Suzie’s House 174: His Call

“I hate her.” Gene slammed the phone into the receiver, the plastic thud of it echoing through downstairs hall.

“Who?” Mrs. H said from the kitchen.

“My mother.”

“You’re mother?” Mrs. H came out with a dishtowel in her hand. “I didn’t realize you still had a mother. Where is she?”

“Why do you want to know? Want to get rid of me by dumping me on her?” Gene knew in a part of himself that he wasn’t being fair, but he was tired of holding all these thoughts inside. He wanted to be more like Tracy. She just said whatever, and no one cared.

“No, of course not. I don’t want to let you go at all. But if you have a mother out there, then maybe I’m only interfering where I shouldn’t. Was that her on the phone?”

“No. That was my father.” Gene growled out the word “father”, half choking on it. The word had too much dignity for the guy, but no way was Gene going to call him “Dad.”

“Your father,” Mrs. H said flatly, her back getting all stiff. No surprise there. Gene knew already she hated the guy almost as much as he did. Then she shook her head all confused. “But where’s your mother?”

“Who knows.” Gene shrugged like he didn’t really care. “She took off when I was five. No one’s seen her since.”

“How horrible!” Mrs. H. scrunched up the towel like an actor in a karate movie getting ready to crush an apple.

“Yeah, well. I don’t care about her anymore. It was a long time ago. Like my father said, she isn’t worth thinking about.” Gene lifted his chin a little, almost daring her to argue, which was dumb, but he couldn’t help himself.

“Really.” It wasn’t a question. She crossed her arms and leaned into the frame of the door to the den. “Then why are you thinking about her now?”

“I’m not! But he… my father… he said she was back. But it’s a lie, I know it is. He said the same thing before. He wants me to pack my things and move back in with him. He says everything will be different now because she’s there.”

“Oh. Gene. You must realize it’s a trick.” She touched his shoulder lightly, her eye full of pity.

He shrugged the hand off. “I know. He said she’d be in the park when I went to meet him, but she wasn’t there. She’s never been there before, so it was dumb to think she would be now.”

“You went to meet him in the park?” Her voice and shoulders tightened with alarm the way grown ups sometimes do when they don’t want you to know they are upset. She kept it all level when she said, “Didn’t we talk about that?”

“Yeah, but…” Uh-oh. He hadn’t meant to say that.

“Didn’t the woman from Social Services talk to you about it?”

“Yeah, but….”

“You promised you wouldn’t take that risk again. How am I supposed to keep you safe when you put yourself in harm’s way?”

“I’m sorry! I won’t ever do it again. Please don’t throw me out.”

Mrs. H. sighed in exasperation. “I’m not going to throw you out, but Gene, I need your word you won’t ever do it again.”

“Ok. I won’t.”

“Was that him on the phone just now?”

“Yeah. But it’s ok. I know my father only ever lies. She isn’t really there now. She walked away from me when I was five and never looked back. Even if she came back, I don’t care. I don’t, and I’m not going to.”

Mrs. H. Opened her mouth like she was going to argue. Her brow wrinkled, then cleared. She patted him on the shoulder.

“It’ll all work out, Gene, I promise. Just don’t do anything stupid, like visiting your father. All right?”

Gene nodded. He could hardly argue. Besides, he liked it better when she looked at him with approval. And she did. She smiled, gave his arm a squeeze, then headed back to the kitchen.

“Tell Vin it’s his turn to set the table. We’ll be eating soon.” And with that, everything was back to normal.

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