Runaway Mother chapter 8

After Mary sits Ethan down with his snack the next day, she almost jumps at the phone the second it starts ringing. Zach and I had a conversation about Ethans preschool teacher ringing incessantly, so we put her number in bold black ink and stuck it to the fridge with a magnet. I look down at the caller ID and it looks familiar so I look at the fridge. The chrome appliance doesn’t hide the number in any way, in fact, it makes it stand out more. The numbers match so I decide not to answer and let it ring out. I have enough going on without her on my back as well.

The call did remind me however, to go into the hall and retrieve Ethans backpack. When I open it at the kitchen table, I look at Ethan, jelly smeared all over his mouth, and am frightened by all the homework he has actually missed out on. I intend to rectify this and talk to Zach later so that he can do the same. The comment Miss Megan made the other day was stuck in my head….’to see where he is in relation to the curriculum.’

Thankfully all the homework sheets are dated, so I put them in chronological order into his now bulging blue folder. I put todays assignment in front of him. He has to colour in and make the number six. ‘Ok,’ I think to myself, ‘this seems straight forward enough!’

I can see Ethans whole demeanour change at the sight of what’s coming at him. He begins to get grumpy but I persevere.

‘I’m sorry buddy,’ I explain going down to his level, ‘but even I had to colour and copy the number six when I was in preschool.

He looks up at me and I can see a new found determination in his eyes as he inspects the pages in front of him.

I take out the crayons and his special pencil and watch him carefully as he connects the dots on the first few lines of the page. Once he has that down I’m confident write them on his own without an issue. Oh how wrong am I!

After the first three attempts, he seems to be pulling the pencil to the left instead of the right to make the digit as you would when forming the letter ‘d’. I get up and try to help him but he gets very frustrated with himself that he throws the pencil across the room. I have to chastise him.

‘Ethan, you know as well as I do that throwing is unacceptable in this house!’ it was the first time we had had words since mom left and I think he was surprised.

I hand Ethan back the pencil and stand behind him as the letter ‘d’ keeps coming. I put my hand on his and we do it together. After a few excellent tries, I go down to his level and tell him how I learnt my six’s.

‘You see buddy that if you make a fist on the hand you write with, it almost makes a six, so all you have to do is copy what you see on your hand, ok?’

‘Ok!’ he sighs and makes a fist with his hand but is still pulling the pencil in the wrong direction.

I can see him thinking and trying really hard to do the hand trick but all he’s making are ‘d’s’. I catch his arm just as he’s about to throw the pencil again.

‘Do you want to go on the naughty step?’ I ask him.

He crosses his arms and lowers his chin and says, ‘no!’ with gusto.

I take the pencil off him as I can see him becoming more and more distressed and put the next piece of homework in front of him.

I hand Ethan the crayons, ‘now,’ I explain, ‘all you have to do here is colour inside the lines! You think you can do that buddy?’

He answers, ‘yea,’ with a long sigh and takes out the green crayon first.

While he can do this bit on his own, I inspect what he has just written. Panic envelopes me as my mind wanders. ‘Is he dyslexic?’ I ask myself. I can see now why Miss Megan was so hell bent on the homework thing now, so I make a mental note to make sure his homework is done every day, hoping to get his dexterity nailed…. after all, he is only four!

The doorbell rings just as Ethan finishes his colouring. I tell him he can go play as I go to answer it.

‘Yesss! He says and runs to his toy boxes in the front room.

 

When I open the door, I’m met with an unusually dressed man who asks, ‘is this Caro’s house?’

‘No!’ I answer with a furrowed brow, unable to not drink in the man’s appearance.

He was a very odd-looking man, donning a multicoloured poncho that looks as though it had been knitted in squares of different coloured wool and sewn together. His trousers reminded me of an old pair of pyjamas Ethan had, as they were covered in stars. To top off the ensemble, he was wearing very well worn tan Ugg boots that were threatening to expose his big toe any day now!

The man lifts up the right side of his poncho to expose a bum bag that hung loosely around his waist. It looked to be years old, as the leather was all but worn off. He opens it and produces a piece of paper.

He reaches down to his chest, I’m guessing to look for the glasses that were perched on top of his greasy unkept hair. After he gives up the search, he moves the page closer to him, then further away and is squinting trying to make out whatever is written on it.

‘This is 72 Meadowbrook Road, right?’

I nod, unable to feel anything other than perplexed.

‘I’m Shadow!’ he announces and extends his hand. I can see that he is wearing fingerless gloves and can tell he’s a nail biter.

Reluctantly I shake his hand and ask, ‘where did you get my address?’

After he puts the piece of paper back in his bum bag, he says, ‘Caro gave it to me!’ and cracks a smile.

His teeth are yellow, the front one chipped. ‘I still don’t know a Caro!’ I tell him and go to close the door.

‘Wait!’ he says, ‘I’m sure she told me her real name, is it Caroline?’ he says reaching.

Ethan comes out of the front room and hides behind my legs.

‘You big man must be Ethan!’ Shadow says and I stare at him.

‘How do you know his name?’ I ask with a furrowed brow.

‘Caro told me!’ Shadow announces. ‘We used to meet at ‘The Mint Leaf’ every day after she dropped him off to preschool.

‘The Mint Leaf’ I say to myself. Where have I heard of that place before. My mind takes me back to the day we were looking for treasure in my mothers bedroom and that was the name on the match book Zach pulled out from under the bottom drawer of her dresser. Its all coming back to me now!

‘What kind of establishment is it?’ I ask as Ethan bulls down the corridor making dinosaur noises and goes into the kitchen.

‘It’s a coffee shop with a twist!’ Shadow explains. ‘No one uses their real name but we are a close net group of people who meet every day swapping war stories! That’s the main reason I’m here! Caro hasn’t been in a couple of weeks now and her phone says that the number has been disconnected. We’re all very worried about her!’

‘She’s fine,’ I say, ‘she’s away on a business trip!’

‘I find that hard to believe!’ Shadow says with conviction. ‘Caro doesn’t work except for that column she writes for the Daily Tribune each week!’

I stand open mouthed at the fact he knows that of my mother.

‘Like I said, we swap all sorts of war stories!’

I hear a crash in the kitchen and hear Ethan saying ‘oops!’

‘I’d better go deal with that!’ I say and point my thumb over my shoulder towards the source of the commotion.

‘No problem, Mary,’ Shadow smiles as my mouth opens so wide it could catch a fly.

‘Its Carolyn!’ I tell him as he turns on his heels.

‘What?’ he turns back.

‘My mother’s name,’ I look into the soft eyes of the man in front of me, ‘it’s Carolyn.’

Shadow smiles and nods before walking down the driveway to the foot path and waves. I wave back, shocked about how much the unusual stranger knew about us!

 

I close the front door and run into the kitchen to see what mischief Ethan has gotten into. On the floor lies a broken glass. He looks up at me doe eyed.

‘I was thirsty!’ he says not knowing if he’d be in trouble or not.

I pick him up and stand him on one of the dining chairs. ‘That’s ok buddy!’ I tell him, ‘We all break things every now and again!’ I take out the dustpan and brush and the floor is back to its usual stickiness within a jiffy. Afraid of any residual glass, I take out the hand-held vacuum and go over the area with it. ‘See?’ I say to Ethan, ‘all clean again!’

He smiles at me as I approach him and we rub noses, both with our faces scrunched up. He begins to giggle and wraps his arms around my neck to envelope me in a hug. I graciously accept it and think back to a time I would have found cleaning up after him a chore, whereas now, it’s a privilege.

‘Are you still thirsty young squire?’ I ask in an English accent.

He giggles more and before I knew it, we were in a full-blown tickle fight.

‘Can I have a drink please?’ the little guy asks when the laughter subsides.

‘What would you like?’ I ask.

I can see the cogs in his mind turning. ‘Do we have any juice?’ he asks with a cheeky grin.

‘You sit down there now and I’ll check!’ I look in the fridge and count the juice boxes trying to work out in my head if there would be enough left for school if I give him one now. To my amazement, there isn’t even enough left for school, so I make a mental note that we need to get more or the little man will have nothing to drink on Friday. Just as I’m about to close the fridge door, I spot a can of Fanta in the very back on the right.

‘I don’t have juice buddy!’ I can see by his posture that he is disappointed, ‘but I do have soda!’

He looks up at me with a smile that would melt a million hearts and I retrieve the stray can. I pour us a plastic cup each, and I throw the empty can into the ever-growing trash bag.

I put the red plastic cup in front of Ethan and the green one in my spot. We cheers the glasses and he takes a long pull from the cup. Out of nowhere comes a belch that nearly shakes the house.

‘Excuse me!’ the little voice says.

I could see he really was thirsty because he didn’t ask for a straw to blow bubbles. I drain half of my own drink and go looking for straws. When I find them, I put one in each hand and walk towards him with my hands behind my back.

‘Pick a hand!’ I say to him.

He points to my left side and says ‘yay!’ when he sees what I was concealing.

As his cup is only a quarter full, I challenge him to a bubble blowing contest.

After I concede he asks, ‘who was the man in his pj’s?’

‘That is a good question!’ I answer, barely able to make sense of him myself.

‘He looked funny!’

‘Yes,’ I agree, ‘he did indeed!’

I think back to the correlation between what ‘Shadow’ said about ‘The Mint Leaf’, and the matchbook Zach found and realise that I was going to have to look into that more. Why hadn’t we ever heard my mother talk about the place if she went there every day? Things just weren’t adding up and my mother seems to have had this whole other life none of us knew about.

 

Once six o’clock hits, Ethan says he’s hungry. I text Zach to see where he is and hear nothing back.

‘I’m afraid its noodles for dinner again buddy!’ I say to Ethan.

‘They are my favourite dinner!’ he says. It must be true as he is usually very good at telling me what he doesn’t like.

Remembering the flavour packet once again and adding that drop of soy sauce really seems to elevate the flavouring of the dish. I only make enough for Ethan and myself because I’m secretly annoyed at Zach for not being home yet. He was supposed to take over babysitting duty while I study for my biology test tomorrow.

After we are both finish with our food, I grab a stool and teach Ethan how to wash the dishes.

‘Why do we have to do this?’ he asks.

‘Because the dishes need a bath!’ I answer.

I put in extra washing up liquid so that there would be bubbles to make the chore fun. I grab a handful of bubbles and place them on Ethans nose. As I’m standing behind him so he doesn’t fall off the stool, he can’t catch mine because I’m moving it to a different side every time he scoops up the bubbles. I can’t get over the power of his laughter. It’s like an elixir that fills my heart with warmth.

After the dishes get a bath, Zach still isn’t home and I really need to study for this test. Its going to go towards my final grade of the semester. I look at the clock again and when I see that its ten past seven, I choose to study in the living room with Ethan…after I grab some clean pyjamas for him out of the dryer. I don’t have time to bathe him, and after seeing how wet he was after washing the dishes, I decide that’s enough water for one night.

He runs into the sitting room, as I grab my backpack from the hall and follow him. I explain to him that I really need to study and put Paw Patrol on the tv.

‘Ducky hasn’t seen you all day and I’m sure he’d like to play with you!’ I say before opening any book.

Ethan takes out some dinosaurs and cars and is happy out…for a while.

 

The test is supposed to be on the heart so I make my study cards as per usual and practice drawing and labelling the heart.

It isn’t until I have all this done that, I realise it’s far too quiet.

‘Has he fallen asleep?’ I ask myself, looking around the room. He is nowhere to be found.

I listen closely and can hear him sniffle behind the couch. I get up to see what he’s doing and let out a wail, ‘Ethan!’ when I see that he has snatched my highlighter and is drawing on the wall.

He immediately drops the highlighter and looks at me with his cheeky grin. ‘Ssshhh!’ he says, ‘I’m studying!’

What can you say back to that? I look from him to the wall and back again. This might be an opportune time to help him with his six’s. I go into the kitchen and grab his crayons. ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right!’ I say to myself.

When I re-enter the room, crayons in hand, I sit around him and pull him up onto my lap.

‘What colour first?’ I ask.

‘Blue!’ he answers, and before long we’re both drawing on the wall.

‘You do know we could get in a lot of trouble for this!’ I tell him.

He nods.

We draw a house together and as I turn my attention to a dog sitting outside the house. He is drawing something that resembles a person.

‘Is that you and ducky?’ I ask him.

He nods again.

‘Shall we draw me and Zach?’

‘And mommy too!’

I bow my head and repeat, ‘and mommy too!’ with a deep sigh.

Not knowing when, or if she’ll be back, I don’t want him to feel any resentment coming off me towards her. She is his mother! She gave birth to him! So why do I feel this tightness in my chest as I help him put green and orange hair on her?

I’m so confused! Shadow turning up at the door has really gotten me thinking. He had our address but didn’t know her real name! I have to stop colouring and give Ethan a big hug. He deserves so much more than me. Hell, Zach isn’t really making the same effort with him as I am. He’s too caught up on the first match of the season and getting into college. When it comes down to it, we’re going to have to sit down together and I’m going to have to break the news to him that he is going to have to choose whether to keep the family together, or look after himself first!

If only I were older and could adopt Ethan. Mom’s been gone two weeks now and I’m just waiting for the day when social services come and prise Ethan from me kicking and screaming, and not be able to do anything about it.

Tears fill my eyes and I put my face to his head not wanting him to see me cry. I try to pull myself together when he says, ‘the doggy has no tail, Mary!’

I let out a giggle and rectify the situation promptly. This is how I want us to be…together!