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TWENTY-NINE
Carter
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Sunday evening, I scrollthrough my phone, trying to find the best pool contractors in Colorado. They are definitely few and far between. Being as swimming pools are only used between May and maybe October, it’s understandable why more people don’t invest in them. Still, Taryn was right, I really need to put one in my backyard. There’s too much space and it would be nice to entertain here more often in the summers.
I submit a few online requests to be called back for not only the pool, but travertine stone and an outdoor kitchen as well. I can already hear my wallet crying from where it sits on the entryway table.
My phone rings while I’m holding it, the screen reading an unfamiliar number.
“Hello?” I answer, thinking no way one of these contractors is already calling me five minutes after I submitted a quote request.
“Carter?” a female voice asks.
“Yes?” I reply, confused as to who this sad voice can belong to.
“It’s Mom,” she says. “Do you have a minute?”
I try to steel my emotions and practice some patience. “What do you want?”
“I need some help, son.”
“What else is new? If you’re calling to ask for money, my answer is still the same.”
When she used to call for money, I always gave it to her and never saw it again. At first, I didn’t care if she didn’t pay me back, but the more frequent it got, the more I realized she was using me.
“I’m gonna get evicted. I just need seven hundred to keep my place,” she says.
“So, I haven’t heard from you in, what, two years, and now you call because you want money?”
“I wanted to see you. It’s just, the pandemic, and—”
“Didn’t prevent phone calls,” I snap, interrupting her.
“Well, you didn’t call me either,” she defends.
I laugh humorlessly. “Really, and how would you know that? Oh, yeah, because you change your number so often, I’m usually greeted by an unfamiliar person telling me I have the wrong number. So I stopped trying to call.” I look at the phone screen at the Colorado Springs area code. “Is this your new number now? You living in Springs?”
“Yes, it’s a little cheaper to live here than Denver. I just need seven hundred so I’m not out on the street.”
“What are you doing with all your money, Mother?” I ask, already exasperated.
