The Cub in the Water

BAD TIMING

My mom's threatening looks where not in vain, my brother's birth marked the beginning of a new era.

During the two weeks after our little incident, my mother barely spoke to me. She just pronounced the necessary words to get through the daily routine, "Hello. Goodbye. Here's money for lunch. There is food in the fridge. Goodnight. Yes. Aha," all of them quite icebreakers, don't you think?

As the days passed, I tried to start some sort of small, "Hey Mom, how are you? How was your day at work? Did you have fun?"

"Fine," and "Yes, thank you," were the answers every time. She didn't leave any kind of space for another question or commentary. She shut the door completely. After a few failed attempts to put the bad experience behind us, I decided to let it go and give her time to get over whatever super offensive thing I had done to her.

The moment came for my dad to pick me up, and all she had to say was, "See you Sunday, goodbye."

"Thanks, mom, see you Sunday! Love you!" I got a complete and creepy silence in return.

Honestly, I was beginning to get used to it. Not that it didn't hurt, but I guess I was getting used to what this kind of attitudes brought up in me. It wasn't all sweat and tears though, spending time with my dad and Jason washed every bad feeling, at least for a while.

Sadly, things couldn't remain as peachy. The problems arose when we failed to be on time at six 'o'clock sharp on Sunday's afternoons. And I'm not talking about hours late or even half an hour, no sir.

Brace yourself.

With the baby and all the things surrounding him, it took us a little more time to get ready to leave after our weekends together. I mean, my dad had to help Mildred get all set up to be with the Jason by herself and I was too in love with my brother to be in a hurry to leave him. Naturally, our arrival time started to suffer a little bit.

And so, our first dramatic scene happened for the first time the next weekend after the, "don't you dare to call him that," debacle.

We literally arrived like ten minutes – tops - after 6 'o'clock. She answered the door, let me in, and waited for my dad to say goodbye and be on his way. Then, she came into my room, "Grab your things. You can't live here anymore".

"Huh?" I answered in a very confused tone.

"You heard me, pack your things and leave. If you are not willing to respect the rules of this house, you should not live here."

"I don't understand, mom. What did I do wrong?"

"I am not your servant for you to have me here waiting around for you, for you to come home at whatever hour suits you. You didn't arrive at the established hour. You are making a fool out of me. I don't want someone that does not respect me or my home living under the same roof. Go! Go now!

I was in quite a bit of a shock to move or say anything.

"You are quite happy with your father and his new family, aren't you? Then go live with them. I hope you will treat them with the respect you lack for me."

During her speech to me, my emotions mutated from one to another. At first, I felt confused as hell. Then I thought I had walked into a twilight zone where my mom had just lost her mind. But as she continued to ramble on and on about how I could not respect her, her time or her home, I started to feel guilty and terribly sad. I could see it in her eyes, she meant every single word she said, and my heart could not understand why. I kept thinking, 'is ten minutes late that bad?'