Misalignment | ✔

gone

I get a text from my mother
during sixth period
saying that I should
come straight home
after school
as quickly as possible -
and it's very important
that I hurry.
It's not like
I have anything else I
could be doing at school
instead,
but I tell her I will
anyway.

When I get home,
my mother is sitting
on the couch
watching the news
on our TV.
She doesn't normally
get home from work
until at least six,
so I figure it must be serious.
Clumsy as my mother is,
she's dedicated
to her job,
to the point where she's often
stayed late
and has forgotten to tell me
that she won't be home
for dinner.
Coming home
early
is unheard of
for her.

It must be serious,
then.

"Cam,"
she says
when she sees me,
a look of worry -
and maybe something else -
clouding her features.
It's an unfamiliar
expression on her;
she is usually so upbeat
and happy
that I have a
hard time processing
this new emotion.
"Do you remember
your grandmother?"
she continues after
half a second
of worried silence.
I take a second
to think.

My maternal grandparents had
dropped out of our lives
years ago,
right after I had been born
and just before my mother
had married my father.
He was the reason
they cut their ties with us,
actually.
They hated the man
so much
that they wanted nothing to do
with the rest of us
by extension.
Now, I can see why.
There's no fault on
their side
for hating him,
because we do too,
now,
but we still don't
associate with each other.
Even if the problem
has vanished,
there is just too much
bad blood
from years past
for us all to make amends.

To hear my mother mention
my grandmother -
her mother -
out of the blue like this
is unexpected
and worrisome
and I don't understand
why she's done it.
Vaguely, I can remember
her complaining
when we'd first moved here
that she lived fairly close
to our new home,
and that it was much too close
for her comfort.
I don't understand
why she's talking about
a woman I have never even
met
or heard from
in my entire life.

I guess my mother
can tell that much
from my face,
because she gets up
and starts towards me
with a cautious expression
on hers.
"She called me today,"
she says quietly.
"Well, the hospital
called me, actually.
She's...not doing
very well
right now.
They don't know how long
she has left -
and now that
your grandfather is gone..."
She stops,
takes a deep breath,
as if remembering her
deceased father.
"She wants to see us
one last time
before she's gone."

"She wants to see
you,"
I correct her.
"She doesn't even
know me.
The last time
she saw me
was when I was
less than a year old.
She won't remember me."

My mother doesn't
seem convinced.
"She's family,
and she's dying,
Cam.
She has no one left.
Please, do this
for her -
for me.
Think of how
you would feel
in her situation.
I don't like
what she did to us
any more than
you do,
but it's the
right thing
to do."

I'm honestly tired
of trying to do right
in a world full of wrongs -
but my mother is
too persuasive
and too good at
guilting me into things
for her own good.
She's looking at me now
with that face that says that
I'd be a fool to say no
to her now.
"All right,"
I groan at last.
"Fine,
I'll go.
But I won't like it
one bit."

Grinning ruefully, she
ruffles my hair
like she did when
I was much younger -
but the sadness in her eyes
that I haven't yet
put a name to
still lingers in spite of it.
"I won't either,"
she assures me
with a small,
empty laugh.
"Not a single bit."

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If you guys liked this chapter, please feel free to vote and leave me some feedback below. I'd love to hear from you guys!

Also, Misalignment has reached 500 reads!! Thank you guys so much! Everyone's support means a ton to me, and I know I probably say it a ton, but you guys are amazing and I'm really thankful to have made it this far. ;u;

Another side note: I recently started another series of poems called Complications, and it's basically going to be prequel of sorts to a story I plan on writing in the future. If you guys want to check it out, that would be awesome. c: