Double Or Nothing

Chapter 7 ~ Mother Knows Best

It was the end of November, Christmas was around the corner, cafés were playing Christmas music and selling gingerbread lattes. People were putting decorations up and wrapping presents. In my opinion, it was still too early, but I didn't really care all that much.

I was sat at home, watching TV on a Saturday, Caleb and Josh had gone to get the shopping, and I had stayed behind to do some cleaning, which I had finished at this point.

The doorbell rang, and I thought it might have been the boys, possibly having forgotten their keys, so I went to answer it. Instead of my amazing boyfriends, I found a middle-aged woman stood on the doorstep, looking at me as though she had seen an angel.

'Ryan?' She asked, seemingly breathless.

'Mum?' I asked, staring at her. I hadn't seen her since she ran away from my dad, 6 years previously. It was disturbingly nostalgic to see her gain.

'It is you!' She yelled and as she did, she fell forward. I caught her and set her upright, I walked her into the house and made her sit down. She was obviously exhausted, she was thin, like she hadn't eaten in a month, and her lips were dry and chapped.

I made her a cup of tea and something to eat and she attacked it like she hadn't seen food or drink for days. She looked like she was on deaths door and I grew worried. My mum, though not perfect by any means, was the better of my parents, and tried her best to stick up for me against my dangerous father. Of course, I had a resentment that she didn't try harder, that she didn't take me with her when she ran away. Of course, looking at her now, I began to understand why. It appeared she had been homeless for some time.

I told her to have a nap on the sofa, and that I would sort more food out for her when Caleb and Josh came back from shopping. She didn't know who they were, so I told her they were the guys I lived with. I didn't feel it was the time to explain I had two boyfriends.

I let her sleep and ran her a bath, which I had just finished preparing when Josh and Caleb got back. The brought the shopping in, saw my mum asleep on the sofa and did a double take. Of course, they didn't say anything until they had me in the kitchen, away from her.

'Who is that?' Caleb asked. 'Why did you let a homeless person in our house?'

'That's my mum.' I told him. 'Remember she ran away from my dad when I was 13? Well she just turned up on the doorstep and I want to help her out. I mean, she can't live here really, the spare room has nothing in it to accommodate a person, but I figured I would at least let her in, give her something eat, let her have a bath, and then we could find somewhere for her to go.' I said, looking at Caleb with pleading eyes. Begging him to understand.

'Okay. We'll do that. I'll prepare a proper meal for her while she's in the bath. Josh, you look up the nearest places she can stay, temporarily, until we get her some official help. She ran away from domestic violence and turns up 6 years later, homeless and near-death. We can't let that go unnoticed.' He said. Josh nodded and walked to the spare bedroom to get his laptop, I woke my mum and told her I had ran her a bath and that Caleb was preparing a meal for her when she got out. She thanked me and went to the bathroom to get clean. There seemed to be months of grime coating her, and I worried even more. How long had she been on the streets? How did she find me? What had she gone through these past 6 years? Why was she so incredibly thin and unhealthy? All of these thoughts ran through my head as I watched her walk to the bathroom. Once I was satisfied that she was out of earshot, I walked back in the kitchen and up to Caleb.

'I wonder how she found me.' I mused. 'Homeless people don't exactly have access to computers, so they can't really look people up.' I noted.

'She could have used a library. Most of them have computers now, and they're free to use.' Caleb replied, shrugging. 'It's not completely impossible. It's actually pretty likely. She probably found out your dad had died and then tried to get in touch with you, because now she wouldn't have anything to fear. She probably didn't know you'd moved out, and thought that now it would be safe to come and find you, to get back in touch, to become part of your life again, if you wanted her to.'