Chapter 1: The Invitation

As a spunky kid, Katy had brought an energetic fervor to everything she did in high school, college, and the initial years of her career. After marrying Brent she gave birth to twins and transferred her drive into being the best mother she could be for Kevin and Chris but, as the years wore on and resumption of her career was repeatedly postponed, her energy was relentlessly eroded.

Katy was enjoying her second coffee alone in her kitchen, one arm propping her head up while the other held the mug awaiting the next sip as she gazed steadily at the flatscreen TV she wasn’t really watching. She was thinking about her sons and wondering where she had gone wrong.

Why didn’t they have any ambition? All they did was drink and party. Nothing fired their imagination except cars and girls. The only saving grace was that they didn’t do drugs and that, Katy feared, might simply be a temporary reprieve. She had experimented with drugs herself but they were much more dangerous these days. Katy was worried, very worried, because Brent seemed incapable of keeping the boys in line.

“At least yours are in college,” her friend Marion had said. “Mine are totally useless.”

True, but Kevin was barely scraping by with a ‘C’ average as a biology major and Chris wasn’t doing much better in business school. That might have been expected in first year but this was their second and they were both capable of doing much better. Their friends from high school were doing well but the boys had fallen in with new friends from out of town who got hammered at least twice a week. None of them had steady girlfriends—kids did everything in groups these days and seemed to change partners every second week.

‘I wish I’d had girls. Even when partying, we have an eye on the future.’

Katy sighed and sipped her coffee.

‘How can I get them to grow up?’

For fifteen years she’d driven her kids everywhere, criss-crossing town to this practise or that and travelling a hundred miles in every direction for games. Kids have everything done for them these days. No wonder they won’t get off their ass to do something for themselves.

Our generation has failed the next.

“Christ, what a waste!” she said out loud.

“What’s a waste?” Chris asked, meandering into the kitchen and scaring the hell out of his mother who jerked upright and spilled the rest of her coffee. Thankfully, it was no longer hot and didn’t scald her chest.

“Jesus, Chris! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“Sorry, Mom. What’s for breakfast?”

Katy grabbed a dish towel and dabbed at her chest, pushing underneath the lapels of her cotton pyjamas to dry the coffee that had splashed onto her breasts. When she finished and looked up she saw that Chris was watching her closely. Katy blushed.

“Do you want some eggs?” she asked, turning away.

“Sure.”

“Poached okay?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Katy poached three eggs and toasted three slices of bread. She also fried up some tomatoes though she knew he probably wouldn’t eat them. When everything was ready she put the plate in front of Chris along with a tall glass of orange juice and a multivitamin tablet. She poured herself another coffee and sat on the stool next to her son who was already eating. Christ, not only had he not thanked her, he had changed the channel without asking.

While Chris stuffed his face and watched the football game Katy redirected blame to herself rather than her whole generation. How had she come to this, sitting around at ten in the morning still in her pyjamas? Her son was late for school and she didn’t say anything. His brother was still upstairs, probably hung over, and was already late for his first class again but Katy was worn out and lacked the energy to badger them anymore. It was like talking to a brick wall but that was no excuse for letting herself slide. Why wasn’t she doing something herself instead of sitting here day after day?

A commercial came on and was followed by a preview of the upcoming news. Evidently, the protest against the Keystone pipeline was losing momentum. It had been successfully blocked but the governor had approved an alternate route and the protest was losing steam. In her day, protesters had more staying power and didn’t show up just to be seen at the next popular Facebook group meet.

“You should watch this,” she said.

“Why?” Chris mumbled.

Katy snapped, “Because it’s important. Because it matters!”

Chris stared at his mother, surprised by the sudden vehemence from his normally mild-mannered mother.

“If you kids don’t start standing up for yourselves you won’t have a country left worth living in!”

“Whoa, Mom. Settle down.” Chris laughed.

“It’s not funny!”

“Okay, okay.” Chris held up his hands.

Katy relaxed when she realized she had raised her right fist as she turned to face her son. He was staring at it. Had her intensity frightened him? She searched his face with concern but was shocked to see that he wasn’t staring at her fist but was looking past it at her chest. She looked down and was dismayed to see that two buttons had popped open. The widely spaced buttons had opened a gap in her pyjamas sufficient to show the inner swells of both breasts with the rest molded by coffee-dampened cotton.

Katy opened her fist for better coverage and turned away. She didn’t re-button the pyjamas, thinking it was best to act as if there wasn’t anything wrong. That way, Chris didn’t have to acknowledge that he’d been staring at her breasts and Katy didn’t have to recognize that he had, or address the weird sensation in her stomach. When she looked back at Chris he was watching the game so intently Katy questioned her perception. He couldn’t have been looking at her that way. She must have been mistaken.

“Anyway,” she said. “You should think about becoming involved.”

“I’ll think about it,” he muttered.

Katy was about to slink away when Kevin stumbled into the kitchen rubbing his eyes.

“What’s that?” he asked, watching his brother disappear the last bite of poached eggs.

Katy knew he was really asking her to make him some breakfast too so she got up and Kevin took her place so he could watch the game.

“I could go for some coffee too,” he mumbled.

Katy didn’t say anything but she poured a coffee, added a little cream and a spoonful of sugar, then placed it in front of Kevin who took it without a by-your-leave. She turned back to the stove and Kevin looked at his brother who winked at him. They both smiled. The unspoken topic was Katy’s open pyjama top which she had forgotten to do up.

Chris downed the rest of his orange juice and, winking at his brother, asked, “Can I have some more orange juice, Mom?”

Katy opened the fridge and brought the juice to the island between her two sons, picked up Chris’s glass and filled it to the top. Both boys turned to watch, their eyes on the gap between the lapels of their mother’s pyjamas. It widened, enhancing their view as her arm lifted to pour the juice and her unrestricted breasts swung freely beneath the cotton pyjamas. Katy returned the juice to the fridge.