Lurking In The Moonlight

Chapter Twenty-Two: Hardest Pill To Swallow

I could only stare at him, as he sat on the other side of the glass. He had cuffs on his hands, and smoked a cigarette while holding the connecting phone to his ear, waiting patiently for me to pick up the other end. I just stared. I didn't know what to say. After everything that happened.

BEEP.....

BEEP....

BEEP......

These were the first sounds I heard as I came back to the land of the living. I opened my eyes and was blinded by all of the light, white surfaces that surrounded me. I turned my head to find I was also surrounded by handmade 'get well' cards. I looked up to see I was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV was connected to my arm. I couldn't make out what the bag read, but it must have been for dehydration.

"Well, it's about time. You know I hate to wait." I turned my head to the opposite side of the room, to find my mother sitting there, with a table in front of her, scattered with paper, probably work related. "And I've been waiting for you to wake up for three days."

"Three days?"

"Yes, you've been out for five." She moved the table aside, grabbing her mini flashlight, grabbing my eyelids and blinding me even more. "Pupils are dilating, which is good." She then reached down, tapping my arm, which had a cast on it. "You were hit by a car. Luckily for you, it was going at a slow speed. You're left arm is broken in the humerus, a few broken ribs, cuts and bruises that will heal over time, but otherwise fine."

"Why are you here?" She looked down at me with no emotions.

"You still have me on your emergency contact." She sat back down, going back to her paperwork. "I was on the other side of the country, speaking at a convention when I got the call, or else I would have been here sooner."

"Why are you here?" I asked again, not believing for a minute that she would come just because she was my emergency contact.

"You're my daughter. Of course, I'd come."

"Bullshit," I said, giving me a glare. "I've known you my entire life and not once did you give a shit whether I was alive or dead, and now you show up because you got a call." I leaned my head back against the pillow. "Bullshit."

"Sandra." She said before clearing her throat and continuing. "I'm still your mother. Whether you believe me or not, I do care if you're alive or dead."

"Then where have you been my whole life?"

"I was there."

"When it was convenient for you!" I shouted at her, causing the heart monitor to beep loudly as my heart rate went through the roof. "You were never home! Always working or work parties, and if you weren't there you were off fucking a different guy every night!" She stared at my outburst, taken back that I said that too her. "You weren't there for me when I was bullied in school. You weren't there when I graduated high school at the top of my class, or when I was the top in my college."

"I was working, providing you with the best life any kid could ask for."

"I came home from school to an empty house. I ate alone. I sat in the dark, alone. When you came home, you were never alone. One man after another, as I sat alone. Wondering what I did to make you not want to be with me." I couldn't stop the tears from flowing down my face. "I remember getting my period for the first time and the nurse asking me if my mother explained it to me. You didn't. You weren't there. I remember coming home after Taylor Jackson beat the living shit out of me. I bleed on the kitchen floor, cleaning up my wounds by myself." I looked her straight in the eye, trying to find some shred of emotion on her plastic face. "You told Doug I slept to get where I was and he tried to rape me a few weeks ago. Because of you, he thought it was okay to do whatever he wanted to me because that's was something I did."