Forlot: A Girl Who Needs Her Space - Book Thirty-Two

Chapter Forty

This is the first time that I met Karma's mom. Her dad too if he decided to show his face. Yes, the rude woman was her mother. She confirmed it when I asked. As she rambled, I pondered how my friend never once invited me to her home. We never had a sleepover in her room or hung out with her parents. Mom and my aunt never swung by their house to give them goodies or catch up. Would it not be natural for our parents to be friends or at least, on good terms with our friends' parents? Mom is...was a friendly lady. Perhaps too friendly during her youth, which explains the seven children. Now she had only one kid. No sons. She had just one mouth to feed.

Karma's mom snapped her fingers in my face, startling me. Her voice was now sharp. "I asked what will it take for you to get off private property."

"I will be inclined leaving your property after talking to your daughter. I am her friend Carmen."

She squinted. "What do you want to talk to her about?"

I could not tell her that some time-traveling entity was chasing me and Karma to get my time-traveling watch. Why does a time-traveling entity want a time-traveling watch? Beats me. Maybe the watch unlocks a new time power. If he gets his ugly hands on the watch, he might become unstoppable. I had made a deal with him. If he provided me with my alternate reality, I would provide him with the watch. A father and the absence of my six brothers for my powerful watch that might destroy the world. The universe. How could I have been so selfish? I must figure a way out of my sticky situation before he reappears.

Karma's mom was bringing her hand to my face, ready to snap her fingers again. I quickly conjured up a lie. "I want to ask if she would like something given to me by my dead grandparents." I was praying that by bringing up my grandparents, she would be a little nicer.

Her cold expression remained. "What is it?"

The first thing that came to mind was that music box. I went with it. "My grandparents' music box. It was near and dear to them. So I want to gift it to the person near and dear to me. Karma. Without her...my life would be bland. I would not be the girl that I am today."

She leaned against the doorframe. "Your gesture is just too generous. Too bad that my husband and I really do not give a crub."

My hands were suddenly sweaty. My eyes were wide. It was difficult finding the right response. All that I could say was "E-excuse me? Why do—"

"Karma is not here anyway."

"She is almost never here," a male voice added. "Likely getting in trouble. Today might be the day that she will not return home. One can only hope." He had to be her father. If he was...how could he even say that about his own daughter? If Dad said the same about me, I would slap out his ignorance!

I started feeling unnerved with these 'parents.' I had to find Karma before she did a regrettable act.

Remaining calm, I asked, "Has she ever mentioned me to you? We see each other almost every day. I take that statement back. Not a day has flown by that we did not hang out. We act like long, lost sisters."

"The only reason that I did not interrupt you this time, Caramel, is because we wanted to know how much you know," the mom confessed, annoyance and rage in her scratchy voice.

Even with my brothers gone, I still get called Caramel.

"Know what?"

"Did Karma send you? Or was deceiving us your idea?" She pushed herself off the doorframe. "She likely never mentioned to you that sabotaging us would not be easy like pie."

"Whichever genius came up with that phrase obviously never baked a pie in his or her life," the dad remarked. "Feels like heck!"

I understood why the mom smelled of alcohol and why their words were not adding up. They were not normal parents. They were drunks now. They could not handle much alcohol. This may be another unpopular opinion, especially for the wokies, but stop the alcohol or do not go overboard once you are a parent. If you want to care for another living being, you must make sacrifices. You can still have fun, of course, but family must come first - unless that they treat you like a doormat.

Hopefully, Karma's parents do not treat her like one.

My voice shook. "I-I am not...I...s-should go." No point in arguing with a couple drunks.

"If you do not get off the property in five seconds, I will be on the phone with the cops," Karma's mom warned. She shut the door.

I sprinted back down to the sidewalk. I stopped when I was a good distance away from the troubled adults and began pondering where I should search for Karma first while catching my breath. Where are our most favorite hangouts? First, I investigated Cindy's Bookstore. Glad that I did. She would have died had I not intervened in time.

I trotted into the store and started my search.

"Where is everybody?" I said. "All the lights are on, but nobody is home."

No customers or clerks. Obviously, this store was open because the door was unlocked. And the purple sign on said door read OPEN in white letters. Maybe the clerks were taking a looooong break in the back. Maybe today was slow. But I was trying to find my bestie, not books.

Shortly, I was back to where I began. No Karma or any signs that she was here. I approached the checkout and was going to ring the bell.