Chapter 2

“Mom?”

Mom stirred at my voice and looked up at me, her face was haunted, but she put a smile on for me. I’ve gotten better at recognizing when it was something she chose to do.

“Paul, “ is as far as she got before she started crying. I moved onto the floor and held her as she sobbed. School could wait, my mom needed me.

After a while, she was able to get up so we started moving around the house. She let work know she’d be “offline” for a bit, but that was pretty common now. Managers before the lockdown and working from home were always about making sure people were on time, or working hard or doing what they were told. Now - no one knows who will get sick next, or lose someone close to them. People with jobs wanted to work, to keep their minds off the despair so many people had fallen into. If you needed a few days, no one minded, companies had started hiring more than they used to need, just to handle this type of situation. Anyone who could either studied or worked.

I meanwhile just watched her. What did Greg mean he was giving her to me. She was still acting like my mom. Every few minutes, she stopped what she was doing and started crying again.

The worst part is there wasn’t anything for us to do about Greg. We couldn’t go to the funeral, there wouldn’t be one. For a while, they had tried doing live streaming ones, but it didn’t work out. When there are thousand of dead each day across the country, it was just too much. Instead every day at seven pm, people open the window, yell and scream for the health care, police, firemen and other essential workers. At eight pm, there’s a service on every channel celebrating the lost ones. You can choose any religion you like, a quiet view of a beautiful spot, or on the biography channels, stories about some of the more famous or people. One channel was just people reading the names for the whole country. It’s been a few weeks since we knew someone who had died, but I knew Mom would want to watch one of the services tonight.

The next time Mom wandered by, I grabbed her hand and gently pulled her down to the couch. She curled up next to me as she gave up acting busy and just let her emotions out. I was happy to hold her for as long as that might take.

Eventually, she fell asleep and I let her rest on the couch. It was time for me to do my part so I went into the kitchen and started making dinner. We still had some ground beef from our last delivery so I thought it would be better to use that up. Before Corona, I could barely make a PB&J sandwich, but now we’ve been cooking at home and I’ve been doing a lot of it. Looking out the window, it was nice out, so maybe hamburgers on the picnic table so we can enjoy our backyard.

While I was getting the grill started, my phone beeped, it was my Dad. He could tell something was wrong pretty quickly, so when he asked, I told him.

“I know you don’t like to hear about Mom, but I think I have to tell you.”

“Paul? Is your Mom ok? Is she showing any symptoms?”

“No Dad, she’s fine. It’s her boyfriend, he, uh, he called last night right before he passed away.”

The phone was silent for a few seconds. “I see. That’s horrible. I never met him, but that has to be hard on your Mom. How is she taking it? Should I speak with her?”

“She’s sleeping now, I’ll wake her if you want.”

“No, don’t do that, let her rest. How are you taking it, not to pry, but were you close to him?”

“Not really, he...” I started to think about what I should share. It was always a delicate truce and I had quickly learned how I could get one parent riled up about the other. After a few blowups, I decided never to do that again. They were separate people and I had separate relationships with them. I knew they still coordinated about me, but I don’t think they spoke about anything else. Well, I actually had no idea, but that is what I thought. “He was there for her, not me, especially since we were separated by quarantine. I’m worried about her though.”

Dad was thoughtful, and took the time to think through what he wanted to say to me. “Paul, this will be hard for your Mom, and you’ll need to help her. If I could, I’d offer whatever help I could to her, for your sake and ... for hers too. You know we have always found ways to work together for you, but now you have to help her. When she wakes up, tell her you told me and that if she wants, she can call me directly, especially if there’s anything I can do to help. Tell her I’m sorry to hear the news.”

“Ok Dad, thanks for calling.

Mom was pleasantly surprised to find dinner all prepared, with me serving. As I pulled the burgers off the grill and delivered them to her plate, she smiled up at me. I could hear people in our neighboring yards, all of us staying away from the fences by mutual agreement. It was almost seven pm.

“Can I watch the service with you Mom tonight? I want to be there for you.”

Her look of gratitude almost broke my heart, “Of course darling, I’d like that very much.”

“Dad called earlier, and I told him. He said he was sorry to hear it, and asked me to tell you to call him if there’s anything he can do to help.”

“That is nice of him, ... Thanks for telling him.”