A Mother's Struggle

Chapter 52

A buzz under my pillow wakes me up. I check the time before answering the caller. It's nine o'clock in the morning, what does Mavis want?

"Hello." I say in my raspy voice.

"Hi you, are you still in bed?" She asks.

"Yes," I say.

"How are you?"

"Tired."

"Wake up, do burpees then I will call you back."

"What's with you and burpees? I am tired Mavis." I tell her and let out a laugh.

"Come open the door you silly."

"What? You are here? At Thabo's house?" I ask her.

"Duh! Hurry."

I stand from the bed and rush downstairs to go open for her.

"It's so early Mavis."

"Not even 'I am so happy to see you,' it's okay." She pouts.

"I'm sorry, it's just that you woke me up. Honestly, I am thrilled to have you here. I get really bored."

She laughs at me and I show her where to sit and tell her that I will go wash my face and brush my teeth quickly before I come back. Also, I have to make breakfast.

I come back a few minutes later and we chat as I make breakfast for myself. As usual, she is making me laugh so hard.

"How did you know I live here?" I ask her as I take a sit next to her on the couch.

"It's obvious, I just had a conversation with Chris and turns out his best friend is your ex so it was pretty obvious that you would come here. You have no house right?"

"Oh, I guess. How are things going at the house?"

"Fine, Chris is horrible without you though."

"Did he send you?" I change from a friendly tone to a very pissed tone.

"No, not at all. I told you that he..."

"Can we not talk about him, with all due respect Mavis. When you are with me, do not ever mention 'you know who.'" I make myself sound clear and assertive.

"Okay. I'm sorry. What really happened between you too?"

"Mavis, do you want some juice or water?" I ignore her question.

"Water will be fine."

I stand up to go and pour water for her.

"So you get bored here? Even when you watch your history stuff?" She mocks.

"Mavis don't you have work to do?" I chuckle.

"I asked to come in late today so that I can hang out with you."

"How sweet, hang out or mock me?"

"I don't know the difference." She says and we both laugh.

"So I brought a few stuff so that we can bake. I figured you would love to bake with me." She says.

"Aww! You are so sweet. That would definitely be nice but, where are they?"

"I put them out in the garage when you were bathing or whatever you went to do upstairs."

"You are sneaky, I like it." I chuckle.

"Let me go get them,"
She stands up and goes to the garage to get the ingredients that she got.

I take everything available that we need from the pantry and place it on the counter. She came with the ready-mixed dough, and the best part is, it is the same flavor as the last time, blueberry. It's like she knows me.

"You get me." I say my thoughts out loud.

"Whatever. We are baking muffins okay. I am testing if you have been learning. So this time, you are going to be doing most of the work."
I look at her from the corner of my right eye and when she notices, she laughs at me.

"What, I am not joking."

"I learnt but I prefer you making them. See, if I am the one that makes them, I do not think that I will enjoy them as much as I would if you make them."

"You are crazy, you have to learn. What happens when I am not available. Just, okay I will help you just for today. Next time, you must bake and bring for me too. You must bake on your own." She emphasizes the last three words.

"Okay that is fair." I say and shrug.

"So, deal?"

"Deal." I assure her.

I get the pans from Thabo's oven. These pans look like they have never been used before, sparkly and squeaky clean. Mavis then switches the oven on, to let it pre-heat. After a few minutes, she takes it to 180 degrees.

Mavis does what she's good at and puts the mixed dough in the pans before she slides the pans into the oven.

Thabo walks in as we are baking and greets Mavis, Mavis greets back.

Here goes the blueberry smell getting to me again. It gives me strong cravings, as if I am not going to have these muffins for dinner.

My kids come in at exactly three, like everyday. At least they are not fighting today, I cannot deal with their fighting anymore.
They are also happy to see Mavis, she gives them R10 each. She is too nice.

Mavis finally takes the first two pans out of the oven.

"Ouch." I hear her say.

"What, what happened?"

She puts the pan on the counter before telling me that she burnt her pinky finger. I tell her to open cold water so that it runs on her finger.
I take out the muffins and put them in a big purple plastic bowl and load another pan. We are making three pans.

We check the time and it is already five. Time went by so fast. It does go fast when I am having a good time, always. When I was bored, it really dragged.

"You will take this pan out right? I really have to go home. I skipped work but I have to go check on things before I go home." She says.

"Yes, that is fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes now leave." We both share a laugh. Man, Mavis is a good distraction.

Thabo then offers to accompany Mavis while I stay and check on the muffins. At least my Wednesday was great, Mavis was great company.

We will eat left overs from yesterday and have blueberry muffins for dessert. I set up the table before Thabo comes and call the children down to eat.

The dinner table is great. I get to listen to everyone's adventures of the day since mine is nothing but sitting and lazying around in the house. So Thabo talks to us about what happened at work, Lesedi and Naledi tell us about their day at school and I keep lying, I tell them that I only watched television and did nothing else. It's not lying in a way, I am just leaving out some details, well, one little detail about me jogging every morning because I get bored. I just do not want them to know, nothing personal whatsoever, I just do not feel like telling them.

Lesedi says that he has three more exams to go then he is done with grade eight. Naledi will only start writing after Lesedi finishes writing and she hates that she will be going to school and her brother will be staying home. Shame!