“Who? Who knows what?” I asked.
“You never told him but he knows.”
My blood ran cold at her words. My mother had been a believer in many unusual things when I was growing up. Dad always humored her and accepted whatever the latest embrace of the alternative was. He loved her unconditionally and I believe toward the end of his premature life, he’d seen enough of the unexplainable that he began to wonder about the connection Mom had with the spiritual world.
“Mom, who are we talking about?”
“Cooper, of course. I speak with him and your father regularly,” she stated, as if she’d just hung up from a call with both of them. “Dad says hi, honey. And Cooper is waiting.”
“Mom, are you taking too many pain pills?” I asked. “You sound a bit . . . uhm . . . are you okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine, honey. I don’t take their poison pills. I’ve had my edible today though,” she confessed. “You remember the blueberries I was telling you about?”
Her blueberries were flavored THC laden candies in a blueberry shape. “How many have you had?” I blurted with a chuckle.
“One,” she said. “Maybe a couple.”
“And you’re not taking the pain meds Marie prescribed?”
“I can’t be present for my visions and the celebration of my earthly life if I’m all doped up on that venom. Besides, what do opioids do for you? Bunch of overprescribed, mind numbing, concoctions if you ask me.”
I kept my annoyance to myself. We both knew the prognosis. We were very aware that she had one, maybe two months tops. “The pain okay?” I asked. “You’re not hurting?”
“You don’t believe me about Dad and Cooper, do you?” she asked, blowing past my questions once again. “You know, the fact that we talk and stuff.”
“Mom, it’s weird, okay?” I argued. “They’re both dead.”
“Maybe here they are,” she said. “In this spectrum perhaps, but not in the next.”
I knew better but opened the door anyway. “The next?”
“The next location, honey,” she explained, as if she were teaching me about gravity. “Where we go next in these limitless parallel universes around us.”
“Okay, Mom. I hope you’re right and I truly respect your opinions but back to the medicine. I want you to take your pills and agree to one more round of chemo. For me?” I asked, pulling out the last weapon I had to weaken her defenses. Mom hated disappointing her only child.
“I’m done with all that, Michael. I have a lot to do to prepare for my next journey. I love you, but I’m not interested in feeling horrible for the last few weeks of life in this realm if that’s okay with you?”
Her acceptance of her predicament frightened me. I couldn’t be without her. “I can’t lose you, Mom,” I whispered. “I’ll be all alone if you don’t fight harder.” I broke into sobs, my tears dripping onto my cold eggs. I knew the end was near and that I selfishly wanted my mother to take whatever gave her the slightest chance of a miracle. Dad was dead. Cooper was dead. Jennifer was gone. I couldn’t lose my mother.
“I’ll find you, honey. Just like Dad and Cooper found me,” she soothed. “Trust me, honey, you’ll know it’s me.”
“I don’t want you to find me, Mom,” I cried. “I don’t want you to leave me alone in this world.”
And then out of the blue. “But what if you could see Cooper again?” she asked.
I loved my mother but I needed a blueberry.
CHAPTER SIX: Mike
Fifteen Years Ago
“See, I told you,” I stated, staring down at Cooper who was on his knees and inches from my dick. He wasn’t convinced as he shook his head. “Look really close,” I urged.
He did as I asked and then looked up, still on his knees. “Wow,” he said. “You do. And your dick is bigger too,” he added, getting to his feet. “Check mine.”
Cooper pulled his shorts and underwear down while I crouched down in front of him. We were doing our weekly pubic hair check, like we’d done since our thirteenth birthdays last month. My pubes were finally growing but I had bad news for him. “Nothing,” I reported.
He appeared bummed. “You sure? Could ya look again, Mikey?”
