"Shane! Ron!" Merina had pushed her way out to us. "What is going on?!! Is Maura okay?! I thought I saw blood!! Where's that guy that took her…oh!" Her eyes had found the unmoving figure on the ground.
I was still half-hanging, limply, from Ron's grasp. My ears pricked up at Merina's frantic questions. Answering her was impossibility, though. My head was a chaotic jumble—remembering my horrific behavior, wondering what Ron and Shane could be thinking of me and gauging the monstrous shock of my mother's ability to somehow finding her way to where I was that night. Was there any way to slink away and hide somewhere?
Merina took a couple of steps backward. "Oh, crap…Maura's mom!!"
Oh crap, yes, my mom.
"Come on, Maura Honey, on your feet." Ron struggled with me again. Even with the sheer horror of my mother's presence looming, I took a millisecond to enjoy the first time Ron had called me Honey.
I forced myself to obey him and met Caelyn's gaze at eye level. I realized I hadn't noticed growing that extra inch which placed my height on par with hers. The look in her eyes was very calm, but that could be deceptive, because Caelyn could be the razor's edge when she was angry. Very sharp, very clean. And I was still reeling at the fact she knew my whereabouts! How? How possibly? Had someone ratted me out?
I think the whole group of us nearly fainted when she reached her hand out to lay her palm against my cheek and asked softly, "Mink, are you okay?"
Well, despite the supreme annoyance of having my irritating nickname spoken in front of my friends, I thought I might be dying from shock at the lack of screams thrown in my face for lying, escaping the conditions of my grounding, being at a college party where alcohol was being consumed…oh yeah, and trying to make a meal of some mystery boy's head wound. I felt my jaw drop and my eyes stretch to saucer proportions. Perhaps I should be asking her the same question. Or maybe, "Who are you and what have you done with my mother?"
I looked at her more closely and noticed a very strange look in her eyes. They were muted and misty. My head started to question whether she'd been drinking? Was she depressed and lonely in my absence? I started to worry less about myself and feel heavy guilt for leaving her alone.
"Y-y-yeah, Mom," I managed to stammer. I turned to look at Ron, and he appeared just as astonished. I think we were all expecting to take fire from both barrels. Both he and Shane had experienced her ire firsthand.
"I think I'd better take you home." Her voice even sounded like it was coming from someplace far away, like under water. "I don't want you to worry. Just go and sit on the porch steps, okay? I want to talk to Ron for a minute, and we need to get this young man some help. Merina, do you want to go sit with her for a minute?"
Oh, so that was it. She was going to yell at Ron and blame him for everything. All her quiet was the calm before her storm. I started to protest. "Mom! This isn't Ron's fault; I'm the one…"
She cut me off immediately, and the mist in her eyes cleared just enough. The razor blade slipped out slightly, too. "Maura. I thought I told you to go sit and wait for me, didn't I?"
I could see there would be no arguing. "Yes, Mom." I sighed and took the hand Merina offered so we could skulk off to the front porch together. Shane didn't wait to be dismissed, disappearing back inside the kitchen.
"Is she going to let Ron have it?" Merina queried.
"I'm not exactly sure," I replied. "I have to hear this, though." When we rounded the corner of the house, I stopped to flatten myself against the side and crept as near to the edge as I dared. "If it gets too bad, I'll have to run rescue." I gave her a small smile, hoping my maniacal terror over the last ten minutes, wasn't leaking into my expression.
The acoustics must have been perfect in that position, because, although Merina shrugged her shoulders in frustration, I could hear my mother speaking to Ron just as if I were standing next to them. I put my finger to my lips, signaling Merina to stay silent, and she nodded in response.
"I heard what you said to Shane," my mother was saying. "I really appreciate that. I appreciate you trying to protect my daughter." She hesitated a moment, then added, "She really needs that right now."
"Ms. DeLuca, believe me; it's no problem. I care about Maura a lot. But I have to ask, why does she really need that right now?"
"I'm sorry; I can't explain that, not tonight. You'll just have to trust me that she does. To be honest, I didn't want Maura to get involved with anyone, especially now." He started to interject at that, but she kept going, dismissing whatever he was going to say. "Maura is going to be okay; I do want you to know that. But she's going to need a lot of support. I thought an outsider would only make things worse, but I can see that you are the kind of…friend she needs. You don't ask too many questions, you're very accepting and…open-minded. I am, however, worried about what the distance of our move is going to do to her now. My daughter," she sighed heavily. "She would pick the worst time to decide to get close to someone. But despite my best efforts, you two used every day since you've met to get closer, and it's too late to undo what's been done."
"I'm sorry." His voice was full of pain. "But not for meeting and getting close to Maura. I couldn't help myself. I am very sorry to have made things harder for her. I should've thought about that before being so selfish." That almost made me bolt around the corner to protest, but thankfully, Merina had a death grip on my hand.
"No!!" she whispered urgently.
"Now, see. It's just your saying something like that. That makes me wish Maura had met you in Vancouver. Because there is no undoing this move. Believe me when I say it's completely necessary and is the best thing in the world for her. But I've been thinking, and I was hoping you would consider going to college there? I would like to help out with the tuition, of course."
Merina and I jerked our heads around to look at each other in fresh astonishment. Frankly, I hadn't known my mother had that much money lying around. But that train of thought passed quickly, and I bent my head toward the conversation once again, so I could hear Ron's response.
Their voices sounded farther away. They must have switched positions, or maybe the wind was carrying them differently.
Ron was making a choking kind of sound, like he was trying to say something.
Caelyn cut the noise off with, "Now, now, I won't take no for an answer. It's nothing, really. And I look at your education as an investment in Maura's future, too."
Ron finally managed words. "Wow! That is incredible, but even if I could let you do that, I can't leave. My mom…she's sick. I can't leave her."
Oh…I hadn't known that. I guess that explained the reason she'd been home the other day. I wondered why Ron had never said anything, but he definitely was the suffer-in-silence type.
"I see." Caelyn sounded genuinely disappointed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see what the future brings." Her voice had that far-away-sounding quality to it again, and I barely caught the words.
They swirled a whirlwind of worry inside my head. I'd somehow known there was something wrong with me. Mom telling me the weather in Vancouver would help my 'condition…' I should've realized it was something far beyond a sun sensitivity. I was craving strange, raw things, and I wasn't about to chalk that up to the anemia she'd invented as an excuse. I seemed to be growing even paler those days, an outward sign of bad health. But my hair was lustrous with shine…more a sign of good health, but not enough to nullify the negative changes. And there was that thing about my teeth possibly rotting from the inside out—definitely not a good sign.
I was so confused. Happy my mother seemed to be far more accepting of Ron, but a little angry she would confide in him rather than in her own daughter. She'd practically told him something bad was happening to me, but wouldn't admit the same to her own child. Didn't I have the right to know what was happening to my own body? Was the illness so horrible she couldn't bear to say the name to my face? Or did she just want to keep me from losing hope?
"Maura!" Merina's harsh whisper and frantic pull broke me out of my reverie. "They're coming, Maura! We have to get over to the porch."
I followed behind her, numbly, allowing myself to be dragged along.
I'd had to go home after that, walking wordlessly beside Caelyn down the two blocks back to our house. There were a million questions swarming within my head, but the only one I asked as we stepped up onto our front porch was, "Mom, how did you know where I was tonight?" I decided not to push my luck with inquires as to how she'd arrived at precisely the right moment.
She pulled me into her side in a clumsy hug. "Maura, Sweetie, family is a special thing. There are times when we can really feel each other, when we know one of us is in trouble."
It was creeping me out the way she kept saying 'we,' instead of answering my question with any real tangibility.
I tried to focus on the fact Ron got to come over later. Of course, he couldn't leave in the middle of their first real gig. He'd wanted to, but I'd insisted he stay. I refused to be responsible for ruining their reputation and any chances at booking future opportunities presented by the possible word-of-mouth referrals garnered by the current gig. Besides, someone had to wait until the ambulance got there to help the boy I'd inadvertently hurt. I'd wanted to do that, but Ron was insistent I go home, promising to come over as soon as the show was over. I had to wonder briefly if he'd been embarrassed by my behavior that night. If he wondered what was wrong with me as much as I.
We went into the living room, and I sat beside my mother on the couch. Since we were away from all other eyes, I could feel the vibrating resounding throughout my body. I finally had to ask the hardest question of all.
"Mom, why do I like the taste of blood?" My question came out barely above the volume of a whisper. "Why did I do what I did tonight?"
"Maura…" She took both of my hands into her own. "…you were only trying to help that boy. You were out there all alone and didn't have anything to press against his head to make the bleeding stop, did you?"
"No," I answered weakly.
"See there? Panic took over, and you were trying to stop the bleeding any way you knew how. Okay?"
I wanted to believe her, wanted to just give in to her words, but I wasn't quite there yet. "But, Mom, I remember being so…so hungry. I wanted to eat that…"
She cut me off, not allowing me to follow that line of thought any further. "You didn't have dinner before you left, did you?" She had that scolding-mother tone to her voice.
"Well, no, but I did have some pizza at the party." Oh! The party. Surely some reprimand and more grounding was coming in penance for that. Great. I was going to start my Vancouver life grounded.
Caelyn snapped me back to the previous point of conversation. "See, you were hungry, in a strange place and had an unexpected accident happen. You just panicked, Maura. That's all." There was a definite finality to her tone.
"I guess I'm in a lot more trouble." I decided to accept her explanation for the moment since I wished for her words to be true. And I had to find out just how much trouble I was really in. My last few weeks with Ron were on the line. He might not even be allowed to come over at all.
I looked more closely at Caelyn, meeting her eyes, and couldn't help but notice the strange, wistful look to them. Their green had a brightness I couldn't remember ever seeing before.
"Well, as much as I'm very disappointed in you for lying to me…" She shot me a stern but fleeting look. "…I have to wonder if this isn't partially my fault."
Okay. I had to be dreaming. All I could do was wait for her to continue…until I possibly woke up in my bed.
"Now that I've had time to think about it, I realize that keeping you away from a boy you obviously like very much, when you're about to move a country away from him, is pretty unfair. Don't get me wrong; I expect this kind of behavior will never happen again, right?" Her expression was dangerous.
I promptly agreed by vigorously nodding my head and proclaiming, "Never!"
She continued. "So, for the rest of our time here, I'm going to suspend the grounding. And you will let me know exactly where you're going and when you will be home at all times."
I was ecstatic. "Thanks, Mom!" I sprung past the extra few inches between us to hug her.
She pulled back to look at me. "I do remember what it's like to be your age and love someone." She flinched at her own remark, as if she felt as surprised as I that she'd broach such a topic of conversation. Strangely, that soft dreaminess returned to her eyes. She sighed and picked up the remote. "Let's watch a movie until Ron gets here, huh?"
"Sure!" I wasn't going to say anything further, afraid that the wrong word would make her somehow change her mind.
"I'll make the popcorn!" I rose to go into the kitchen while Caelyn flipped through the action and horror choices on Netflix.