Life on Banana Street

Addie's Mom #2

“I’m tired of lies, Addie. You will hurt me on down the line.”

“How would you know? Name one time I hurt you.”

“When you rejected me for Gabe, Jeff, and Tre.”

“I had to see what kind of people are out there, baby,” I said stroking his hair.

“And I was the one?”

“It’s you, you! You are the one!” He smiled.

“It’s me, me! I’m the one! You know Addie, you always know how to make me smile.

“Of course I do, that’s who I am.” Billie went in for work about an hour ago and I was giving Joey a bath when Billie’s cell phone was ringing. “What a dumb fuck leaving his phone here.” I wrapped Joey in a towel and went downstairs and answered his phone. “Hello?”

“Oh, Addie I was hoping I could get a hold of you?” I was scared.

“Who is this?”

“Adeline! It’s me! Kate!”

“Kate! How are you doing?”

“Good. See, I didn’t know where you lived, so I called everyone you ever dated to see if they knew where you were.”

“Took a while didn’t it?” We laughed. “Well, I live at the house I lived in as a child if you ever want to come over.”

“Oh, alright, I’ll head on over there.”

“Ok bye.” I finished giving Joey a bath and I went downstairs to go watch TV with him. Pretty soon, the doorbell rang. “Just a second!” I went to go put Joey in his crib since he was already asleep anyway. “Hi Kate!”

“Hey Ads!” She came inside. “Man I remember this place…”

“Well I would hope so you came over every chucking day.”

“Addie, I don’t want to ruin our reunion, but why the hell are you watching Blue’s Clues? And why does the house smell of lotion and beer? And-” She looked at me. “You had a kid didn’t you?” I stared at that lady.

“How did you know?”

“All the signs. And I recently had a kid of my own.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, that’s why I dumped Mike. As soon as I found out, I broke off the marriage and raised the kid alone.”

“How are you making it?”

“Oh, Tre’s lending me some moula.”

“That’s good. Do you want something to eat?”

“Um Addie, I kinda wanted to tell you something…”

“Go ahead.”

“Your mom’s not dead.” I stood there in shock for a few seconds.

“What are you talking about Kate? That’s not funny.”

“No, I’m serious. She’s not dead.”

“How do you fucking know?!”

“Your brother called me and told me that she was at his apartment, really dirty. She was hiding.”

“Oh yeah? You got some nerve to come into my house and tell me some shit like that. Give me the phone.” I dialed Matt’s number on Kia’s phone and he answered.

“Hello?”

“Matt, Kate comes to my house and has the nerve to tell me that mom’s alive.”

“Uh Addie, I’m standing right here,” Kate said.

“I don’t care!”

“Well she is, she’s at my apartment.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? What the fuck kind of sick fucking joke is this?”

“Addie, just come to my apartment and you’ll see her.”

“Yeah right like I have the time to do that…”

“Well do you want me to bring her to you?”

“Do whatever you want, I’m not going to believe it until I see it.” I hung up and after a while, Kate went back to her house to check on her child. Billie got home a few minutes after Kate left. “Hey Bill. Both Kate and my brother played a horrible joke on me today.”

“What happened?” He said sitting down at the breakfast table and opened a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.

“Well Kate comes over and tells me that my mom’s alive, and that she’s living with Matt. So I call Matt and he even tells me that she’s there. I think he was going to bring her over because I didn’t believe either of them.”

“Well what did they bury instead of your mom?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t want to think about it right now.” He took a few more sips.

“Want a beer? You could use it.”

“Sure.” He opened the refrigerator from where he was sitting and grabbed one from the built in beer shelf. He opened it and left it on the table.

“Well maybe they weren’t lying. Maybe they’re telling the truth but it might not be true.”

“It’s not.”

“Well, let’s just go to bed, I’m beat.” I looked at the clock.

“At 7:00?”

“I’m tired I played and rehearsed all day for our tour in October.”

“I’m sorry baby.” I went and sat by him and kissed his neck. Not to get him in the mood or anything… “I’m kind of tired myself. Let’s go to bed.” We got up and I forgot a very important thing. Joey. “…After I put Joey in his crib.”

-The Next Morning-

I was woken up by someone coming in my door. I rubbed my eyes and Billie was still asleep. I screamed. “Matt! What the fucking shit are you doing here?”

“Mom’s here. I thought I would come in here before she saw you two sleeping and calling you a slut again.”

“Thanks Matt you’re very thoughtful. Where is she?”

“Downstairs watching TV. I think you better go down there before she starts to wander.” I got out of the bed and went downstairs.

“Mom?” She took her eyes off of the TV and looked at me.

“Adeline?”

“Yeah, mom.”

“You-you look so grown up.”

“I am mom. You haven’t seen me in what? 5 years? Where have you been?”

“Hiding. I had to make everyone think I was dead and come back. I’m back Adeline. I’m back.” I was crying on the inside. No not because I was happy. It was like my child life coming back to haunt me.