Parker Rain: Chapter 1

“I’M NOT GOING!” I screamed. “YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!”

Dad just glared at me, “Oh yes I can. You are going Parker, whether you like it or not.”

Dad and Claire had just told me they enrolled me in a private school. Dad’s argument was that he was a respected banker and had the money, and second, this school had a no truancy policy. Meaning if I was absent without written consent just once I was in for a hurt of trouble. That really meant only one thing, no adventures for this boy.

“FUCK YOU TRAVIS!” I had only one type of ammunition to use and that was calling dad by his rightful name. “I AM NOT GOING!”

It turns out that he can make me and for the last few months I have been going to Green Water Hill Private High School, home of the Tigers. It’s not like I went willingly. I did take one adventure early on and found out that one day of truancy meant two Saturday schools and a phone call to the parents. The Saturday school required the parents to drop their son off, sign them in and then at the end of the day, sign them out. Dad wasn’t too thrilled doing this twice and rightfully grounded me for two weeks.

Today was a bad day though. I didn’t go on an adventure, no much worse. I got into a fight with another kid from my ROTC class. It was my idea to join ROTC, dad wanted me to go into the geeky mock trial thing. The kid was a bit older than me and out-ranked me. Still hazing is wrong, and I showed him. Claire got the call, and brought me home.

I sat on the sofa while she paced. “I just don’t know what to do with you Parker.” She said.

“Nothing really. Just wait till dad gets here.” I shrugged. I didn’t want to say ‘You’re not my mom.’ That hasn’t gone over so well with her these last few months.

“Parker you got into a fight. “ She said like a mother would, I shrugged like I didn’t care. “Parker this is serious. You can get expelled!”

“Good.”

She glared at me with the most evil of faces. I want to say I’m brave, but damn she scared the shit out of me. I gulped.

“Let me make this clear young man, you talk like that again to me and I will make it my personal mission to drag out a long and painful grounding that you’d wish you were in a far off country.” I gulped and nodded again. Groundings already were hell with Claire. I lost all privileges and was to stay home under the watchful eye of my step-mother. Homework had to be done at the table, no television, no music, nothing but books and homework. I even lost my computer and Xbox, which meant I lost Blood Stone. “Now do you want to try this conversation again?” She finally asked. I nodded. “Well what do you have to say for yourself?”

“Ryan’s a jerk. I did what I had to do to show him that I wasn’t going to take any more of his brutality. You know he’s been harassing me for a month!”

“So you punched him?”

“I did much more than that. I kicked him where it hurts and then I punched him.”

“Parker what happened the last time you got into a fight?” She asked calmly. I had to think. The last fight I got into was with my aunt. “What did grandpa do?”

I put my head down and started to mumble, “He grounded me for a month and tore down my room. I lost everything. And when I protested he. . . “ I trailed off. I still could feel the hand hitting my ass. Dad said he once was spanked and it sent shivers through his spine. Grandpa hit hard and made you remember. Claire looked at me. “I got my ass whooped okay!” I yelled. I hated admitting that.

“I want those posters off your wall and into my room. You’re grounded for two months.”

“WHAT!” I stood finally. “THAT’S CRAP! YOU CAN’T GROUND ME! YOU’RE NOT –“

“You better watch what you say Parker. I can ground you. I may not be your biological mother, but I am sure as hell going to be a better one. Now go to your room, NOW!”

After slamming my door and looked at all my posters that I was about to lose and the computer, something inside me stirred. It was what she said. She wanted to be my mother, she wanted to be a better mother than. . . what? A mom that was never there? She was already that. As the day passed and evening seemed to drift off, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have Claire as a mom. Actually I wondered what it would be like to have a mom, period.

As I loaded the last of the photos out to my parents room, I heard the door open the squeals of joy from Leslie, and knew instantly dad was home. I walked out and didn’t actually look at him. He still had Leslie in his arms. I went to walk away, but he stopped me. “Parker, get over here.”

I turned back towards him. He saw the black eye. “Dad, I can explain.”

“Parker fight daddy.” Leslie said. Her mastering of the English language was hurting me.

“I see that.” Dad said to her. He put her down and she ran out the room on her wobbly feet. “Parker, I thought we came to an understanding.”

“We did. Ryan had it coming though.”

“Does it look like I care? Parker, I gave two simple rules, go to school and no fighting.” I tried to interrupt, to tell him that I hadn’t ditched since that one time but he held his hand up. “No Parker. You’re grounded end of discussion.”

Claire walked in just as I was about to say, ‘well duh.’ She smiled, “He’s already been grounded Travis.”

“Oh really?” He looked at me with shock. “How long?”

“Two months.” She answered.

My dad laughed. “Good for you.” He then kissed her which I made my regular audible gag. My sister who had walked in also gagged, just to copy me. She ALWAYS copies me.

The two months came and went and I served my time. Time slipped by and I kept my nose clean. I was expelled from the ROTC program, which hit me hard. I wanted in that program so I could train to work for SIA.

Today, I was cleaning out my camera and printing off photos and I found one of my grandfather fishing. It was the day we decided to fish, not the day he died but two days before. It brought on a wave of emotion.

We were fishing and the sun was setting it was an amazing sunset too. Grandpa looked at me, “Parker, what’s your plan after this trip?”

“What do you mean?” I asked confused.

“Are you planning on staying with me now that I took you to Egypt or are you planning on moving in with Travis?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t want to leave my dear-old-sweet granddad alone, but I also need dad. I know he’s there when I call him, and he comes down often, it’s just I wish it were. . . different.”

“I know you do, Park.” He patted me on the back. “And who you calling old?”

We both laughed.

“Parker?” He asked after our fit of laughter. “What about Claire? Can you see her being a mom . . . to you?”

I just shrugged. “Maybe. I never thought about it much. She’s nice. It’s just . . .” I took a long sigh, “Grandpa, I just can’t picture anyone being a real parent to me. Well, beside you, but you’re Grandpa.”

He looked hard at me. “We sure did mess you up, didn’t we?” He asked of him and of my father. I only nodded. “I’m sorry about the hand that was dealt for you. My wish is that someday you and Travis will find some solid ground.”

As I laid in bed, I thought about that conversation. Claire was my solid ground with dad. Together they acted like real parents. It was a scary thought for me. I even found myself calling Claire “mom.” I often fixed my mistake, but I still saw both of their smiles. I knew what I wanted, but I really didn’t know how to go about doing it.

In the morning I had made the decision. I would of course dearly pay for what I was going to do, but it had to be done. “PARKER GET UP!” I heard Claire call. What she didn’t know was I was already up and dressed in my school uniform, and I was putting a set of clothes into my bag.

“I’M UP!” I called out so that she wouldn’t come in and drag me out of bed like she has done in the past. It gets really embarrassing when your step-mom drags you out of bed while you’re taking care of some business under the covers. Yet she has done it.

I walked into the living room where I found dad watching television and Claire cooking breakfast. “Hey there’s my early riser.” He tried not to laugh but still couldn’t help but tease me.

“Dad, that’s getting old.”

“It only happened last week, how is it getting old?” He laughed again.

Claire answered for me, “Travis, enough. Or do I have to tell him some secrets about your morning routine?” He shut up and I really didn’t want to know.

I sat next to him until I heard the bus horn. Claire threw me some toast and as I ran out the door, I heard myself yell, “THANKS MOM!”

In the elevator I laughed, oops. I was pretty sure both of them were talking about how I just called her mom, again! In the elevator I clicked the emergency button, grabbed my clothes from my bag and changed. I only covered the camera once while I took off my pants and slid the new pair on. I turned on the elevator and headed downstairs, giving the camera the flip of the bird just for pure entertainment.

I ran out down the street and took the subway till I hit Fifth Ave. I walked to the library the rest of the way. I found the computer and did a search. I looked up the few law books on the subject I was inquiring about. I found out what I needed and where to get it. I thanked the librarian for the help and ran out the door.

I headed to Main and First. I walked up the dreary steps of City Hall and walked inside. I was a nervous wreck. Cops wandered the halls, as well as harden criminals. I was also nervous since I was a teenager skipping school. I walked up to the counter and asked to see “Family Services.” They directed me down the hall and gave me complicated directions.

I walked in and found a nice lady at a counter. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m looking for information on adoptions.” I said.

“You’re a bit too young to adopt, son.” She said and briskly went back to her computer.

“No, not for me. No, I need paperwork so that my step-mom can legally adopt me.”

She looked up and smiled, “does your parents know where you are?”

I almost wanted to laugh and go, ‘yea sure they do.’ Instead I looked at her in the eye, “Look, this is important. I just want this. My birthday is in two months and I need this. I can’t go another year without a mother.”

Her face turned from a bit annoyed to a soften ‘awe that so sad’ look. “Hold on.” She turned and walked into a room. A few minutes she returned with a few stacks of paper. “Okay, this is what you need. You have to have your biological mother sign these forms. It’s basically allowing her to sign over her rights to you. Then your dad and step-mom need to sigh these, bring them in and have a judge sanction the adoption.”

“My. . . Biological mother?” I stuttered.

“Yes. If you don’t then there’s nothing we can do.”

“What if I don’t know who or where she is? She abandoned me when I was a baby.”

“Then you need to get a judge to revoke her rights, which can take a while. If I were you, I’d just ask your dad who she is and track her down. It may be quicker than waiting for a judge to see the case.” I nodded and took the papers. I already felt defeated though. I was never going to be able to find my mother.

I walked around town all day. I finally found a park and sat by the fountain. My mind wondered back to Egypt. The night before he died, grandpa and I were sitting out by the fire talking and roasting marshmallows. I was sulking even then. I had gotten shot down by this Egyptian girl who surprisingly spoke pretty good English. “Cheer up kid.” Grandpa said to me.

“I just don’t get it. We were laughing and having a blast. Why’d she just shoot me down like that?”

“Son, in these parts of the world, not everyone is allowed to date. I’m surprised she even talked to you without her parents present. “ I looked at him really confused. Why wouldn’t she be allowed to talk to me? “Son, in this neck of the woods most girls are paired with someone at birth. They are arranged to wed when they are older to someone they may or not even know. It could be she shot you down, because she just doesn’t want to give you hope that anything could ever happened.”

“That’s stupid. Who would want to marry someone they don’t know?”

“It’s not by choice.”

Now that I sit and think about that night, I realize I never had a choice in my life. I didn’t get to choose anything about how I wanted to live. I was abandoned! Both my biological parents didn’t give me a choice if I wanted them! I know that I want a family. I want to be a part of something. If I got to choose one thing, I would want to choose my parents and right now I choose Claire. Hell, I don’t even want to choose Travis, but I’m stuck with him.

I walked home and into the apartment. I heard the television go off and Leslie squealing. She stopped dead though when she saw me. “Ooooooooh.” She pointed. “Mommy, Parker home!” She ran to the living room. Another thing I would choose, no sister. Yup, all she is, is a pain in my ass.

“Parker ! GET IN HERE, NOW!” Claire –er mom –er (I don’t know) yelled.

I walked in the living room, but didn’t sit. “Before you go off on one of your yelling fits, can I explain myself?” I asked.

“Please. I’d love to hear this one.” She said as she sat down.

“Can I wait till dad gets here?”

“TRAVIS! HURRY UP!” She yelled. I looked and heard the toilet.

He walked out. “Wha – Oh.” He said as he spotted me. “You have a lot of nerve boy.”

“He wants to explain this adventure.” Claire explained.

Dad reluctantly sat next to Claire and together they waited. My chest pounded. I was in serious shit, I knew that the moment I left the apartment. I took one deep breath. “I went to the library today to look up something important.” Dad huffed, but Claire waited. “I then went to City Hall and headed to Family Services.”

“What the hell would you do that for? We haven’t laid a hand on you? We feed you, give you everything in the – “

I finally stopped dad, “I didn’t go down there to report abuse you dumb ass. Just listen.” He shut his mouth. “The last few days I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Grandpa once told me that we don’t get to choose our family. For me, that just doesn’t seem fair. I didn’t have a choice when both my parents decided to abandoned me. I was hopeless. Hell I was TWO!” Dad’s mouth dropped a bit to say something, probably sorry, but I continued. “I want a choice. I want to be able to choose my parents. So, I went to family services and got the paperwork needed to have Claire adopt me.” I paused for a dramatic feeling and then looked at Claire, “Claire, will you be my mom?”

Both of them looked at each other. They had a smile on their face. Claire finally turned her head to me, “Yes, but on one condition.”

“Name it.”

“You never, ever, say that I’m not your real mom. Because once this is done, Parker I will be.”

I smiled and hugged her and even kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”

Dad finally cleared the air and coughed. “Excuse me, don’t I have any say?”

“No.” Both Claire and I said in unison.

“Well then.” He huffed. “So Parker, what do we need to do to get this all settled.”

I bit my lip and grabbed out the paperwork from my bag. I sat across from them. “You two need to fill out those papers and. . . .” I really couldn’t say it. I wanted to say, oh and mom needs to relinquish her rights over. I sat on the chair in the corner and waited while they looked through it.

Dad looked at the other stack. “There’s two stacks.” He started to read,  he stopped and just looked at me. He stood and went over to me and just got angrier by the second. He was pissed. “UH UH! NO ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

“WHAT?” Claire asked.

I just put my head in my hands, “I know.” I moaned. “I don’t like it either dad, but we have to. It could take months, even years to get a judge to relinquish her rights. I want this done by my birthday! You are just going to have to call her, get her down here and sign these damn forms!”

Claire, realizing what was needed felt a bit bad. “I don’t like it either Travis, but your son is right.”

“FUCK!” Dad screamed. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He kicked the sofa. “Alright, I will fucking call her, but you get to ask her.” He pointed to me. “I’ll get her here, you get to ask. Got it!?!”

“Fine.” I said.

Dad grabbed the phone and put on speaker. He wanted everyone to be apart of this. “She’s not going to like this, by the way.” He said as the phone rang.

“HeeeeLLLLLooooo!” A young boy answered.

“Hey Scotty, is mommy there?” Both Claire and I looked up at him. “What? I keep in contact.” He shrugged.

Claire looked pissed and I was just shocked that I had two bratty siblings running around rather than one. We heard him cry for his mom, well our mom.

“Another kid! UHG!” I said quietly. Dad smacked me.

“Hello?” A woman’s voice came on the line.

“Hey its me.” He mouthed say something to me but I found my heart beating out of my chest and couldn’t say anything.

“Travis, I sent the check last week.” She complained. Both Claire and I looked at him suspiciously.

“We need to talk. All of us.”

“Travis, I told you, I just can’t do whatever it is you expect me to do. You’re his dad, deal with him yourself.”

“Just this once will you fucking listen to me Rose? Parker needs to talk to you and he needs you to come up to Bridgeport to do so, can you do that?”

“Please.” I finally said through my dry mouth. “It’d mean a lot to me.”

“Speaker, huh. Dammit Travis! Look, Parker I’m sorry, but I got my own life.”

“Just do it for him, Rose. This will be the last thing he’ll ever want from you.”

We heard her sigh, “Fine. I’ll be there Saturday evening, and this better be the last fucking time Travis.”

“Believe me it is.” He said and hung up the phone.

Dad shook his head. I knew my mother would be heartless, she did after-all leave me when I wasn’t even three months or so. What got me was that she had kids, and she was taking care of the. I had to sit down, “A fucking brother!” I sighed, not realizing I said it out loud.

“PARKER!” Claire yelled. “Language please.”

“Sorry.”

“Actually its two brothers, Scott’s twin Sean is probably at hockey.”

“How come you never told me? They’re not yours are they?” I asked. Claire looked up.

“No. They’re hers and her ex’s. Roger left when the boys were two. She called me asking for help. I laughed at her and said it was poetic justice before she could remind me that I too left. “

“You didn’t help her, did you?” Again, I asked what was on Claire’s mind.

“No.” He laughed. “You think I’m stupid. I call her now and again to remind her that your birthday is around the corner and her deposit is due. She pays your yearly child support in bulk.”

“Child support?”

“It’s more like a trust that dad had me set up. When I first started to pay for it I got pissed and called her. I made her pay into it as well.” So I had money, this was very interesting. But before I asked how much dad stopped me. “So now, that that’s out of the way, we have a much serious matter to discuss.”

“Okay?” I asked. “How much more serious? I mean learning about two brothers and that you’ve been in contact with that woman is pretty serious.”

“Parker, you ditched school.”

“You can call and make an excuse. I mean I had a pretty good one, didn’t I?” I looked over at Claire. “Mom?” (Yea, I know, a cheap shot. But really, who could blame me for trying?)

“I don’t think so Parker.” She said. Ouch. “You could have just easily had asked us to look into it. You went on your own and ditched school on purpose.”

“So I had an adventure, and a pretty good one at that. Why should I be punished for trying to change part of my life?” (Seriously I was pulling on threads).

“Because like it or not we’re trying to raise you better than that.” Claire answered.

“So how deep am I in?” I asked in defeat.

“ Just like last time, you are grounded for as long as the two Saturday schools you’ve received.” Dad answered.

“This is total bullshit!” I yelled.

“Bullsit!” My sister cried from the door way. She had finally gotten bored with her toys and came to see what the commotion was about. “Bullsit daddy!”

“ROOM NOW PARKER!” Claire yelled. I was in deep shit. My sister kept learning new phrases from both dad and I. We were always in trouble with our mouth when Leslie was around.

I slammed the door. Although by the time I got to the bed I felt happy. Claire yelled at me, which normally always ended up with two of us fighting. Now I just listened. She was my mom, or was going to be. My birth mom could care less as I learned from the phone. I dreaded Saturday, for once I wish I could just attend Saturday school.

I paced all afternoon on Saturday I was so nervous. At school, I couldn’t help contain my nervousness, I ended up throwing up so much that the teachers called dad to pick me up. One Saturday down, one to go.

Dad twitched his leg up and down on the sofa and Claire just sat. “Relax you two.” She turned to dad, “When’s the last time you saw her?”

“Just after she broke off the engagement.”

“What engagement?” I asked. I didn’t think the two were ever engaged.

“Your uncle and her met and secretly dated for a while. He proposed. When he introduced me to her, the two of us were shocked. Then I had to tell Jake. Jake wanted to make it work, Rose just couldn’t. She couldn’t face me. So they parted ways and she left town.”

“Wow. That’s just . . . gross.” I said and dad laughed. I shivered at the thought of my Uncle Jake dating the same woman my dad has.

The intercom buzzed and brought me back from the repulsive visions.

I walked over and clicked the button to answer, “Yea?”

“It’s me, Rose, let me up.” I buzzed her in and downstairs the elevator unlocked. A few minutes later we heard the knock on the door and I allowed dad answer.

He brought Rose inside and into the living room. “Rose this is Claire my wife.” Dad said. The two nodded but neither shook hands. He then turned her attention to me, “Parker, this is your mother, Rose.”

She just looked at me,. She actually removed her glasses a bit to get a good look at me, her son.“My God! You’ve grown since I saw you.”

“It’s what happens after fourteen years.” I said snidely.

“Well more like. . .” and then she bit her lip and looked at dad. He shook his head.

“More like what!?! WHAT?” I hadn’t ever seen this wo – but wait, I have. She looked so familiar, yet how could I place her? What the fuck? How do I know this woman!?!

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, “HOLY FUCK!”

“PARKER, Language!” Claire yelled.

“You bastard! You could have warned me this week. Told me, oh hey by the way your mother is the one that you hitched a ride from when you ran away. DAMMIT TRAVIS!”

“I didn’t think you would remember.”

“Fuck! I bet you guys set that all up too, huh!”

“Actually it was just pure coincidence. I didn’t really realize it was you until your dad called to thank me. Plus shouldn’t I be yelling at you for hitchhiking?”

“OH FUCK YOU! Both of you!” I said.

Claire stood. “Parker, language! You have two choices, your room or here, you decide now.”

“Sorry.” And just to really stab that dagger deeper inside Rose, I said it, “mom.”

“It’s okay.” Rose said back to me.

“Not you!” I yelled. “You think I’d call you mom if you hear me call this ass Travis? Seriously? You’re worse than him. At least he kinda cares for me. You didn’t even want to come here. Bitch.” Claire smacked me. “Again sorry.”

“I don’t even know why I am here, but clearly I wasn’t invited for a family get together. I’ll just leave.”

“You can’t” I sighed. “I need something from you. Dad, can you get the papers?” Dad nodded and went to gather the paperwork and Claire followed. I was alone with Rose. “I need you to fill out some paperwork for me.”

“What kind of paperwork?”

“Its. . . I need you to. . .” I couldn’t say it, why can’t I say it? “I’ve asked Claire to adopt me and I need you to relinquish your rights to me.”

Her face changed. She was hardened when she got here, now her eyes welled up and she was starting to cry. “I. . . . I. . . . I” She repeated. She couldn’t believe that I would do this to her, was she mental? She really wasn’t my mom; she just gave birth to me. The only good that came from that was my blonde hair, which I love.

“Please Rose. I need this. Claire’s a great woman. She treats me like I am her son. I’ve never asked for anything from you. All I ask now is to be a mother for once and sign these documents.”

Dad came in and handed her the papers. She looked up at me. “Alright.”

We all watched as she filled out the paperwork at the table. She started to talk to me, “You know, I am sorry, I really didn’t think when I left.”

I just stared. I had shed enough tears over this woman and my father when I was a child. Today, I finally get to have a loving parent in my life. Claire kicked me a bit and smiled at me. She and I both knew the importance of this day, and nothing either of my biological parents could say would make this day sad for me.

”Can either of you tell me why you left a helpless kid in a crib, rather than, let’s say, try to be a parent?” Claire asked. I was shocked. I really didn’t want to hear the answer.

Claire shook her head. “I’m sorry, Parker. I left, because I didn’t love you. My shrink told me that it was postpartum depression. I left to get away, and I am glad that I did. Shortly after my dad’s crew went after him and I’ve been hiding ever since.”

“And you?” Claire asked dad. All of us looked at him, even Rose. Dad never had a decent answer and he sure as hell didn’t have one now.

Dad was sweating. “I . . . um. . . . “ He was choking. This was great. “Look, I made the choice and stuck with it. Parker knows how much I regret that night and he knows I can’t apologize enough. What does it matter if I had a good reason or not?”

“Because, I need an answer Travis!” I yelled. “I never understood why you left. Hell, grandpa never got it. He never wanted you to be a part of my life after you left. I had to beg, and plea. It took stealing a phone and calling you to see you that Christmas. His nickname for you my entire life was, ‘your idiot father.’ That’s how he referred you to me.“ I took a breath. Really I needed to. I was mad. I finally said, “Dammit, just give me a reason DAD.”

“Alright. I never asked to be a father at sixteen.”

“No but fucking your girlfriend in her house was a great idea.” Rose said.

“I USED PROTECTION! Hell, your dad even picked it up before looking for his shotgun!”

“Oh that’s right! Hahaha, I can’t believe how fast you ran out of the house. Dad had you gone in a flash.”

“Of course he did! He’s a fucking killer!”

“LANGUAGE!” Claire yelled as my sister came inside the room.

Dad looked down at Leslie. “Puckin’ killer, daddy!” She smiled. I laughed.

“Leslie!” Dad moaned just as Claire smacked him hard on the head.

Dad picked up my sister and took her back into her room. I looked over her again. “Do you regret leaving? I know dad does, but I always wondered about you.”

“No. Actually I never did regret it. I know that probably stings, but really, I would have made a horrible mother.”

“You have two kids.” I pointed out. “Aren’t you a decent if not good parent to them?”

“Yes, Scotty and Sean are great. I try my best with them. I got a redo with them and I have yet to take it for granted. I may not regret leaving, but I am sorry. And here you go; I am no longer your mother.” She said as she stacked the papers all up and handed them over. She looked across to my new mom, “Claire, he’s all yours.”

Mom decided to help walk out Rose. “Take care of him. Make sure he knows what it should feel like to have a loving mother.”

Claire smiled at Rose, “I’m already doing that. Thank you for giving him to me.”

I cleared my throat, I wanted to say something. I wanted one last goodbye, and a rightful one from this woman who has always left me.

“Uh, mom.” I tapped my mom, Claire, “Could I have one last goodbye.”

“Of course you can.” She patted my cheek and gave us some privacy.

Although dad didn’t give me any privacy. He walked right in just as mom left the room. Still, I needed someone there. Rose looked at me, “Well I guess this is it, our final goodbye.”

“Yea.” I sighed. “You’d think this be easy, seeing as how this is the only way I remember you.”

She smiled and wiped my tear. “I am sorry for all these that you have shedded over me. You’re a sweet boy. Now, behave and listen to these two.”

“I will. Thanks for this, it means a lot to me.”

“It’s my pleasure Parker.” She smiled.

I embraced her in a hug. It was my first and last hug with the woman that gave birth to me. She, I know, probably felt awkward. Yet she patted my back and even gave me a little kiss on the cheek. It took me longer to realize that was the only kiss she ever gave me.

A few months later the judge signed off on the paperwork and Claire became officially my mother. The next morning she did what she normally did, but this time she was mom. She tore me out of bed while I was, again, taking care of business. “MOM!” I yelled trying to cover myself  up.

“I told you twice to get out of bed. Now up.”

“Can’t you see that I need just a bit of privacy?”

“That’s what they call a shower, Parker. Now up and get dress, you’ll be late for school, birthday boy.”

I walked out my room and slammed the door and walked into the bathroom and slammed the other door. It’s really frustrating when she wakes me up like that. But I love her, after all, she is my mom.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: I just want to thank Styx for her amazing help these past few days. And in thanks to her keeping me laughing and upbeat with all the problems I have had this week, I dedicate this post to her.