What My Mother Forgot

Thanksgiving

My Mother took us to see her sister, Debbie, in New York.

She had a son, my cousin, who was still in elementary school.

Like my little brother, he played video games. But unlike my brother, he was not required to let me hang out with them.

So for the week while we visited, they would play video games, and I had to just hang around my Aunt's house.

So...I tried to hang out with my mother and aunt.

And they hated it.

Or maybe they just hated me.

All they did was ask me to leave.

"Why don't you go play outside? They have a swing set." My mother said.

"Why don't you go walk around the neighborhood and make some friends?" My aunt asked.

I was 15 years old.

I wasn't going to wander around Schenectady looking to make a friend.

One morning, my aunt was in the kitchen making a homemade birthday cake for my uncle Bob.

I asked why she and my mother didn't want me around.

Sighing, she told me that my mother just needed a break.

"Maybe if you were a little nicer to her, she'd be nicer to you." She said.