equal confusion but he just shrugged his lengthy shoulders in response. Walking out of the room, Charlie indicated with a friendly hand gesture for her to follow them. But Coraline stayed back momentarily with a look of bewilderment.
She spun around and glanced at the broken snow globe on the mantle she had observed earlier. Whether her parents remembered anything or not didn't matter. The fact that all her troubles with that door were finally over and that her family was together again was the single most important attribute. It would have been nice to hear a little praise for her efforts, but Coraline was no longer the kind of girl who would dwell on wishes.

--

Heading into the kitchen to eventually meet with her parents, Coraline picked off some of the cobwebs from her hair and clothes. They were sticky and stuck to her fingers but she managed with only a few grunts of annoyance but overall little complaint.

Her father was shuffling some misplaced papers in his suitcase while her mother was examining the groceries she had bought earlier in the day (or as it seemed to be) with her commonly sour expression.

"I can't believe I just bought these groceries this afternoon and now they've...ugh...gone completely bad! Coraline, why didn't you stick them in the fridge when I came home with them?" she asked the girl, who was unaware that her mother had even detected her presence.

Coraline was momentarily at a loss for words, "Well, I...uh - "

Mel sighed as she raised a hand for silence, "I guess it's not entirely your fault. I should have put them away when I had the chance. I wonder why I didn't?"

"Being captured by the Other Mother doesn't qualify as an excuse, does it?" Coraline retorted inwardly.

Gathering all the rotten food back into the brown paper bag, Mel proceeded to the kitchen garbage can and dumped them in reluctantly.
"Now I guess we really will have to go out tonight!" she said with slight amusement in her tone.

"Oh, yeah, how did the presentation go again?" Coraline was reminded. She fiddled with her messy appearance, wincing in frustration.

Charlie bolted around from his focus on his suitcase and was the first to answer, "Mom was right! They loved it! We really knocked their socks right out of the ballpark!" Coraline smiled at her father's enthusiasm.

"Hmmm, glad to hear someone admit that I'm always right," Mel joked - leaning back against the kitchen counter - looking proud with herself.

Charlie's soon stopped shuffling in his suitcase when he pulled out a recognizable manila folder, "Oh here, you are. They're the new detailed outline for the next catalogue," he said as he handed it to his wife.

"Oh right," she remarked, taking it and rummaging for the special papers inside. She began reading them over as soon as her eyes made contact with the paper, but acknowledged the other two people still standing in the room. "I'll be ready in a few minutes, you two go ahead."

"Alright, Boss. C'mon kiddo. Were you okay as woman of the house today?" Charlie asked his daughter, pressing a light hand on her shoulder and leading her towards the doorway. Coraline followed, looking happily up at her dad with a knowing smile.

"Eh, pretty quiet around here. Not much to complain about," she responded. Charlie laughed and he patted her head.

Coraline staggered back for a moment when they reached the doorframe. She turned around to look at her mother, who was still reading over the papers she was given back in the corner of the kitchen. Coraline's face twisted in thought and she eventually released herself from her father's ushering hand.
"You go ahead, Dad. I forgot my bag in the Living Room. I'll pick it up on my way upstairs."

"Sure thing," he whispered calmly, not pestering any further as to why. Coraline was relieved.
--

Coraline watched her father leave completely before she looked back at her mother, still in the same position as she had been left.

Coraline formed a knot in her stomach as the thought of what to say, exactly.
"C'mon! Say something now! Before she gets too attached to work again. It's now or never, Coraline," she told herself.

The sound of her mother's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Coraline, you still here?" Mel looked up briefly from her work and then turned to a new page.

"Yeah," she said sullenly. She walked forward and daringly bent back a few of the page corners away from her mother's eyes to make sure her attention was on her.
"Mom?"

Mel lowered the papers farther and looked at her daughter but with an expression that painfully lacked most interest.

"Mom, I just wanted to say that...I'm sorry."

Mel's eyebrows rose.

"...A-about everything..." She paused for a moment to see that, to her surprise, her mother was actually still listening!
"Look, I know I made everything harder for you...and Dad. But I swear that if I had all of this to do over again, I...I wouldn't have been such a brat." Hearing herself talk like this made Coraline feel horrible about herself.

"And about the door...I know you were just trying to..." the words escaped her. "Protect me. I get it now."

She lowered her eyes briefly, "I'm just...sorry."
When she lifted them back up again she saw her mother no longer with her shocked eyes but instead with sympathetic ones, although she remained stern as usual.

Coraline exhaled an almost undetectable sigh. Was this the wrong time? And if so, then when would be the right time? She just wanted reassurance that her efforts to save her parents was not a waste. She thought that if it was her mother that said it, then it would mean the most to her.

Suddenly, Mel placed a light palm on Coraline's shoulder, "It's okay," she said lowly, "I understand."

Coraline looked shocked, but that shock soon twisted into suspicion.

Mel made a face; "It's not easy getting along with someone you're trapped in a house with for a long time. Especially if that someone is pretty much a clone of yourself and if that house is...painfully uneventful," she sneered as she examined the slightly dilapidated kitchen.

"I wouldn't say, 'uneventful'," Coraline thought with a concise smile.

"But...you should know it's not all your fault. I'm to blame too. And I'm sure you could back me up on that one." She smiled a little. "I appreciate the apology, but it's not necessary." She patted Coraline's shoulder more tenderly.

Mel then sighed. "Listen...one more thing, okay?"

Coraline shrugged and nodded.

"You've always known that I take my work very seriously and...that it has a big effect on me when there's a lot of it. But Coraline, the shrugging and neglecting I do when I'm under stress...it's certainly not intentional. I can guarantee that if Dad and I didn't work together, I'd ignore him too!"

Coraline raised an eyebrow at this newfound information. Mel was becoming strangely emotional, and it confused Coraline momentarily.

Mel could see this look on Coraline's face and acted on it. "And no matter how rebellious, or-or-or stubborn, or...what-have-you, you may seem...You're still my kid. My only kid. I wouldn't be a mother without you. You mean, and always will mean, more to me than any amount of work." She paused. "More than anything..."

She looked down and had a face that said she was seriously thinking. Then she looked back up at Coraline. "You do know that...don't you?"

Coraline grinned deeply and looked at her mother with heavy eyes. She had to swallow in order to open up her tightening throat and bite her lip to keep it from quivering. She wanted to say, "I forgot once but I never will again," but something forced her to keep quiet. Probably the thought of her voice faulting while she said it or maybe it just sounded too babyish. So she tried something else...

Coraline pressed the side of her face into her mother and gripped her tightly. She could feel the dampness of her coat from the melted frost. It almost felt like a comfort to her. Physically, her mother was here, and that was all Coraline wanted.
Mel went frigid and looked down at her daughter, at first keeping her hands clear away from her. Her expression contorted in confusion but it relaxed slightly when her mind flew back to the times when Coraline was littler.
Mel remembered Coraline asking for attention more openly then, but it had decreased slowly as she got older - to now - as eleven. Back in Michigan, Coraline had things to replace maybe a lack of attention from her parents. But this move took a lot of those distractions away.

Hesitating at first but then, succumbing to her emotions, Mel firmly returned the hug - gripping her closely and secretly happy to be doing so. "I'm so happy you're finally getting used to this move," Mel said with her arms still wrapped around Coraline. "For a while there, I wasn't sure you'd ever forgive me. But it looks like I got my old Coraline back, huh?" Mel eventually made eye contact with her daughter.

Coraline gave a half smile. "More or less..."