Mirror Mirror

Chapter 18

This Chapter is dedicated to SparklyPopz...Cos you are awesome!!  And I promised ;)  Hope you enjoy it.

Jarrod went home.  While dragging his little load off the taxi, and cursing the driver for his fare, his mother opened the door to greet him.  He stood there on the sidewalk and stared at her for a moment, and then said, although he didn’t know why, “What are you still doing here, ma?” 

That got him a mouthful from his mother.  Secretly, he was glad she was there.  After realizing how hard it must be for Stephen to have to go through life alone, he suddenly felt very blessed.  He dropped his bags where he stood, and hurriedly ran towards his mother and hugged her fiercely.  She was stunned. 

Then she smiled to herself as she hugged him back, and that was the best feeling he’d had in a long time.  And just like that, they broke the embrace.  Jarrod went back to fetch his luggage.  His mother cleared her throat, and so did he.  They looked at each other uncomfortably for a second, and then she was back.  The same old ma.  She started firing questions at him.  She asked him where he had run off to, what he’d been up to, and, after a whole lot of other things, she told him that he smelled like he’d been swimming in the sewers.

Jarrod smiled inwardly.  Whatever kind of love they had, this was the only way they knew how to express it.  He’d take what he got.  Once in a while, when she wasn’t being such a big nag, she made a pretty good mother.

The pudgy old woman looked at her son.  She was proud of him no matter what he did.  He was the only one who had kept an eye on her, and sent her money, even though he’d insist it wasn’t him.  There she stood, thinking that once in a while, when he wasn’t trying so hard to be the black sheep of the family, he made a pretty good son.       

Inside the house, Jarrod raced into his room and threw himself on the bed, the bag opened, and clothes strewn from the doorway to where he lay.  He looked around his room as if it were the first time he set foot inside.  Taking a deep breath, he swept his gaze across the room to his cupboard.  He sat up and grinned.  He had to decide what to wear today.  His excitement grew as he got off the bed and opened it.  He was going to meet Sarah today.  The thought filled his stomach with butterflies.  As he rummaged in his drawers for something suitable, his mother knocked his door and asked him, “Jarrod, have you eaten yet?”

“Yeah.  I ate already.”  He answered as he fiddled with the buttons on a shirt he’d taken out. The rest of his clothes were discarded around the bedroom, thrown without care on anything and everything.

She pushed the door open slightly and asked if she could come inside.  

He threw the shirt on the bed and pulled the door wide open, startling her in the process.

“Whaat?”  He said when she looked from him to the colourful combination of shirts and pants and now rumpled Tees, and then back at him again.

“Whaat?”  She repeated, somewhat amused. “Just ‘whaat’ are you up to, son?”  She said teasingly as she cleared a small space to seat her very large frame on.

“Ma!  Don’t, okay?  I have a date tomorrow and I need something to wear.”  He ran his fingers through his hair and turned away from her laughing eyes.

He found this playful mother of his a little unnerving, considering the way they usually were with each other.

“Jarrod, I know you and I didn’t get along very well, but, I was hoping we could talk.”   She took a deep breath, waiting for him to turn around, then, “There’s something I have to say to you.”  She finished in a rush.

He dropped his hand from his head and looked at her strangely.  Something had to be up.  The fluttering in his stomach grew worse when his eyes met with hers.  She sat there with both hands folded on her lap; her eyes were no longer filled with laughter, her chubby cheeks twitched as she tried to force a smile.  She looked sad, alone and sad.