Crack Baby's Mother

"You WHAT?" Satiety asked in disbelief.

"I had the humane society come and get them, I couldn't stand the noise
anymore!" said Annette. Such a pretty name for this wrinkled angry
face.

"What noise?" Anne asked, still confused by what this old woman had
just told them.

"The furniture moving! It's impolite and it wakes me up around 3a.m.
every night!"

"What furniture moving? What are you talking about?" Satiety still had
no idea what the old lady was talking about, and neither did
Anne.

"Those damned cats moving furniture around like its okay to do such a
thing," Annette began.
"Sounds like they keep dragging the dining room table back and forth
across the floor, back and forth, back and forth! I can't take it
anymore!" Her voice was high and shrill when she got excited or angry,
and she looked as if she might even cry now. Greg came in then, and it
didn't take him long to figure out his mother had caused trouble once
again. He put his arms around her and directed her to the door of
Satiety and Anne's apartment, mouthing the words, 'I'm sorry' over her
shoulder, with a pained look on his face.

Left alone, Satiety and Anne stood for a moment in quiet shock. They'd
only given Greg a key to their apartment the weekend before, and that
was only for use in an emergency. Now their cats were gone because of
it; as far as they knew, cats could not move furniture. It was just one
more event in the small apartment complex they lived in, and most
events were caused by this small old woman.

Anne and Satiety had moved into the apartment just a month before that,
and first they met Greg, who lived below them with his mother. He was a
tall, gangly boy of 17 who seemed to take care of his mother, instead
of the other way around. Satiety was bringing the last load of boxes
from her old place, and the old station wagon next to her Bel-Aire
sedan in the assigned parking lot was running with the lights and
windshield wipers on, and the old woman was sitting in the driver's
seat, but she didn't drive away. Satiety ran the last box up the stairs
and walked over to the window.

"Anne, check this out," Satiety said. Anne walked over to the window
and looked down to see what Satiety was talking about. They watched as
the woman would put on her turn signal, then turned the wheel of the
car before the signal turned off. The motor revved, then slowed, and
they could see the red brake lights shine on the rainsoaked driveway
behind the car.

"What is she doing? Is she going to leave?" Anne asked Satiety, as if
Satiety knew something she didnt.

"I don't know, it's like she's driving but she's not moving," Satiety
replied. A couple of minutes later, they saw the boy come out and knock
on the car window. They could hear him tell the woman it was time to
come inside.They laughed and shrugged it off, getting back to unpacking
the last few boxes they each had. That was just their first experience
with the crazy lady below them.

One day the woman stopped Satiety and Anne as they came down the
stairs. "Would you like to come for dinner?". Not having met this woman
before, the two young ladies were taken off-guard a bit. "My name is
Annette, and I'm a gourmet cook! You won't be sorry, please come?" They
did think it would be a good idea to get to know their new neighbors,
and they agreed. They had a wonderful meal, and enjoyed the woman's
pleasant but odd personality, which showed in the decor of her
apartment. She had sandwich bags filled with water tacked above each of
the doorways in the apartment to keep the flies out. There was a
fur-covered vase on a table and the floor was covered with newspaper to
keep the carpet clean. She was a neat-nick who held a paper towel in
her hands, and each time Satiety or Anne picked up their glass to take
a drink, the woman immediately wiped the condensation off the table. A
bit obsessive, but she was pleasant enough.

Having had a nice long visit, Satiety and Anne returned home to their
cats; two black persians.
They got used to the sight of Annette's 'driving' and didn't think much
of it anymore, having accepted that the woman was kind of strange. One
day Greg came up to their apartment to see if his mother was there; she
wasn't and he seemed very worried.

"She's a big girl, she'll be okay Greg, dont' worry. She'll probably
come home any minute now," Anne tried to comfort the boy.

"She may be a big girl, but if you haven't noticed, she's not okay,"
Greg said sheepishly. "She shouldn't be out without me."

"What do you mean?" Satiety asked. Greg explained that his mother had
been a crack addict for a long time, and though she was recovering from
the addiction, her brain just didn't work right. That explained why
Greg took care of her.

"Does she take off like this often?" Anne asked.

"No, never," Greg answered. "That's why I'm so worried, she knows she
shouldn't go out without me."

"Maybe she just went to the store. She can't have gone far, her car's
still there." Satiety tried to help.

"That's because I took the linkage out," he said. "She can't drive
anymore, but she loves her car and I didn't want to take it away from
her. I think it's the last thing that makes her still feel she's
alright with herself. Besides, if we ever have to, we can live in the
station wagon." Just then they all heard the door to the apartment
below them slam shut, and without saying another word Greg left.

A few days later Satiety and Anne learned that Greg had quit school so
he could watch his mother better. They never did find out where she'd
gone that day, but they knew Greg was serious about caring for
her.

Over the next three weeks the young women had gotten to know Annette
and Greg better, and they became friends after Satiety and Anne
understood what Annette was about. They even admired Greg for giving up
a childhood for her, though he didn't see it as a choice.

One night, Anne came home from work to find the police at Annette and
Greg's apartment, and she went to see what the trouble was. Their front
door was open and she walked in to hear an officer explaining to Greg
that if he couldn't keep a better handle on her, they'd have no choice
but to take her in. He would have to go to juvenile hall; a place for
juvenile delinquents and kids who had no other place to go before they
were put into 'the system'. After the police left, Greg explained that
his mother had chased the guy who lived a few apartments over with a
butcher knife, yelling that he was vermin and she was going to rid the
place of him. Just a few nights before that, Annette had carved a cross
in the same neighbor's front door. This neighbor was a musician; in
Annette's eyes, all musicians were drug dealers and drug dealers all
worked for the devil himself.

Another time, Annette had called Satiety on the phone, asking her to
come down to her apartment, and Satiety obliged her touched friend.
"I'm in trouble," Annette told Satiety, letting her in the door in a
rushed state. "I was going around making sure all the neighbors had
locked their doors and I found one unlocked," she explained, shaking as
she spoke. "I opened the door to reach in and lock the knob and there
was a man on the couch and he saw me! He chased me all the way home and
now I think he wants to kill me! Will you stay with me until Greg gets
back?" Satiety couldn't refuse the frightened woman and stayed until
Greg returned with groceries. Annette then made them one of her famous
meals, and Satiety found it amazing that this woman had such a talent
with food, when she had no control over the rest of her life.

A knock at the door brought Satiety and Anne back to the present. It
was Greg.

"I'm really, really sorry about your cats," he began, guilt in his
voice. "I don't know what to say, she must have found the key in my
room."

"I'm going to the humane society now, maybe the cats are still there,"
Satiety said. She grabbed her keys and coat, and was out the
door.

"It's not your fault, Greg," Anne tried to comfort the boy, even though
she was upset about losing her cats. "What are you going to do with
your mother? It must be clear that you can't keep taking care of her
alone. You've already dropped out of school...." Anne's voice trailed
off when they saw the familiar red and blue flashing lights against the
curtains of the living room window. Greg walked over and parted the
curtains.

"It's the cops and they're going into my house!" he said, in the same
instant as he turned and ran out the door and down the stairs. Anne
followed him to see what the trouble was.

There was Annette, crying and holding her hands together in front of
her, asking the policeman to cuff her. "I'm a terrible old woman," she
cried. "I might just as well have killed those cats myself, and those
two sweet girls don't deserve that! Take me away, take me away!" It was
the same officer who'd come several times before, and he was familiar
with Greg and his mother. He looked at Anne and asked if Greg could
stay the night with her.

"Of course," she answered, concerned for what would happen to Annette.
"Where are you taking her?"

"She called us herself, we'll be taking her to Providence General," the
officer explained. Greg grabbed his mother's hands and held them.

"No, Mom why did you do that?" he asked, trying to hold back tears. She
didn't answer for a moment, but looked up at her son with tear-filled
eyes.

"You're a good boy," Annette said finally, her voice cracking as she
spoke. "You don't deserve me either," was all she said, and then she
looked down at the rug. As much as Greg didn't want to let his mother
go, he knew she was right. She'd had a lucid moment, and did what he
(we) could not.