“Can I have my phone?” I asked. “She’s just going to keep calling until I answer. The longer you make her wait the crazier she’s going to get. And she’ll take her crazy out on me.”
He handed me my phone and I answered before my mother could hang up and call back. Again.
“Mom?”
“Why was there a man answering your phone?” She snapped at me.
“I’m next door at the neighbor’s house. I was in the bathroom when he answered my phone.”
“You’re not turning into a whore, are you? You better not be because it will make me look bad to Marcus and you better not ruin this for me.”
I sighed. I really hated this woman.
“Why are you calling me, mother?” I asked. My stomach knotted painfully. “Did something happen? Is it Mr. Cole’s brother?”
“You care more about a man you’ve never met before than you do for your own mother.” Her voice had dropped low, turned nasty. This is a voice I normally found extremely frightening. Today I didn’t seem nearly as bothered by it as I should have been. Perhaps it was the distance and knowing she couldn’t, at this very moment, physically harm me.
Whatever the reason, I opened my mouth and said a bunch of things I shouldn’t. Maybe I would have learned my lesson if she’d hit me with the bottle of vodka as
well as her glass cup. Maybe. But, then again, maybe I would have ended up in the hospital for an extended stay.
Still… there was no excuse for what came out of my mouth. Sheer madness.
“You are correct in your assumption that I care more for a stranger than I do you, my own mother. I learned the way from you, mother. You, who cares more for everyone in your life than your own daughter.” I took in a deep, shuddering breath before continuing. “Now that we’ve established that, I’d like to know why you are calling. Is Mr. Cole well? Why aren’t you with him? I thought you went with him so you could be there for him when he needed you?”
There was a heartbeat of silence down the line before she let out an angry hiss. She sounded like an angry cat who’d just been dropped into a bucket of water.
“You little bitch,” she whispered menacingly. “You little bitch. How dare you speak to me in such a way. I’m your mother, you don’t talk to me like that.”
I sighed and slumped back against the couch. I shouldn’t have talked to her in such a way. The distance had given me a false sense of security and made me brave but stupid.
She let out a pathetic sounding sob in my ear, surprising me. She normally didn’t go through the trouble of shedding tears unless she had an audience to bear witness to them.
I wondered where Mr. Cole was and hoped he was far, far away from her.
“He dropped me off here like some unwanted piece of luggage while he went off to the hospital to be with his family and he hasn’t been back since.”
It hadn’t even been a whole day yet. I bit my bottom lip in an attempt to contain my smile. I liked Marcus Cole so, so very much and I liked even more how he was starting to handle my mother. My smile slipped. I would like how he handled her until she decided to take it out on me.
“Why would he do that?” She wailed into the phone. “Is he ashamed of me? Does he not want me to meet his family? I cannot see why. Have you seen the photographs of his wife? She was a homely thing. I’m not homely in the least, I’m beautiful. You don’t hide away your beautiful girlfriend, you take her out and show her off on your arm. What’s wrong with him?”
I absolutely did not want to be having this conversation with my mother.
What was I supposed to say to her? Well, mother, firstly, perhaps you shouldn’t call yourself his girlfriend. Don’t you remember you’re a paid companion? He gives you money and nice, fancy things for your time and the use of your body? The lonely man had needs and you enjoy the size of his wallet. Secondly, it wasn’t the time to show off your arm candy, not with your brother lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life.
I didn’t tell her any of that. She was unreasonable and wouldn’t appreciate things like logic and truth.
But I had to tell her something or this nonsense could last for hours and I wanted off the phone with her sooner rather than later if possible.
“He’s not thinking clearly right now, mother,” I told her. “He’s too worried about his brother. He tried to tell you before you left that he wouldn’t have time for you and you insisted on going along anyway. You should take a nap or something while you wait for him to come back. And he will come back, mother. You just have to wait for him and be patient.”
She was going to suck at this, I just knew it.
“Fine, Ariel, fine.” She said. She’d stopped crying for which I was thankful. “You’re right. You’re always right. Whatever. Now, why aren’t you in school?”
I let out a relieved sigh.
“There’s been some type of flu outbreak,” I said. I thought about leaving out the gory details and just leaving it at that, but then I thought better of it. The gory details just might be what got me off the phone with her. “Lunch had just started when the people seated at the table next to mine simply turned on each other and started vomiting blood everywhere. And it didn’t stop with them, it spread. It was disgusting and horrifying and there was blood everywhere. School’s been called off for tomorrow because of it.”