Barbara looked her son in the eyes and smiled at him. Even though he was a grown man, he still had bits of that young child she raised. Oftentimes, the young child would gleam through in certain and very specific moments that only a mother would be able to notice. Like the saying went: Mother knows best.
"Did I ever tell you the story of the time I beat up a crippled kid?" Barbara asked. She knew she hadn't but she wanted to change the atmosphere, just slightly, and bring in a much more positive (ironic) vibe. James looked at his mother in shock.
"You beat up a crippled kid?" James asked. Barbara nodded with a smile. "Well please do tell."
"Ok, so when I was in the fifth grade, there was this kid bamed August Welch. He was a jerk. A real fool's fool. He would constantly keep getting in trouble but no one really did anything about it because he was crippled. During my fifth grade year, my mother got me this very nice sparkly coat. It made me feel like one of the rich kids by just having it. Well, one day I was wearing it to school and what do you know, August comes around and spills his food on my coat on purpose. I get so embarrassed that I ran away in tears and cried. The next time I saw him, I got my schoolbooks and I started whacking him. I went after him to which he was screaming and crying and begging me to stop. I stopped and he never messed with me again." Barbara said.
James sat there and took everything in at once. This changed a lot of the ways he saw his mom. But they didn't change for the worst. If anything, they changed for the better. For the way way better.
James took a final sip of his coffee and just sat there thinking about the times he and his sister would lay on the trampoline and look up at the stars. How ever so slightly the sky seemed to move and change like some radical phenomenon. He smiled at the merry and shared it with his mother.
"Remember when me and Michelle would lay on the trampoline out back and stare at the sky. We'd watch the stars and the sky move as the world slowly rotated around the sun. Who knew that those would be looked back as the halcyon days. To be honest, I've spent all my childhood wanting to be grown up. I never got to live my childhood like a child. I was so intent upon becoming an adult and now that I'm one, all I long for is to go back. To go back to those days where I didn't need to worry about words like mortgages, loans, taxes, bills, student debt, insurance, fees, and etc. I could wake up and leave that stuff for the grown ups and now that's what I am...a grown up. I wasn't ready for a damn thing. Not a damn thing at all." James said.
Barbara looked at him and nodded. There was a silence that fell amongst them. A silence that didn't need to be broken. It was peaceful and tranquil. It was a nice recollective moment where it felt as if the entire world remained in silence to salute this event. James broke it suddenly.
"I'm gonna go to the city and wander around if that's alright." James said. Barbara nodded.
"Sure." Barbara said.
"Call me if you need anything. I will arrive as soon as I can." James said as he got dressed and headed to the city with Can't Fight The Moonlight by Leann Rimes playing on the radio.
He turned on the pop radio because he knew Eileen liked it and he wanted to feel as if she were still with him and not in a hospital bed in a coma that made every new day nothing short of a burden.
YOU ARE READING
The Things That Will Be
Novela Juvenil"If there's no struggle, there's no progress." - Frederick Douglass When a young couple expect a newborn, they are unaware of what the future holds when one of them slips into a coma and the baby becomes a sti...
