Life After Death by Wendy Herman

Author:Wendy Herman [Herman, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub

CHAPTER NINE

“Jason visited on his way to work this morning,” Mom says, as she ladles chili into two bowls for lunch. “Brace yourself - he asked if he could live with me. He can’t stand Marion on his own, without you, and he knows your apartment is too small for him to move in with you.”

“Geez,” I sigh, hurt by Jason confiding in Mom instead of me. I’m sure he didn’t want to add his issues to my cumbersome load. I should have noticed he’s been overly eager to reassure me he’s fine when obviously, if I hadn’t been so self-absorbed, I’d realize there’s no way he could be fine. Concern about stranding him with Marion had been a big reason I stayed so long in the marriage. Since he’s almost sixteen, I’d hoped Jason would be too busy to be bothered by Marion’s antics. Not so if he’s looking to escape after only a couple of weeks of me not being there.

“He said she expects him to stay home with her when he’s not working,” Mom says. “If he goes out, she accuses him of doing drugs and hanging around with a bad crowd.”

“Yeah, I’ve been talking to him about that and I really don’t believe he’s dumb enough to get into drugs. What really set Marion off was when he blocked her from his Facebook page a couple of weeks ago. She was pinging all his contacts to be their friends too so she could snoop around their pages. No one wants someone else’s mother watching their every move.”

“No one should be putting their every move out for the whole world to know anyway. We’re creating a generation of narcissists who can’t go to the bathroom without broadcasting it,” Mom says. “Regardless, I told Jason I’d think about him living here but he really needs to talk to you first. To be honest, the last thing I want is a teenager and his raging hormones bouncing around my house. An alternative is that I help you financially for a year or so, help you pay for a bigger apartment where he could live with you.”

“Marion will go nuts without him. She needs someone with her.”

“But does Jason need to live in that kind of environment?” Mom puts the bowls of steaming chili on the table. The smell of garlic mixed with chilies and tomatoes fills the kitchen. “He needs to live his own life, not be stuck babysitting his mother.”

Mom returns to the counter for a plate of multi-grain bread and the butter dish. As she sits down she says, “Nothing you’ve done, and nothing Jason could do, will make any difference. Marion will always be Marion. Hellooooo in there! This is a recording, this is a recording.” Mom laughs.

“You know it and I know it but Marion being Marion is the problem. She’ll think I coerced him to live with me as some huge revenge on her…I’ll talk to him. See if he can at least last the summer.

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