AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After all the stress of my presentation this morning at the Hawkeyes stadium, it’s nice to be back in my mom’s apartment.
It smells like her cooking and my favorite childhood dish, offering some much-needed comfort. “In the kitchen, Juju bean!” she responds.
It's her only day off this week from her job as a nursing assistant at the hospital. I wish she would take it easy but my brother is going through a phase where he’ll only eat my mom’s baked ziti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without the crust.
Every week she takes the package to his group home and gives it to the nursing staff for his meals during her frequent visits.
I walk into the kitchen to find four foil baking pans full of the delicious pasta dish.
“You made four pans? Can he eat all of that in a week?” I ask.
Though my brother is younger than me, he towers over my mom and I. He got our dad’s six foot one height. He could probably eat it all if the nursing staff let him.
“No, of course not," she says with a grin. "I like making a couple extra for the staff; they enjoy my cooking too.
“Of course, they do,” I smile back, taking the last few steps towards the small four-person table at the end of her small galley kitchen.
It’s not like the huge kitchen I grew up in when my father was a pro baseball player for Seattle. But when he got injured, he lost his contract and sunk into a deep depression. Then, slowly, we lost everything else. The house… the cars… everything, including him.
Last I heard, he lives in an RV trailer park on the ocean in California. He retells his glory days at some local bar to anyone who will listen.
He doesn’t reach out and neither do I.
He doesn’t even call to check in on Jerrin or offer to help my mom pay for anything. That’s what gets me the most.
“Here,” she says, setting down a plate of piping-hot noodles, melted cheese, and sauce, along with a glass of milk for me. “I made enough for us, too. I’d never forget my best girl.”
She leans down and kisses the top of my head.
Her best girl…
How do I tell her I’m about to disappoint her in a way I never thought I would?
“Well, I hope you still feel that way when I tell you some good news.”
“No matter what news you have, you will always be my best girl… you know that.”
My mom heads back down the narrow kitchen and starts to dish herself up a plate as well.
Now is the time to break the news so I don’t have to tell her while she’s staring back at me face to face.
“So the bank won’t be coming through for me in time to secure Jerrin's spot but I have a better option,” I say quickly.
My mom pauses mid-spatula scoop. “No bank?”
“No, not the bank. But I've found a better solution where I won't have to repay the money. I'll earn it.”
If you can call marrying a man for two years “earning it”.
“You’re going to earn thirty-five thousand dollars in three days? What exactly will you be doing?” she asks her brow lifting in concern.
She doesn’t like the sound of it already and if I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t like it either.
She still hasn’t scooped her portion of dinner out of the small glass casserole dish she made just for us.
I wish she would do something besides stare at me.
Why do I feel like a call girl when I’m trying to explain it to my mother?
