Mother and Son

By Casey Laday

“Can you make it? I know you want to do this on your own, but I don’t mind helping you walk the rest of the way.” His normal grouchy voice seemed to soften as the elderly woman walked up to the picture-perfect house. Perfect in the way that the grass seemed to lay across the ground like a blanket across the dirt letting the only thing to escape it be the neat orange and brown leaves that fell from the sky. They seemed to fall in slow motion as they slide off the old roof that had seen better days but still gave off the impression that it would keep you safe from the fall nights. At any given time you could blink your eyes and take a mental picture of this place put it in a frame and have yourself a beautiful piece of art work.

“I’m not so old that I cant walk son. I walked up and down these rocky roads with you and your sister, changing diapers and breastfeeding your greedy butts. All while” Her son didn’t wait for her to finish. He grabbed her arm and placed it square into his making sure that his body warded off the cold and gave support to aching bones that she had all but grown accustomed to.

“All while you made dinner and cleaned the whole house. I remember mom. You were superwoman.” He says while guiding her back into the house, again his gentle nature taking her by surprise.

“Junior, I am superwoman! I will always be superwoman! You and your sister had a great up bringing. Well the best I could do.” He walked her to the house and opened the door so she could slowly slide her way in.

“You did great mom.” Again voice soft and sweet.

“Well why didn’t your sister come? I haven’t seen her in so long.”

“She’s not coming mom. She- “He stops for a second and closes the door. Then takes a deep breath. “She couldn’t make it this year mom.”

“So it will be just us huh? My first born and I sitting here looking at the leaves fall. How long are you staying?”

“Mom, I’m not leaving. I’m moving in to take care of you.” His mother laughs.

“Son what have I always said? As long as your in this house your always safe. This place takes care of us. It saved our lives when you two were young. When is your sister coming by the way?” He eyes burned from holding back his emotions.

“She’s not coming mom, not this year.”

“Oh, well she is going to miss one hell of a story. Have I ever told you about how the spirits of this house saved us?”

“Yes mom, I’ve heard it multiple times.” She grinned

“Well you need to hear it again. You see, I don’t rightfully know if it’s the house itself or ancestors that watch over us, but they always take the form of that old barn owl with the heart shaped face. You know this used to be a barn? Before you dad bought the land and built a house on it for us to grow up in. We were so young and frisky back then, sneaking off to the old barn, just to sneak a kiss and do things only God can tell, but no one on this earth should speak of. Then in the dead of night he would walk me back to my place. He never got lost, your dad. I would ask him how come he knew the way so well, and he would say he listened to the bird with the heart shaped face.” Tears of joy rolled down the mothers face as she remembered her husband. Days that she could not get back, days that seemed foreign to her more and more every day.

“Yes I remember the heart shaped bird stories mom, why don’t you get some rest and ill make you some tea.” Her son rose form his chair and turned to the kitchen.

“You know when he build this house that bird appeared to him. Watched over him and this house while he worked, I don’t need to tell you how bad times were back then. But your daddy did it, built this home with his own two hands, just to make it look perfect. A picture perfect house just like on the TV. When you were little you and your sister would play outside and listen to the bird. I would know that yall went too far when the owl stopped making noise.”

“Yes I remember, now Ill get you some tea.” The mother shook her head.

“I don’t want any tea, I want to know why your acting like this.”

“Like what?” The son says reverting back to his rough husky voice.

“There that’s how you normally sound. Who are you trying to fool with that soft tone you got on you?”

“I’m not trying to fool you mom, I’m just” The son sits back onto the couch, His head down and arms slumped over.

“Son spit it out. Let me know what’s wrong.”

“It’s a lot mom, I don’t think you can handle it.” His mom chuckles

“Son I used to walk up and down these rocky roads holding you and your sister. There is nothing I cant handle.” The son takes a deep breath.

“Mom my wife died while giving birth to our daughter. I lost my job because of drinking and her sister now has my kid. Your daughter passed away two years ago. Its just us mom, and on top of that your sick. You don’t have long to live. You didn’t want to leave this house so I came here to take care of you. I’m not doing good, I want to be the man you think I am but I’m not.” Tears escape his clinched cheeks and flow down staining his shirt.

“Son, it sounds like you are exactly where you need to be. Here at this house with your family.” Her son cleaned his face off shaking his head.

“You don’t understand mom. Life is bad, everything is bad, and I cant talk to you because your just going to forget. I cant keep telling you this over and over. Its hard watching your cry. Its hard watching you forget! Everything except that damn bird! That bird that you loved so much killed dad! Why don’t you ever tell that story? You just so happen to forget that one?” His mother’s face grew stern as stone.

“Jacobi Rene Cooper, as long as you are my child and you have breath in your lungs you will not disrespect me or your father like that do you understand?” Her son coming to the realization of what he had done calmed himself.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Now let me tell you something, no one ever told you, me, or the people next door, that life would be easy. No one ever said that being a man would be easy. You were born into this life with the hand you were given and that all your going to have. I didn’t raise a quitter, so I know what your doing right now isn’t quitting, it’s a time out. Your mentally tired and that’s ok, it happens. So your going to regroup, get rid of regrets, and rejoice about the good thing you have in life. Your going to fight to get my granddaughter back. Your going to get a job, and your going to come stay in this house and raise her, be a great man just like your father.”

“Yes ma’am” He said again the softness in his voice returning.

“As far as your father, you were to young to remember what happened. The lights went out that night, generator didn’t come on. Your sister and I were away and you and your dad stayed at the house. You were sick and you weren’t getting any better. Your dad tried to get the car started but it didn’t work. He clothed you up tight and wrapped you as warm as he could. Carried you for as long as he could to get you to a hospital, and yes the only thing guiding him was the voice of that bird you don’t believe in. You survived that night because of that bird that watches over this family. Unfortunately your father didn’t. He made it to the hospital and they got you fixed up right, but he wasn’t so lucky. When he got there they said that you were warm and aside from being sick nothing else was wrong with you. Your father however had socks stuck to his feet, toes frostbitten. Eyes blood shot, and no feeling in his hands. That man stayed awake until I came the next day, and died right when I told him you were ok. Your dad and that bird made a choice, and it was you.”

“How do you know that happened? You weren’t there, people at school said that he was a crazy man that took his kid out at night listening for birds. I mean this with all due respect, but I don’t think your right. You have an image in your head that you remember, and I get that. However he wasn’t as good of a man as you remember.” His words echo off the walls in his mothers home. Instantly he regretted ever word that came out of his mouth. Why did he have to be so vocal? All he had to do was just listen, let his mom live in her moments. Watch her be happy the way she watched him as a child.

Her words knocked him out of his internal fight. “Well son, be better.”

“Better?” He said half eyes drawn to his mother, for the first time realizing that the woman who was speaking all these things to him was in fact the superwoman he had grown up with and not the sickly lady he had been talking to.

“Be better then what you think your father was, be better then what I think your father was. The one thing a parent will never get mad at is seeing their child outshine them. What are we but proud shadows and encouraging words in the end?”

“Mother you both did great.” He said trying to save face in his conversation.

“Look, you were young and I wasn’t there. The only thing I can go on is the man I knew he was. The man that stayed with me while I was in labor knowing he had to work the next day. The man who taught you and your sister to walk. The man that had no taste in clothes but great taste in women. That man, that man died for his child. That man said he was guided by that owl, and I believe him. Just like I believe you can get past this.”

“Ill get you some tea mom.” He says while almost running to the kitchen. His emotions scrambled so tightly into a knot that he couldn’t breathe. He grabbed a cup off his mothers counter and as he turned felt the brush of wind knock him back. The glass dropped and smashed onto the floor. The son scrambled, looking for a broom to clean up the glass or what had just swept past him, but in the end only found an open window. Finally he found some paper towels and cleaned up the glass from the floor. Then he braved his self to talk to his mother again. Know having to tell her that he also broke one of her good cups. That was going to a be lecture he didn’t want to hear.

“Baby! Come here. I heard something fall, are you ok?” He readied himself and turned the corner.

“Mom, I broke.” His mouth grew dry. He had been awake for hours and was not tired but he rubbed his eyes anyway. He couldn’t believe it, there sat right next to his mother, in the middle of the day was an owl. One with a heart shaped face. He had never seen this owl, but it felt so familiar to him.

“Baby whatever you broke its ok. It can be fixed. Now come sit down, we have a visitor.”

“Mom this has got to be the most crazy”

“Hush child, now sit down. I wonder if your sister is coming. I haven’t seen her in so long.” Jacobi was so shocked that he did what was asked. He sat down, not in front of her like they had been sitting but knelt at her feet. She looked happy, and he didn’t want to upset her again. So he chose not to.

“She’s coming next time Mom. Don’t worry about it.” His mother smiled.

“That’s good, I cant wait.” His mother looks at his face, heavy and sunken. “Are you ok baby? Look like you’ve been crying.

“I’m great. I just had a talk with someone who helped me put things in perspective.” She reaches down and gives him a kiss on the four head.

“You know this owl has been with us for a long time. Did I ever tell you about your dad?”

“Yes, but I’d love to hear the story again. Id love for you to tell me all your stories. One day, you can tell them to my child. After that you can tell it to their children too.”

His mother laughs. “Baby I wont be here forever.”

“Mom.” He says while returning the kiss she gave to him. “You walked up the rocky roads with two babies, while breast feeding and making dinner. You’ll be around for a long time. Your superwoman.”