The Repents

Chapter 7: Normal..Maybe?

"That's it..." Mom came into my room banging the door and stamping her feet. She was like she would slap me. Like getting out of the bed on the wrong side.
"Mom? What is it?" I asked.
"Its you..... I've had it with this mourning and crying." She scolded.
"What... I'm okay. Whats making you upset?" I tried to give her a wide berth.
She sat down next to me and held my hand, "Mavis.... I want you back please." She sounded sad now.
"Don't we mean anything to you? Is he the only thing that matters to you?"
" Mom, I' m okay."
"Thats a white lie."
The situation started to annoy me as I didn't want to talk about that.
"Okay! What do you want me to do? Dance around." I giggled.
"Well... How about shopping?" She laughed, as she knew I hated shopping.
"Oh! Okay! I'll get dressed."
She was so happy to hear this. It was my cousin Eleanor's wedding and wedding shoppings were kinda ok.
When it comes to shopping my mother is ever ready, no matter what. She showed me a two page shopping list. I had to show interest, I was not into shopping and stuff but all that emotional blackmailing got me into it. I was the designated driver for all expeditions, we dressed up and got all ready to go. Mom decided to take grandma along, I showed willingness as shopping with grandma would be more fun. Mom looked grim and determined as she emerged from her dressing room in a pair of khaki jeans and sweatshirt. There was a slight drizzle outside but it didn't dampen out her spirit, as we set off.
It was a bad decision as Sundays, as usual was a strike, there were people and cars about thousand in number. They filled every sidewalk and spilled into the main road. I had to drive very carefully to avoid men who walked on the road as if they were walking in there living room. Honking was not effective as apparently all of them were deaf. Some looking curiously and turned their heads of patience and ardent prayers. I managed to drive us to the car park. What hope! There were thousands of them gathered there, they were sitting there not allowing any car to be parked there. After some clever manoeuvres and near murders, we managed to get out of there.
We got out of the car and began the one kilometre walk to the shopping complex. We were particularly in the clothes shops. After some more manoeuvring, this time on foot, we managed to arrive. Mom smiled in triumph. However, her triumph wasn't long-lasting. Most of the shops were closed. Apparently the shop owners had less patience than we did. We looked at mom, she sighed and said,
"Mavis, lets get the hell out of here." She said in despair, letting out a rare swear word. We were glad to agree.
It took us half an hour to get back to the car. It was nice to sit in the air-conditioned car as I was sweating. I drove so fast on the way back home. Suddenly, mom spoke to break the silence, "Next Sunday......" I looked at her incredulously.
"Saturday" she corrected herself and we all started laughing.
It was fun, even though exhausting, but fun. It was to my disbelief that I was laughing, it seemed like ages now. I missed being normal and this expenditure was a good decision after all. I could see the relief on Mom's face.
"Diana.... How did you bring Mavi out?" Grandma teased mom while she looked at me.
"Well she needed this real bad." Mom replied,seeing eye to eye with me. She knew exactly what she meant.

The next week, Julie my neighbour came over to our house, with her two month old baby girl Jenny.
"Can you look after her for a while?" Asked Julie innocently.
I didn't expect any dark intentions; I had held her baby many times before while she went to shop in the town for a few minutes, so I nodded.
Then she dropped her on me like a ton of bricks
"I'm going to town for a few hours. Here's her bag of things." I was flabbergasted.
"B-bb-but," I stammered, but before I could say that I was not sure I could handle her, she bounded away. I had never seen her move so fast before. There was nothing I could do now; I carried little Jenny into my house. Mom looked at me and giggled, "Wow; you look like a mommy," saying this she walked to the kitchen laughing. All this made me forget my pain but I felt motherly, was strange but nice.
Gingerly, I carried Jenny to my room and lay her on my bed. She was asleep so I hurried to complete my maths assignment. Suddenly, a shrill scream out through the mathematic problem I was struggling with. Jenny was awake!
Dropping everything, I grabbed her and cuddled her close to me, as I had seen Julie do many times. That did not work; she continued screaming her lungs out. I continued cuddling her and cooing to her; nothing worked. Soon, I was close to tears. There was only one thing left to do; I screamed at the top of my voice; "Mom!"
She dashed in, "Awww. My baby" she smiled at me and then searched the baby's bag and took it away with her. In a few seconds, she returned with a bottle of milk in her hand. She trust it into mine and went out to do her chores. Bravely, I placed the bottle into Jenny's little mouth.
That was it!
She sucked the teat like there was no tomorrow; and I could see the milk disappearing from the bottle. She looked adorable. I felt so peacefully sweet, she was an angel. She made all my worries go away.
There was peace and quiet for couple of hours, Jenny laughed and played. I began to think that all it needed was a full tummy to keep the baby happy.
Then a stink filled the air!
I knew exactly what that was; I dashed out to seek help from the expert. She was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, she had stepped out for a while. I was alone!
In despair, I reached into the bag for a pamper. I had never done this before; thankfully there were instructions in pictorial form on the pack of the pamper itself. It took me 20minutes for the entire operation. When it was over. I felt proud of myself.
I held her in my arms for a while and saw her eyes drooping off to sleep. I decided to keep her in my arms. As she slept, an amazing maternal feeling came over me. I had actually handled a baby all by myself for the past 5hours.
I heard voices outside; Julie had returned. I carried Jenny and went out to meet her mother. She thanked me profusely and told me that she needed to get away for a while, because of her baby, she was stressed. She was beginning to forget who she was and didn't had a minute to herself. I felt sorry for her. I followed her as she led the way to her house. I lay Jenny in her cot and stood looking at her adorable face for a while. I put my arms around Julie.
"Anytime you need time for yourself, just call me, I will be happy to look after this little Angel!"