Caged Birds Don't Like to Sing

In the morning, both Jackson and I awoke to the sound of our door opening. I slowly opened my eyes as a little lady tottered in. I jolted up and covered up my body. “Um. Hi,” I said wearily. I thought we had put some sort of sign on the door that kept people out. She looked like she was part of the help, maybe just a fresh towel lady.

She seemed just as shocked as I was. She seemed like she was fairly new at the job, so it made sense for her to screw up. Jackson sat up and ruffled out his already disheveled hair. Then he reacted the same way I did. “What’s going on?” he asked groggily.

“Someone’s here for you,” the lady leaned in and whispered. Jackson and I scooted back a little. “They just flew in.”

“Flew in?” Jackson repeated back in a question form. He looked over to me. I was still covering up my torso, but I was staring off. I was thinking over what could be going on.

The young worker shook her hand in front of my face. I tossed my head around to snap out of it and looked back to her. She seemed as tense as Jackson and I were. “You better get dressed,” she hesitantly suggested. “She seem very upset.”

“Who’s she?” discouraged Jackson. He seemed a little frantic with what was going on.

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen her before in my life.” She looked behind her to see if our visitor was coming. “I have to lead her up right now.” With that, she shuffled out of the room.

I looked to Jackson. “It’s my mom,” I muttered worriedly.

“She flew in to our first stop just to talk to us?” Jackson seemed doubtful of my inference. He leaned back indifferently onto the pillows.

I started to tie the sheets around my body quickly. “Yeah. We took a helicopter once to one of our island stops to board a cruise when I was younger,” I started to explain as I hectically swiveled around in the sheets. Jackson took a tight hold of the comforter. “She couldn’t bare to wake up before eight o’clock to catch the plane. It’d mess up her beauty sleep.”

“That’s crazy,” Jackson huffed. “She could have at least given us some sort of warning.”

“Now that would be out of character.” I turned back around to grab my clothes. Right in front of me was my mom, walking into the room. I hiked up the top of the sheet and pulled the other side down, evening it out some. Just so it looked more normal, if that was possible.

She stopped right in front of me and stared me up and down. I felt my cheeks get a little warm and I shot a glance back to Jackson. He was covered in the comforter from his neck down. I grimaced back at my mom who practically had smoke rising from her ears.

The little worker lady popped up from behind and I could see her over past my mom’s shoulder. I had a feeling that she was obligated to watch my mother until she left. Since she really wasn’t suppose to be on the cruise. My mother was already dressed in her business suit, so she was probably leaving soon. Or at least I prayed for it. At least we would have the maid be another witness when my mom brutally murders me.

“Hi,” I sheepishly greeted, taking a small step back. She still hovered over me in her at least three inch heels.

“What has gotten into you, young lady?” she immediately screeched. Her tone of voice already was irking me to the point of no other. I clung onto the top of the sheet and my other hand balled into a fist out of pure anger.

“A simple ‘hello’ would have sufficed,” I seethed, turning away from her to take a few wider steps back. I almost tripped over my long train of sheets, but I caught myself before I did any damage. “Why are you even here?”

“Why do you think I’m here?” My mother threw back.

Before she could continue on with her rage, I cut in with, “I don’t know. I wouldn’t have asked if I had known!”

She rolled her eyes at my sarcastic behavior and remarked, “You disrespected me over the phone the other night and you can’t even thank me for getting you a husband!”

“Thank you?” I scoffed. “You completely sold me away to some complete stranger.” I felt a little guilty and looked back to Jackson after I said that. His expression showed me that he understood. “But now I’m happy with him. It was still rotten for you to do so. Just for your precious money!”

“You don’t even know the half of it!”

“I do, too! It was all explained to me. You’re a sick woman!” I insulted.

My mom scowled out her lips and stared at me fiercely. I took a deep breath and glowered back at her, keeping still in my stance. “Just get out,” I finally threw out.

She stiffly turned around and clicked her heels out. Before she left, she took one last spin around. “By the way,” she haughtily spoke. “That Riley girl is such a lovely lady. You shouldn’t have hurt her like you did.” Then she stuck her nose into the air and walked out.

I watched the door as it slammed shut. Both women were out of our room and it was back to just Jackson and I. I stood frozen, appalled at what had just happened. It must have been some sort of premonition to what was going to come. I knew my mom was already plotting her revenge.

I felt two warm hands on my bare shoulders. I made a small twitching movement of my head to look at Jackson, but I stared back at the door. I had no clue what to expect. Maybe she brought Riley with her onto the ship? Maybe they’re going to reek sabotage onto our unattended house. “Shit,” I murmured.

Jackson’s hands rubbed softly on my shoulders. “It’ll be fine,” he attempted to soothe.

“No, Jay,” I said, spinning around. “It’s not. We’ve got to do something!”

“What do you mean?” he asked. He seemed bewildered to what I was trying to say.

I passed him quickly to reach for my phone. “My mom’s going to do something horrible. Get someone to guard your house or something!”

“Marissa, you’re being ridiculous,” Jackson averted. He was coming up behind me to get my phone. I slapped him away and crawled over the bed to get away. I grabbed a pair of pajamas and went into the bathroom to change.

I set my phone on the counter and started to get dressed as I tapped buttons. “How will I be able to contact her?” I grumbled to myself. I went onto yellow pages using my phone’s handy-dandy Internet connection. I had no clue how it could work in the middle of the ocean.

I remembered that she owned a small bakery. What was it called? I pondered for a long moment as I slid on my tank top over my head. “Orange Blossom Upside-Down Cake,” I recalled out loud. That name was a mouthful. How does one even come up with that?

I typed the name quickly into my phone as I sat onto the closed toilet. Within seconds, it came up with the phone number for the little bakery.

“Marissa!” Jackson called, knocking on the door. “Don’t hide in there.”

“Hold on,” I demanded. I starting pushing the buttons into my phone. I dialed the number and put the phone to my head.

“Come on,” Jackson groaned as the phone beeped slowly.

I walked over and opened the door. Jackson stood in a shirt and boxers, I passed him and sat onto the bed. As I expected, he followed me along.

“Who are you calling?”

I clamped my hand over his mouth. He furrowed his eyebrows. “Hey,” I greeted over the phone. “It’s Marissa. Do you remember me? At all?”

I heard her sigh over the phone. “Yes. Of course I do.”

“You’re not upset with me calling you, are you?”

“No, not at all. I do remember quite clearly what happened.”

“Then you wouldn’t mind helping me out, would you?” I knew we always had a sort of bond. And I prayed she would understand.

“I can try to help.”

“Who is on the phone?” Jackson hissed again. I pushed him and he fell onto the pillows. I got up and started to pace around the room.

“My mother’s gone psycho. She’s trying to attack me. It’s really a long story, but I can fill you in once I get home. I’m on a cruise right now. Any ideas on how I can get home?”

“We’re leaving?” Jackson complained.

I clasped the phone to my chest. “Of course. We’re not letting her get away with this.”

Jackson grumbled menacingly under his breath. I rolled my eyes and put the phone back to my ear.

“What cruise line are you on?”

“Carnival,” I responded immediately. I began to feel some hope that maybe, if Jackson and I were lucky, could get ourselves out of this damned mess.

“Oh, fantastic. Just use my name and they can send out a plane to fetch you. What’s your next island stop?” she asked.

“I think Honduras. And that’s today.”

“I’ll put it in right now.”

“Thank you so much.”

“See you soon.”

With that, I hung up the phone. Jackson looked at me completely awe-struck as to what was going on. “Why are we leaving?”

I started to explain to him a bunch of stories on how vengeful my mom could be, even to her own flesh and blood. I crammed all of my things into the suitcase and started helping Jackson on his. After I was finished with my stories, Jackson said, “We better hurry.”