No Room for Mom

I get home from a business trip over Thanksgiving and find out Mom came all the way from Larkwyn to visit me. She was made to sleep in the storage room. I'm just about to lose my temper when my mother-in-law, Deborah Garner, rolls her eyes. "Next time your mom comes, give us a heads-up. What will the neighbors think if they find out we have relatives from the sticks?" Mom looks down, so humiliated she doesn't know what to do with her hands. My wife, Ella Shaw, finally looks up from her phone when she sees the look on my face. "Come on. Mom's just looking out for us. Everyone in this building is either rich or well-connected. Next time your mom visits, she should stay at a hotel. It's such a hassle having to get the place professionally cleaned every time she leaves." She grabs the pecan pies Mom brought and throws them straight into the trash. "And don't bring stuff like this from the sticks into our home. It's full of germs." Mom apologizes over and over, clutching the few things she brought to her chest. Then she lowers her head and walks out the door. I don't argue or make a scene. I grab the deed, call a real estate agent, and put the condo on the market. Mom paid for the place in full when I got married. If they're so embarrassed to have relatives from the sticks, they can stop living in the condo Mom paid for. After all, I wouldn't want to embarrass them. Chapter 1 When I rushed downstairs, Mom was sitting beside one of the flower beds outside the building. "Mom," I called. She turned around, her eyes red from crying. The moment she saw me, she wiped her face with her sleeve. "Justin, what are you doing down here? It's getting dark, and it's not safe out here. Go back upstairs." She reached into her jacket pocket. She'd had that jacket for ten years. The collar was frayed, but it was always spotless. Without looking up, she searched her pocket and murmured, "I should've told you before I came. That was my fault. Deborah and Ella are from the city. They care a lot about keeping things clean." Mom reached deep into her pocket and pulled out a bundle wrapped in several layers of plastic. She carefully unwrapped it. Inside was a wad of cash, mostly fives, tens, and fifties, neatly held together with a rubber band. She pressed it into my hand. "Here's 2,000 dollars. This money's clean. Go buy yourself some pecan pies. I know how much you like them." I swallowed past the lump in my throat and took her hand. "Mom, come back upstairs with me." She waved me off and took a small step back. "No, no. I'm leaving. My bus leaves at 7:00 pm. Go back upstairs, and don't fight with Ella because of me." "Mom…" She didn't give me a chance to say anything else. She closed my fingers around the money and headed toward the gate. I stood there, too choked up to speak. When I went back upstairs, my mother-in-law, Deborah Garner, was in the living room. She was telling my wife, Ella Shaw, to move some things into the spare bedroom. "Come on, hurry up. We need to get this room ready. Kevin's coming back soon." Kevin Shaw was Ella's younger brother. In the five years Ella and I had been married, he'd come stay with us every few weeks, usually for ten days or two weeks at a time. Whenever he was here, he acted like he owned the place, never lifting a finger and expecting everyone to wait on him hand and foot. I'd put up with it for five years without saying a word. I stopped in the doorway. "So you kicked my mom out because Kevin's coming back. Is that it?" Deborah pointed toward the storage room like it was no big deal. "Who kicked her out? We gave her a room, didn't we?" I looked at the storage room. It was barely 32 square feet. I struggled to keep my temper in check. "There's no window, and once you put a bed in there, there's barely any room to move. Mom's getting older, and she has a bad back. She can't sleep in a place like that." Chapter 2 Deborah rolled her eyes. "If your mother can't handle it, then she doesn't have to come. She's from the sticks. She's used to roughing it. What's so bad about the storage room?" Ella straightened up and took her mother's side. "Justin, enough! It was only a few nights in the storage room. What's the big deal?" "Would you make Kevin stay in there?" I shot back. Ella finally lost her patience and threw what she was holding onto the floor. "What do you expect me to do? Make Kevin and his daughter sleep in the storage room? You'd really make a three-year-old sleep in there?" Apparently, making Kevin and his three-year-old sleep there was unthinkable, but putting Mom there after a seven-hour bus ride just to see me was perfectly fine. Deborah scoffed. "Kevin is family. Of course he can stay with his own sister. But your mother? She's old enough to have her own place instead of staying with her married son. People would talk!" I dug my nails into my palm. Funny how Deborah hadn't said any of that when Mom paid for the condo. We'd agreed from the start to keep a bedroom for Mom so she could move in with us when she got older. Instead, Deborah moved in first and pushed Mom out. And now Mom couldn't even visit me once in a while without being made to feel unwelcome in the condo she'd paid for. How was that fair? I was about to argue when the doorbell suddenly rang. Deborah hurried to answer it, her face lighting up. "Oh, Kevin! You're here! Come in, come in. Where's Tina? I've missed her so much!" It was Kevin and his daughter, Tina Shaw. Tina walked in with a melting lollipop in her hand. Sticky drops hit the floor as she went, leaving a trail behind her. Deborah glanced down at the mess and smiled. "Look how cute she is." When Mom came to visit, she wore the nice clothes she saved for holidays and special occasions. Everything she had on was spotless, but they still treated her like she was dirty. The pecans in the pies came from her own tree. She picked them herself, let them dry, and saved them for Thanksgiving instead of eating them. The moment Deborah saw the pies, she covered her nose and complained that they smelled weird. Ella didn't even open the box. She just picked it up and tossed it straight into the trash with a disgusted look. I closed my eyes for a moment. I couldn't stand watching them act like one big happy family anymore, so I turned and walked into the kitchen. The pecan pies Mom had made especially for me were still in the trash. I sighed, pulled them out, opened the box, and took a bite of one. It tasted exactly the way I remembered. Mom knew how much I loved pecan pie, so she always started getting everything ready early. She'd sort through the pecans, shell them one by one, and save the best ones for my pies. Then she spent seven hours on a bus with the pies in her lap, just to bring them to me. She'd put so much care into making them, only for Ella to throw them away because she thought they were dirty. I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and took another bite. The pie was cold, and the crust had gone a little hard, but I kept eating. Mom had brought them all this way just for me. I couldn't let them go to waste. When I was done, I put the rest of the pies in the fridge. As soon as I stepped out of the kitchen, I saw Tina scribbling all over a family photo of me, Mom, and Dad with markers. "What are you doing?" I rushed over and snatched the photo out of her hands. Tina burst into tears. "Uncle Justin's mean!" Chapter 3 The moment Tina started crying, Deborah rushed over and stepped between us. "Justin, why are you yelling at a child?" Kevin came over and pulled Tina into his arms, his tone offhand. "Justin, it's just a photo. Do you really need to make such a big deal out of it?" I stared at the family photo in my hand. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wipe the marker off. My hands shook with anger. "Just a photo?" Kevin rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That's all it is." I stood up, gripping the photo, my voice shaking uncontrollably. "My dad's gone. This is the last photo we ever took as a family." The room fell silent, but only for a moment. Ella came up behind me, glanced at Tina sobbing, then at the photo in my hand, and sighed. "Enough already. The photo's ruined, and getting angry isn't going to fix it. Tina didn't do it on purpose. We're family. Stuff like this happens when you live together. Do you have to turn everything into a huge fight before you're satisfied?" Family? In their eyes, they were the only ones who counted as family. Mom was an outsider, and so was I. Before I could say anything, my phone buzzed with a message from Mom. "Justin, I'm already on the bus home. Take care of yourself, okay? And don't fight with Ella because of me." I stared at the screen, my eyes stinging. I didn't have it in me to argue with them anymore. All I wanted was to go home, see Mom, and spend Thanksgiving with her. Deborah was still going on. "You're crying over a photo? Seriously? You're being dramatic!" "Mom, enough," Ella said. "Why should I? Ever since his mother got here, it's been one thing after another..." I didn't say another word. I tucked the photo away, left the condo, and headed for the bus terminal. Most of the lights in the waiting area were already off, and the last bus was long gone. Mom was probably home by now. I wouldn't be spending Thanksgiving with her after all. I sighed, then spotted a familiar figure in the corner. It was Mom. She was asleep against the wall with a large woven bag at her feet. She held her faded jacket to her chest, a bus ticket still in one hand. I leaned closer to read the ticket in her hand. It was for the 6:20 am bus to Larkwyn the next morning, and it had cost just 43 dollars. Then it hit me. The last bus that night had cost 123 dollars. Mom was going to spend the entire night at the bus terminal just to save 80 dollars. I crouched beside her, my throat tightening painfully. "Mom..." I whispered. She jolted awake and froze when she saw me. "Justin? What are you doing here?" I struggled to keep my voice steady. "I thought you said you were already on the bus." Her smile faltered. She looked down and said softly, I... I just wanted to save a little money. Tonight's bus was 123 dollars, but tomorrow morning's is only 43. It's just one night at the terminal, and I'll save 80 dollars. That's worth it, isn't it?" Mom was willing to spend the night at a bus terminal just to save 80 dollars. Yet she hadn't thought twice about spending 800,000 dollars on a condo for me. I stayed crouched beside her and really looked at her. Dirt smudged her face, her hair was tousled by the wind, and mud from the flower bed stained her clothes. Chapter 4 "Mom, why didn't you... why didn't you tell me?" Mom sighed and reached up to wipe my face. Her hands were rough, and the calluses on her fingertips brushed the skin at the corner of my eye, making it sting a little. "What was I supposed to tell you? It costs enough just to live in the city. I can't do much to help you, but I don't want to make things harder for you." "Mom—" She cut me off. "I'm really fine. Look, the terminal is well lit, and security makes rounds. It's safe here, and there's plenty of room." I looked at her. She didn't say she was cold or hungry. She didn't mention spending seven hours on a bus and then half the night on a hard bench at the bus terminal. All she talked about was how bright, spacious, and safe it was. Mom had always been like that. No matter how hard things got, she'd only tell me a fraction of it. She kept the rest to herself. We were poor when I was growing up. Dad died when I was young, so Mom raised me alone. During the busy farming season, she worked in the fields. When things slowed down, she went into town and took whatever jobs she could find. But she always made sure I had clean clothes and a hot meal. When I was in high school, I needed 1,200 dollars for school. Mom didn't have it, so she borrowed money from five different families. By the time she got home, it was already dark. She was still smiling when she pulled a stack of bills from her pocket. They were mostly fives and tens, and it took her a while to count them all. When she finished, she looked at me and said, "Justin, I may not be able to give you much, but I'll make sure you finish school." Years later, I graduated, got a job, and built a life for myself in the city. The first thing I wanted was for Mom to move in with me. But she refused. She always had an excuse. The vegetables in her garden needed watering. A neighbor had asked her to watch their kid for a few days. She couldn't get used to the elevators in the city. But I knew the real reason. She was afraid she'd be a burden to me. After Deborah moved in, Mom became even more reluctant to come stay with me. She always said she was fine on her own and didn't want to get in the way. But every month, without fail, she sent 2,000 dollars to my account. Whenever I told her I didn't need it, she'd say, "Just keep it. A man needs some money in his pocket." Meanwhile, she was back home in the country, still wearing the same jacket after ten years, even though the collar was frayed. And Ella's family had the nerve to keep living in a condo Mom had paid for. What gave them the right? I clenched my fists. Then I had an idea. I wasn't about to let Mom spend the night at the bus terminal, so I took her to the nicest hotel nearby. The room cost 880 dollars for the night. Mom stopped at the door and refused to go in. "Justin, I don't need a room this nice. I can just spend the night at the terminal—" I cut her off and pulled her inside. "Mom, you spent 800,000 dollars buying me that condo. I can take care of you now. Just let me do something for you for once, okay?" She looked at me and opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I helped Mom inside and sat her on the edge of the bed. She sank into the soft mattress, which made her look even smaller. "Mom, get some rest tonight. We'll deal with everything else tomorrow." She held my hand, looking worried. "What about you? When you go back home... you're not going to fight with them, are you?" I shook my head. "No. Don't worry. I won't." There was no point arguing with a bunch of bastards like them. Mom looked at me for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Good. As long as you're okay, that's all that matters to me." I didn't say anything else. I tucked the blanket around her and left the room. The hallway was quiet. I leaned against the wall for a moment, then pulled out my phone and made a call. "Hi, I need to sell my condo. I don't care how low you have to price it. I only have one condition."