Page 108 of People Skills

I watch her crack an egg and swear and then try to dig pieces of the shell out of the bowl with a spoon and then her fingers.

‘Your dad will be home soon,’ she says. ‘Almost, almost. Got it.’

She looks at me triumphantly, eggshell on the tip of her thumb.

‘So, what did we do to deserve your presence today?’

‘It’s my birthday this week.’

‘I know, sweetheart, but we were going to come to you. Since you hate leaving your little town.’

‘No, I don’t.’

‘Well, you could have fooled me.’

‘I’m just busy.’

‘That’s why I’m asking. You’re taking a Monday off. Shocking. What will that woman do without you?’ Mum loves to exclusively call Hillary ‘that woman’.

‘I have a lot of time in lieu.’

‘I bet you do. All you do is work.’

‘That’s generally what happens when you have a full-time job.’

‘How’s the son? Xander or whatever his name is?’

‘Xavier. He’s good. He’s fine.’

‘Have you fixed him yet?’

‘I’m not fixing him.’

‘Well, whatever it is that woman has you doing.’

‘Not really.’

‘Well, it’s a fool’s game, trying to fix a man, in any capacity. They don’t change.’

‘You don’t think people can change?’

‘Women can. Men can’t.’

‘What about Dom and Vinnie? They’ve changed.’ They’re more responsible these days—than they were in their early twenties, at least.

‘They are exactly the same as they were when they were babies. They’ve been the same from the moment I felt the first kicks in the womb.’

‘Wow. Okay. What about me?’

She squints at me. The thing about Mum is she’ll tell me the truth. She won’t suck up to me, even though it’s my birthday, even though she doesn’t really want to have a fight. She’ll still answer the question straight.

‘I don’t know if you’ve actually changed or you just want me to think you have.’

That is a classic Mum answer.

‘Where’s my girl?’ Dad yells, opening the front door.

There’s something about Mum that makes me feel tougher, harder, ready to battle, and then Dad walks in and I want to cry and crawl into my bed and I can’t even pinpoint what might be wrong.