The Worst Year Ever

Accomplishment

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

Accomplishment

My main goal for the next few days is to lie low and get my mother to stop thinking I'm psychotic or something along those lines. So what I'm going to do today is spend the entire day around Mom. If I'm around her the whole day, she'll realize that I'm as normal as I've ever been and to stop thinking I'm crazy.

I walk downstairs, and see my mom on her same spot on the couch, with the TV off and she's just staring off into space ahead of her. She's not crying, but looking at her dead expression on her face, I almost wish she was.

"Hey, Mom," I say, taking a seat on the far end of the couch, next to Mom's feet.

She slowly turns her head to look at me. "Hey, Helen."

It is silent for a moment, and I can feel the awkwardness in the air. Mom is back to staring dead ahead of her.

"So, Mom, do you want to do something?" I ask her, but she doesn't answer. "We can watch Netflix or something?"

Mom still didn't answer so I sighed and got up to turn on the TV and start up Netflix. I sat back down by Mom's feet with the remote in my hand. Mom did not move a muscle. I mentally rolled my eyes at how difficult she is being. I know that she lost her youngest daughter and she's torn up over it and I wish I could tell her that Skylar is still here, but the whole point of spending time with my mother right now is to get her to not think I'm mentally insane.

I scroll through a few movies on Netflix before choosing some comedy that I've never seen before. I chose a comedy on purpose because I feel like we both could use a laugh at this point in our lives.

Mom doesn't look at me or move at all as she says in a dead voice, "What brought all this on?"

"I just feel like we could use some quality time together," I explain to her and she doesn't answer.

We sit in silence watching the movie for a few minutes when I announce that I'm hungry and am going to order a pizza for us. After I order it, I take my place on the couch again.

I'm watching the movie, when I see something in the corner of my eye. I hesitantly look over and I see Skylar standing there and smiling at me. I'm shocked for a moment, and I know that if Mom were to move her head to see what I was looking at, Skylar would disappear. "I'm thirsty," I announce, walking in Skylar's direction, and walking past her to the kitchen, knowing that Skylar will follow me.

"What are you doing?" I ask, turning around to face Skylar.

"I just came to see my sissy!" Skylar exclaims with a huge smile on her face.

I roll my eyes and open the refrigerator to get a can of coke before turning to face her again. "Okay, you know that I want to spend the day around Mom so she stops thinking I'm crazy."

"Yep," she says, "And I just hope Mom sees you staring at something that isn't there and see what she does. And I hope that you don't mind if I burst out laughing when you are admitted into a psych ward at the hospital."

I roll my eyes again. "Just go away."

"Well, you seem like you're in a bad mood today," Skylar says, and I just push my way past her and go back to the living room.

I am surprised to see Mom sitting up on the couch now, looking like she's actually into the movie I put on. I'm about to say something to her when there' a knock at the door, and I'm about to go answer it and pay the pizza guy when Mom looks at me and says, "It's okay, honey, I got this."

I'm shocked but I don't argue. She answers the door and pays the pizza guy, and then she brings the pizza over to the couch and set it on the coffee table, and all the while, I just watch her in awe, because I think this is the most I've seen her move in two weeks. She looks up at me, and says, "What? Aren't you hungry? You're the one that ordered it."

I quickly close my mouth and try to act as normal as possible. "Oh, yeah, I know, it's just--" I stop as I see Mom's expectant look she is giving me. I was going to mention how I haven't seen her go so long without crying and how normal she's acting right now but I really didn't want to send her back into that depression. "Nothing," is all I say.

I sit down next to Mom and we both grab a slice of pizza and continue watching the movie. On a hunch, I look to my right and see Skylar standing there with a huge smile on her face and she put together her fingers in a form of a heart.

'Go away,' I mouth to her, but she just drops her hands to her sides, still smiling hugely and shakes her head.

I roll my eyes and try to concentrate on the movie, but I keep getting distracted by movement in my peripheral vision and I know it's Skylar, doing her best to annoy me, like always. I look over at her and she immediately stops moving and tries her best to look innocent but her sticking her tongue out at me ruins her innocent image she's trying to pull off.

I roll my eyes again, frustrated, because I'm just trying to spend some time with my mother and I'm trying to get Mom to see that I am fine and I'm not crazy but if I keep looking over Mom's head to my right and mouthing words to her, Mom is going to get suspicious again. Suddenly, I am struck with a brilliant idea. I need Skylar to go away and I suddenly know just how to do that.

"Hey, Mom, look over there," I say, pointing in Skylar's direction and Mom turns her head to look. The last thing I see is Skylar looking angry at my brilliance and then she disappeared into thin air, and I can't help but have a smug smile on my face.

Mom looks over at me curiously. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mom, I thought I saw a spider." I shrug my shoulders as if it's nothing and continue watching the movie. Mom just shakes her head, evidently letting go of my temporary abnormal eye sight.

Mom and I finish watching the movie but then I put on another comedy and then another one after that, and we both watch comedies all day and eat pizza until we are too tired to carry on and I go upstairs to my room, feeling a sense of accomplishment.