The kitchen was a disaster when Mrs. Rodriguez came downstairs at nine in the morning. She was usually up every 2am. For some unexplainable reason, the wee hours stimulated her brains, allowing her to continue writing her steamy adult novels of mystery, betrayal, and forbidden passion. She woke up late today because of the Sweet Doggy incident though she was happy to take part in saving a lovely dog. Regardless of the messy kitchen, she noticed that the dining table was neatly set up and for the first time, her son cooked breakfast. It looked like a morning festivity; lots of bacon, hotdogs, eggs, pancakes, coco crunch cereal, diced apples, two cartons of milk, and Mrs. Rodriguez wasn't sure what else was cooking because it seemed like Apollo wasn't done with all the preparations. Meat was being thawed on a glass bowl, veggies were sitting peacefully on one corner and Apollo was mixing some kind of sauce that Mrs. Rodriguez wasn't familiar with. He finally noticed his mom standing by the dining table with a curious look on her face and for the first time in many years, he had a genuine smile that was almost half-covered in flour. "Good morning, mom."
Mrs. Rodriguez smiled back, still not sure what to say to his son who was acting strangely. She had a momentary thought that maybe he was possessed by a plant-like alien just like in the movie Body Snatchers, but she instantly dropped her foolish thought.
Realizing that his mom was speechless, Apollo stopped mixing the brown liquid in her mom's silverware bowl. He was suddenly embarrassed at the sprinkles of flour on the countertop, as well as the tiny bits of ingredients that must've fallen on the floor while he was chopping. There were also cartons, wrappers, plastic containers, and some food or price labels sticking on the countertop. He could understand his mom's silent reaction. "It's a Jurassic Park in here, ha?" He started picking up the wrappers and other things that should go in the trashcan. "I'll clean them all up. You can just sit there comfortably, relax, and eat your breakfast like a Queen."
"Are you still my son?" Mrs. Rodriguez finally spoke as she helped herself sit in front of the overwhelming table of food.
Apollo chuckled. "Why? Don't you like the new me?"
"The new you?"
"Yeah. I mean. I keep saying I'm a man, but I don't feel like it. I've always felt like I stopped growing when I turned fourteen. Well, I mean not physically but you know…mentally?" He said in an embarrassed tone of speech.
Mrs. Rodriguez started filling her plate with food as she took a glimpse of her son from time to time. She wondered if Betha had anything to do with his transformation. "It's a girl, isn't it? You're changing because of that sweet beautiful girl and don't even deny it now because you're too obvious." She wasn't really quite sure, but she wanted to sound like she was 100% sure of her instincts.
"Would it make you happy if I say yes?" He had finished throwing every unnecessary sight on the countertop, so he pulled a chair and sat in front of his mom with a serious look on his face.
It was the first time Mrs. Rodriguez saw his son looking that serious and she was half happy and half worried. She liked Betha but there was something unsettling when she hugged her last night during their introduction. She had a scent that she couldn't quite figure out and her eyes were very mysterious. Sure, she was sweet and beautiful, and every guy would be smitten at such an attractive young woman but somehow, she could sense trouble. As much as she prided herself of her instincts, she didn't want to be right this time, most especially that Apollo seemed to like her very much. He had never ever in his entire existence prepared any food before. Doing so was already considered a grand gesture and it was all because of Betha. The fact though that he was changing for the better was something good to consider. She took a bite of her pancake and gulped from the milk carton. "I've always been happy with everything that we have, and with what we are now. If Betha has that much impact to make you prepare all this yummy food, I'd have no problem with it. It feels strange, yes. But I hope that you're happy and that's all that matters."
"I am happy. But I'm not just doing this because of her. I'm doing this for you." He smiled with his puffy face as he stuffed his mouth with lots of food. After swigging his milk, he gave a satisfactory look and continued conquering his protein-packed meal. He never did like pancakes, so his plate had 4 pieces of bacon, 3 hotdogs, 2 scrambled eggs, 4 pieces of toasted bread, and some diced apples.
"I appreciate this so much, dear. The food is awesome. Let's try not to cook too much though. You don't want your mom to look like a whale, right? I barely exercise and I'm always just sitting in front of my laptop so it would be way too hard to burn these calories."
"I know I overdid it." He chuckled. "I'm now feeling overwhelmed at how much food there is, and I still have some food to prepare for lunch."
"Oh, so that's why there's meat out of the fridge."
"Yeah. I wanted to make you braised beef. I found a recipe in Pinterest on how to make Korean Oven Braised Ribs but not all of the ingredients are available. There's not much time to go to the grocery so it's just going to be a simple braised beef."
"Wow, you're really stepping up on the cooking part. Why'd you think about making a Korean dish?"
"Well I remember we had Korean food on my graduation, and you said that whenever you eat Korean, you feel like you're in heaven."
"I can't believe you still remember that."
"Mom, I wasn't much of a help with cooking and all the household chores, but I do have a good memory, so I rarely forget even the most trivial details. Plus, I do care about you a lot. It just wasn't that obvious before but now I'm going to make it so obvious you're going to beg me to stop."
"I don't think I will ever beg you to stop. I love the attention I'm getting now."
"Mom, the way you said that…it's like I've never paid enough attention to you or something."
"Well there are lots of times you don't pay much attention, but you do have your sweet side so we're all good. Going back to Betha, if there's something different about her, tell me."
Apollo's heart tightened. What is this? Did she sense something different about Betha? Why does she sound like she knows her secret identity? Did she hear her say Sweet Doggy last night? But that can't be. I was the only one who heard that. She and Gab were on the other side of the car when Betha said that and she didn't speak loud enough for them to hear that. He slowly munched on some eggs and bit his toast. "What do you mean by something different?" He asked, carefully studying his mom's reaction.
Mrs. Rodriguez started eating the diced apples and after she was done chewing, she settled the fork on the corner of her plate. "Can you hand me a tissue?"
Apollo swiftly stood up to get the box of tissues from the counter and handed it to his mom.
"Thank you, dear." After wiping her mouth like a respectable lady, she looked at her son and examined his face. "Is there something strange about her?"
Again, Apollo's heart tightened as if he was going to have a heart attack. Why does she sound like she knows that Betha is a Banshee? This is starting to get creepy. "I'm not quite following, mom. What strange thing would there be about Betha?"
"I don't know. You tell me."
Oh my God, is this a test? Does she know? Or is she pretending not to know and she just wants me to be honest to her and tell her that Betha is a Banshee? If I tell her, would she disapprove of her as my girlfriend? Would she be like the normal protective moms out there who would get in the way of their son's unconventional relationship? Am I overreacting?
"You seem like you are in deep thoughts, dear." Mrs. Rodriguez said.
Okay so now, does she know about what I'm thinking? Can she read my mind?!
Panicking, Apollo decided to be straightforward about his feelings. "Mom, do you have some type of superpower that you're not telling me? You're really creeping me out here. Are you psychic?"
Mrs. Rodriguez laughed. "I was just trying to tell you that if there's something strange about her, tell me. What if she's married? What if she's a vampire and you're her next victim? I wouldn't ever want that to happen."
"You're crazy, mom. Since we're both done eating, I'll clean this up. You can go ahead and continue your writing. I'll just do the dishes and start cooking for lunch. We can just heat it up later. I'm sure we'll have a late one since we also had a late breakfast." Apollo was talking too fast that it was obvious he wanted to end the conversation.
"Wow, you're also doing the dishes. Either this is part of your transformation or you're just ignoring my question." Mrs. Rodriguez said.
"I'm not, mom. There is definitely nothing strange about Betha. She's just as normal as we are. I mean, I don't know what you're thinking but what strange thing could there be about her?"
But what they didn't know was the real Betha MacSweeny. Apollo and Mrs. Rodriguez were unaware of a pair of prying eyes. The backdoor leading to the kitchen was slightly open with Betha sneaking a glimpse of Apollo washing the dishes. She cautiously closed the door and headed back to her place with a wicked grin.