STALKER

Chapter 98 - 1st May

Mum's meltdown was running ahead of schedule. It started when I arrived with Weirdo in tow and she had only just managed to squeeze a seventh chair around the family 6 person dining room table. Adam the cowardly bastard didn't ring to warn her he was bringing Ari along. So when I showed up with Weirdo I got the full brunt of her anger....it wasn't pleasant.

I introduced Weirdo, aka Peter to Mum, David, and Ari who hadn't met him before.  Dad, Max, and Adam greeted him like an old friend. I was pleased they had taken a liking to him after only meeting him once.  That was another thing that peeved mum, dad knowing something about her boys' lives, that she didn't.  She'd been left out of the loop.   Didn't we all know she was the font of all knowledge when it came to family affairs?  

And of course, there was the issue of my hair.  The minute I walked in the door she looked at it and flinched, seriously?  Flinched, I kid you not.

Mum sent me out to get a garden chair with the sort of look on her face that as a child would have had me quaking in my shoes. As an adult, I still found it intimidating. However, being the perfect hostess that she is, mum was all smiles in front of the guests. Mum made them feel at home and fussed over them.

When I returned with a green plastic chair I set it down next to my usual spot. Dinner was going to be a bit squishy.

There wasn't enough room on the table for the serving dishes with two extra places set, so mum asked for a volunteer to help with serving up in the kitchen. She asked nicely but she was glaring at me from the doorway, arms crossed, spatula ready to come down on me like the wrath of God if I annoyed her any further.

Once in the kitchen, my petite, demure mother pounced.  "Why?" Punch in the arm. 

"Didn't you." Punch in the arm. This was getting painful.  "Tell me you were bringing someone along." I moved...the punch missed.

"Geez, mum have you been working out or something? That hurts." I rubbed my arm. The woman has bony knuckles.

"You know I like to have everything just so when we have guests." Mum turned her attention to placing the roast potatoes neatly in a tray alongside steaming mushrooms and onions.

"It wasn't planned. Weirdo arrived just as I was leaving. It made sense to bring him along." I was lured by the smells of mum's cooking and picked up one of the roast potatoes.   

Then as if she saw me for the first time tonight.  "And don't get me started on that hair."  That time it was a smack on my hand and I dropped the potato back in the tray.

"I don't know if I've cooked enough." Double tap punch. Damn, I didn't see it coming, I was so engrossed in the roast potato. My arm was going numb. She ran around the kitchen like a mad chook piling different vegetables into dishes and slicing up a huge tray of homemade lasagne.

"Mum you always make enough for us to have three helpings. I'll stake my life on the fact you have enough to feed us all." I moved to the other side of the room, my arm couldn't take any more.  I wondered how I survived my childhood.

"That's not the point." Finally finished she stood checking everything.

"Start at my end and go counterclockwise and then come back for the next lot. OK." I am sure mum, in a past life, was one of those mean-looking drill sergeants you see in movies. Serving dinner was like a military manoeuvre.

"Yes mum I know, you tell me every time." Punch. Damn ooouch, enough already.

"Don't be a smart arse." We went out with the trays of food.