Mirror in the Sky

Chapter 2 - Send Nudes

Chapter 2 - Send Nudes

"Yosie, your mother is nearly nude."

Astrid arrives and takes a seat beside me, her eyes glued to where my mother sits with her tata's out. Astrid wears a pair of figure-hugging jeans that I know cost the same as good teeth whitening kits. Her silky pinkish blouse contrasts nicely with her shoulder-length hair, a trendy shade of blonde gray which makes you question if she's young or doesn't wrinkle much.

She's from Alesund, Norway and I often wonder if everyone from there is a Norse Goddess.

"Can you be considered an orphan if one of your parents is still alive?" I shove a fry in my mouth and slide to the edge of my seat. I know I should go over there and stop Mom, make her put her blouse on. But for some reason I seem to have hit some sort of wall.

Of all the moments, I feel this wave of resentment. That instead of Mom being the parent, I'm now the parent.

Not that Mom seemed to ever view herself as a motherly figure. She didn't care if I went to school, brushed my teeth, or ate my veggies. She certainly didn't buy me braces. There's no shame in not getting braces for your child; plenty of parents can't afford them. Somehow, I knew, even if they'd been free, she'd never have thought about it though.

But as emotionally absent as she'd been, she'd managed to take care of the household bills, keep food in the fridge, and go to work every day at the job du jour until she inevitably quit.

Which is why I feel like I need to take care of her now.

"Well your very alive mother is stripping."

"I'd take all the childhood neglect just to never have to tell her to put her clothes back on."

"She's done this more than once?"

I nod. "It began last year when I visited Phoenix for her birthday. Two days in, she was disrobing all around town. That's when I knew something was seriously not okay with her behavior."

"She took off her clothes in Phoenix, too?"

"Yep. She's a nudist, but throwing your bra from a moving vehicle speaks to something deeper going on. That and she'd been losing her keys, leaving her wine bottles in a sock drawer, and her toothbrush in the freezer. So, I booked an emergency appointment with her doctor."

"What did they say? And why didn't you tell me before?"

I shrug. "When I got back home in Bellevue, the doctor phoned and told me the diagnosis was Early Onset Dementia."

I'm brought back for a second when the phone had almost slipped out of my hand. How was that possible? She was only sixty-five. Sure she'd been having mild symptoms for years, but I'd always thought it was stress. This wasn't supposed to happen till she got as old as the Queen of England.

"Are you going to do something about it?" Astrid whispers. She doesn't mean dementia, she means nudity.

I shove more fries in my mouth. If I go over to the bar and force Mom to put on her shirt, I can't in good conscience go on the hike. No way. If I acknowledge what's happening, I'll have to face that I can't leave her alone in Bellevue whilst I traipse over Swiss mountains like I'm in forgotten Sound of Music footage.

Astrid turns her head back and forth between my mother and I with a puzzled expression. "She's starting to unbutton her pants."

"I've been stopping her ever since I picked her up in Phoenix. She just won't keep her clothes on." I groan. "I can't go on the hike. Can you tell Marnie for me? I feel so, so bad —"