Runaway Mother chapter 4 part 1

I casually rub my eyes as I open them. I turn my head to the side and look at the clock. Its 7am. I bolt out of the bed and run to Zach’s room, standing on a stray Lego as I go. ‘Ouch!’ I say as I hop on one foot the rest of the way taking the imbedded piece out of my foot as I go. I know that Zach wants to be gone at 7:30 with Ethan. I bang on Zach’s door getting no reply so I open it swiftly. The smell of feet is inoculating. I pick up a shoe by its laces and throw it at him.

When he begins to stir, three trainers in, I tell him the time and he sits bolt upright in his bed. We look at each other, ‘Ethan!’ we say in unison.

I hadn’t seen my brother topless in years and am surprised at how buff he actually is. I shake my head and run into Ethans room. He’s still fast asleep, ducky under his arm.

I sit on his bed and try to gently wake him by brushing the back of my hand on his perfectly soft cheek. ‘Who could ever give this up?’ I ask myself. As he begins to stir, a smile envelope’s his face.

‘Mommy?’ he asks. This can’t be a good sign.

‘No buddy, mommy is working, its Mary!’

He scrunches up his nose and looks like he’s about to start crying. I think fast and promise him a lollypop on his way to school if he gets up and dressed within twenty minutes.

He rolls onto his back and makes me smile when he demands two.

‘Sure,’ I commend his negotiating skills, ‘two it is!’

Within seconds he is up and ready to face the day. I have his clothes laid out on the chair as a ‘BANG!!’ comes from Zach’s room next door.

‘Are you alive?’ I shout through the wall making Ethan giggle.

‘Yea…ouch…yea…all’s ok!’ I leave it at that as I have to help the little man get dressed.

Ethan looks at the shirt I picked out last night before I turned in, ‘that one’s itchy!’ he says holding ducky by the foot. I go to his clothes drawer and pull out one of his favourites…Spiderman.

‘This one ok?’ I ask as I hold it up and he nods enthusiastically. ‘Now when you wear this shirt, you are a superhero ok?’ I say to Ethan as I pull the shirt over his head.

‘I’ll be a superhero all day!’ he answers like putty in my hands.

‘Now superhero’s eat special food, did you know that?’ I ask him as he puts his legs in the corresponding holes for his pants. I had to check to make sure they weren’t on backwards.

‘What do superheroes eat?’ he asks, eyes wide.

‘Protein bars!’ I answer and tickle his belly. I love to hear him laugh, it really is the best medicine!

‘Oh sh…. ugar’ I catch myself in time as I jump when Zach just appears in the door frame. I put a hand to my chest and Ethan puts his hand on mine.

‘It’s ok,’ he says, ‘I’ve got superpowers!’ I begin to laugh and agree whole heartedly with him.

‘Time to go buddy!’ Zach says with enthusiasm.

‘We just have socks and then lunch and superhero food for breakfast!’ Zach stares at me as if I have two heads. So I repeat myself, ‘go make him lunch and grab a protein bar for the journey as I put on his shoes and socks.’ Then I look at him and say, ‘oh yeah, two lollypops!’

‘The school doesn’t allow candy, you know well that they’ll just be taken off him and …’

‘…. for the journey!’ I but in. ‘I lost a bet!’ I try to explain with my eyes. Zach looks dumbfounded for a second before it registers. ‘B R I B E?’ he asks. I just nod my head and knew that one of these days Ethan will surprise us all and say the word we’re spelling out.

The whole process took five minutes as his red sneakers were too small so we had to go with the black ones. ‘Note to self, buy Ethan new shoes!’ I sigh as the notes to myself in my head are getting out of control.

With shoes officially on, Zach is almost out the door with a rust bucket of a bike as we go and join him.  I look at him with a furrowed brow, pointing to the bike. ‘What gives man?’ I ask him.

‘It’s quicker than running!’ he simply says and I nod not knowing what he’s referring to.

He bends down and hands Ethan an open protein bar. ‘Ready to arrive in school with style spiderman?’ he asks. Ethan nods his head, his mouth full. Zach picks him up and sits him on the seat of the bike and off they go!

I look at my watch, its 7:35. I smile at myself for pulling off the miracle of the century and pray that Zach isn’t too late for class today.

I quickly grab the last protein bar and before I leave the house, my heart sinks as there is a brown bag left on the counter, ‘Ethans lunch!’ I say under my breath. I pick it up and see my brothers scrawl on the bag, ‘you need to brown bag it like the rest of us now Mare!’ With the crisis averted I can’t help but shake my head and smile. I put it in my backpack, deciding not to look to keep a sense of mystery for lunch time and leave shortly afterwards. I look at the green and remember all the rain from yesterday and decide to take the long route, besides, the walk will clear my head.

At lunch I sat at the usual table but was there before anyone else as I didn’t have to queue up for my food. I reach into my rucksack and pull out my very own brown bag. I am pleasantly surprised at how liberating it was to eat Ethans favourite P B & J sandwich and laugh when I find the string cheese.

‘Hey gurl!’ I hear Anna’s voice behind me…Anna…shit, I never called her back!

I turn around with some jelly on my cheek and look at her apologetically. She rubs her finger on her own cheek and hands me a napkin. I graciously take it and begin to explain, ‘I’m so sorry Anna, I was juggling so many things and…’ Anna puts her index finger in the air and smiles at me. All is right with the world again.

As the rest of my clique assemble, Anna asks, ‘Dude, why are you brown bagging it? with intrigue.

‘My brothers idea on saving money!’ I confess but don’t divulge any deeper than that.

She looks in the bag and takes out the string cheese and holds it up. ‘Which brother?’ the girls all erupt with laughter, but I take it on the chin and smile away, secretly cursing her in my mind.

‘So,’ Anna starts on one of her rants, ‘as I let all of you know yesterday, with the exception of Mare as she hung up on me, I’m hosting a party at the house on Friday.’ I can feel the powerful looks being shot my way. I knew her acceptance of my apology was put on! I try to keep things breezy so I just keep smiling, no matter how forced it is!

‘I thought your father banned parties at the house!’ I retaliate. Anna stares me down, but I can stare with the best of them. ‘I mean that’s what you told me after the last time!’ I can see panic in Anna’s eyes. I pick the string cheese off the table and open it, peeling off the cheese, all the while not breaking eye contact with Anna.

She blinks and looks away, ‘anyway, daddy is going away with his whore of a wife for three days and I can’t think of a better time to celebrate my sweet sixteen!’

‘Really?’ I ask. ‘You turned sixteen six months ago!’

‘Theres no harm in celebrating again…my style, now is there?’ Anna looks at me with daggers and I decide I didn’t want to have anything to do with her and her rich ‘daddy’ anymore.

‘Let’s just hope you don’t get arrested this time!’ I say as everyone at the table gasps and put their hands to their mouths. I get up with a smile and put my empty brown bag in the bin. My work here is done!

I make my way to social studies and keep an eye on the clock as I want to be out of school the minute it finishes. I feel bad for what I did to Anna but I knew we’d make up…. eventually.

As the class fills up, the only thing I can think of is the route I’m going to take to the bank and still collect Ethan in time. I quickly come out of my trance as Mr Bishop puts the paper I submitted the day before on the desk in front of me. I got 79%. To anyone else it would be a good score but for me, it’s pathetic. I’m a straight A student, and this is clearly a B. I was just grateful to Zach for dealing with Ethan yesterday so I could at least attempt to finish it…but I didn’t have time to write the conclusion. That’s my downfall, but there is no way I would have time to explain that to Mr Bishop and make the bank.

When the bell rings, I quickly put my things into my backpack and leave the school grounds, for the first time ever, before school finishes.

I speed walk to the bank, unable to get out of my head how it could mean the difference from going to MIT or not, but as I approach the teller, forged check in hand, a kaleidoscope of butterflies soar through me. ‘What if they don’t cash it?’ I can’t help thinking.

I hand the teller the check and she looks at me. I stand with confidence and before I know it, I’m out the door $4,000 richer. I feel like I’m on cloud nine, finally able to breathe without the worry of money in the back of my mind.

I pick Ethan up and we jump over all the cracks in the pavement again. I ask him what it was like being a superhero for the day and he just shrugs. I worry about Ethan. Every day that I’ve collected him this week he doesn’t want to talk about school!

I open the front door and we kick off our shoes and put our backpacks in the corner when the house phone rings. At first, I didn’t recognise the melody of it because no one ever uses the landline anymore. I pick it up with haste hoping it’s my mother.

‘Hello!’

‘Hi, this is Miss Megan from Ethans school, I was wondering if I could speak with Ms Fisher please?’

‘I’m sorry, my mom is away on business at the minute. This is Mary, Ethans sister. Is there anything I can help you with?’

‘May I ask when Ms Fisher will be back?’

Not knowing how to answer, I panic. ‘Next week!’ I say with certainty in my tone…exactly what I was aiming for!

‘Would you mind asking her to give me a ring back when she returns from her trip?’ Miss Megan asks.

‘Sure thing!’

‘Thanks!’ she says before hanging up.

I look at the phone in front of me and feel sick. What if she’s not back by next week? The freedom with not having to worry about money for a while is suddenly replaced with Ethans teacher finding out that our mother is gone.

‘Mary?’ a little voice from the kitchen snaps me back to the here and now.

I replace the phone on the receiver and go to see what the little man wants as a snack.

I get a text message from the supermarket as I walk towards the kitchen. It says that the groceries will be delivered within the hour. ‘Finally!’ I take a deep breath, ‘something is going our way!’

I have to scrape the last of the peanut butter and the jelly from their containers and pour the remainder of the milk out for Ethan. He beams up at me and that cheeky grin gets me every time.

‘Just don’t give ducky any milk!’ I warn him.

‘But what if he gets thirsty?’ the little voice answers.

The land line rings again. This time I answer it from the receiver in the kitchen so I can keep my eye on Ethan.

‘Hello,’ I answer with trepidation.

‘Can I speak with Carolyn Fisher please?’ an authoritative voice asks.

‘She’s actually not here right now, who shall I say called?’

‘I’m her boss, and she is late with her assignment!’

My heart sinks! Her boss?

‘And what might that assignment be?’ I ask cautiously.

‘Look,’ the voice says, ‘I know she has a rake of kids, and I don’t mind how it’s done, but there are people out there who buy’s my paper every Saturday morning just to read the advice Carolyn gives them in her column.’

I didn’t know my mom had a column, but I get what her boss is saying.

‘I emailed her the pieces I want her to work on this week and her deadline is midnight. Like I said before, as long as her deadline is met, she can continue to have a job here!’ and the man hung up. I didn’t even get his name!

I put down the receiver and shook my hands out and jumped on the balls of my feet. Was I really going to do what I was thinking of doing?