The Cub in the Water

NOT COOL BRO, NOT COOL

After the intended to be super friendly lunchtime, my mom was nowhere to be found or at least nowhere to be found by me. If moving in with Karina and her family wasn't offensive enough for her, I'm sure Lois going all August Osage County on her did the trick for good. She stopped calling, she stopped texting, msn messaging and every other sort of communication we had during that time.

Truthfully, I wasn't dwelling on the whole idea. I mean of course I felt bad about not speaking to her - even after our last conversation, I felt like everything was so messed up that I didn't know if things would ever be the same for us - despite all the uncertainty, I was still feeling more at peace without the kind of pressure I felt on my shoulders every time I had to put up with whatever charade my mom had going on at any given moment.

After my return to my mom's family and since that glorious lunch, they started reaching out to me more. I got to see them once a week if my dad was not in the city for our usual get-togethers. Nobody knew much about mom either. She only talked to my grandpa on a regular basis, and since we had the little incident, he didn't say much about it except, "I've talked to Helga. She is doing fine."

Nobody put much attention to those announcements, they were just glad that whatever crazy thing she was doing had no important or relevant consequences that could hurt her.

On the other hand, the relationship between Lois and my grandfather was experiencing a bit of a rough patch. They still hung out with everyone else on the weekends and tried to act as polite as possible when they were around each other, but you could still see they were walking on thin ice. Fact, there was enough evidence to conclude that it was more difficult for my grandpa to get over what had happened, than for my aunt.

After one or two meetings, I finally decided to satisfy my curiosity, "Lois, I was wondering what happened after the whole phone call drama?"

"Same old, same old. For my dad, your mom is always eligible for excuses, for pardons, and for all kinds of explanations that could sustain whatever insane thing she is doing or whoever she is managing to hurt along the way. This time is her pain and her going through Philip's passing. It gets a little bit exhausting, to be honest. Now, he is throwing a tantrum. It will eventually go away," she shrugged. -she was right. My grandpa has always had a curious thing for my mom, and anyone who does not agree with the throne he has put her on would suffer the rage of his silent and cold treatment. She was, is and, will always be his little girl.

"And what do you think about what he thinks?"

"It doesn't matter how much we might be hurting inside, there is no excuse to hurt people and to act miserably towards others. I stand by what I did. I did the right thing, and I would do it all over again. Ten thousand times again. No matter how many times your grandfather stops talking to me, or how many angry emails I receive."

"Angry emails?"

"Probably shouldn't have said anything," she laughed nervously. "Oh, well. I'm sorry, it slipped out. "

"What are you talking about?"

Your mom sent me a very angry email after our phone conversation. Nothing to worry about. Just more of the same. She rambled on and on about the same things she yelled at me over the phone."

"Can I see it?"

"I don't see the point..."

"Please, I just want to know everything... because well, you know how she is. She is not known for her honesty."

She hesitated for a moment, "Let's go to your grandpa's computer before he comes back from the club."

The email read something like this: