01
"Follow me. Follow me away into something beautiful. Something new and powerful. Something that will change who you are in ways you never thought possible." - Rose
Rose is my Mother. I'm 27 years old and I've lived at home since I was born. And I mean that literally. I wasn't born in a hospital. I was born in a tub downstairs in the same wooden green home I live in today. My Father's name is Rick. But he died when I was 12. I lost him to lung cancer. I'm pretty sure he always had a cigarette or two in his lips when I would see him. Some people might not agree with me living with my Mother at such a mature age, but I hey, I get free home cooked meals! She is really good at cooking, but her singing tops any home cooked lasagna with her Special - Mom's Secret Garlic Bread Surprise!
On the night my Father died, I was in the hospital with my Mother as she sat by his side while I sat in the waiting chair outside. I could hear my Mother saying, "Rick, do you remember our 20th anniversary? Oh, how beautiful the candles you lit for me!" My father was always Mr. Romantic. With a broken and weak voice my father responded, "..yes. I loved..'cough'...your black dress with your red scarf. Can you sing me the song you sang? 'cough' " That is when I heard the song she sang for me when I was baby. A melody so soft and catchy that it would slip you into a trance before you could blink. "Follow me. Follow me away into something beautiful. Something new and powerful. Something that will change who you are in ways you never thought possible." She sang it so gently. It could have been the best she had ever sang it. That is the moment that changed my life forever. My father was gone and my Mother had lost a piece of her heart. From that moment on I swore to myself that I would take care of her the way my Father would've wanted me to.
At age 17 I got my first job making smoothies at Smoothies and Stuff. 1 year later I became an assistant manager which ended up being another name for janitor. After a couple months I realized that it wasn't the job for me. So I sought after a position in Customer Service for a well known Software Company down the street. I've been there since and now I manage a team of twenty five telling people how to turn on a computer. Our software normally doesn't work when the power is off. My mother sells cosmetics and she is pretty damn good at it. She even made me buy some acne cream from her a few weeks before my first date. She even gave me a discount. Such a wonderful mother she is. She told me that I needed to have a sexy cheek to kiss because girls typically don't enjoy kissing Mount Everest during a warm summer night on the beach.
"Kai!" my mother yelled with distress. "Kai! Come here! Quick!!" I immediately closed the naked celebrities website and ran downstairs ready to swing a bat at any intruders. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" I saw my mother standing on a chair trying to stab a mouse with the opposite side of the broom. Maybe my choice of weapon was a bit of an overkill for this tiny-sized cheese thief. "Get him!!! Eeeeeeek!" My mother yelled franticly. Apparently along with my Mothers beautiful singing voice, she has a defense mechanism to send this critter back into the dark depths behind the fridge with her screech of death. "Did you get him!?" My mom questioned while holding the broom closer to her as if it gave her a bubble of immune defense. "I think you made it's ears bleed but I didn't get it." I told her. "I'll buy some traps tomorrow, Ok?" She started to climb off the chair while holding the broom like some sort of laser gun towards the fridge. I think my mom is going crazy.
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of Lady Gaga singing Alejandro from my radio at six of the morning. It was a rainy yet beautiful Sunday morning. Something about gray scaled skies evens out my emotional balance. Church starts at seven and it was my turn to sing a few songs during worship. My mother would usually be there by now helping set up the early morning breakfast table for those that can't handle waking up early enough to cook their own breakfast. Someone like me. Luckily church was 5 minutes away and all I had to do was put on my church shirt and grab my book of songs because I can never remember the lyrics even though I've sang the same song since I was 16. As I was leaving the house I found a note slipped under the door which read: 'To: Kaile Evans'. The slightly wet note was from my sister who ran away with some bum who smelled like he bathed in Jack Daniels twice a day. My mother wasn't too fond of him with good reason but my sister Maggie wasn't fond of my mother not being fond of the guy that was fond of alcohol which was fond of...well you get the idea. Eventually it got so bad that Maggie couldn't deal with the "un-fondness" and took off. This was almost 5 years ago. We tried to keep in touch but it was as successful as trying to fit a cow through a cereal box. Anyways, the note said she urgently needed to talk to me in private next week around in the same time at our old favorite restaurant, Charlie's BBQ. Hey, at least it gave me a good excuse to miss church next week. I was out of money for the offering anyways.
I drove to church thinking about why someone would runaway from the people that care the most. To hurt the people that love you the most by being with the person you love the most. Is there even a struggle? Any sort of resistance? Or are we designed to simply hurt people? This could be humanities imperfection. People hurt people consciously and unconsciously. It's sad but I guess that's the honest truth. Sometimes it has to do with miscommunication and sometimes they just down right meant it. Whatever the case may be, the heart says it all through actions. No matter how loud words can get, actions speak in higher decibels. And it looks like my Mother popped an ear drum when Maggie left. They haven't spoken since then. I ended up thinking so much about it that I realized I was already on stage, and I've forgotten the lyrics...
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