Story A Day #2 Mom

Mom

It had been a brutal business trip to New York and I was tired and hungry and longing for home, grateful that the trip had been cut short due to the illness of one of the clients.  Travelling was not my favourite thing to and I hated every moment of it, from the indecision as to what to pack to the crowds at the airport, the hassle getting through security and suffocating claustrophobic plane trip.  Luckily the flight wasn’t very full so I’d had no seatmates to add to my annoyance. As I rode in the taxi I thought of Roger and how glad he would be to see me.   I smiled to myself and closed my eyes for a few welcome moments of peace.

Pulling up in front of my apartment building I breathed a sigh of relief.  Home at last.   I tipped the driver handsomely since he had not said a word to me the whole ride home.  Nodding to the doorman I walked quickly to the elevator which was there waiting for me and empty.  Yes, it was good to be home.

When the elevator arrived on my floor a man was waiting to get in.  He was dishevelled and dirty and smelled like he was in desperate need of a bath.  I thought of questioning him as to why he was in this building.  We didn’t see people like him here.  However, since he was probably on his way out I decided to let him be.  Besides, I was just steps away from my sanctuary.  Heading down the hall I listened for the excited barking of Roger.  He seemed to know when it was me getting off the elevator and got excited before I even got to the door.  As I got closer though I noticed two things; no sounds of canine excitement and a strong smell of what I thought might be cat urine or some sort of chemical.  Strange. 

When I got to my door I noticed it was slightly ajar.  This was even stranger.  I never forgot to lock the door.  Pushing the door open slowly, prepared to run if necessary I peered inside and stopped dead in my tracks at what I saw.

It wasn’t my apartment at all.   I checked the number on the door and it was the right number.  In my fatigue had I gotten out at the wrong building?  But that was impossible.   Surely I would have noticed before now.  Then what was going on here?   All of my furniture was gone and the apartment was full of tables holding various jars and bottles, some with tubing coming from them. I had seen enough crime dramas to know that I was looking at a meth lab!  In my apartment.   Then I noticed an old lady hunched over a burner in the corner of the room.   She looked strangely familiar…but it couldn’t be.  

         “What the hell is going on here??” I yelled

          “Oh!  Hello Daniel!   I thought you were going to be gone for two weeks!   What are you doing here?”   said the old lady looking up in astonishment.

             “Mom??”  I could not believe what I was seeing.  My mother, in my apartment cooking meth.  

          “I’m sorry about the mess, dear, I thought I would be gone by the time you got back.  You should have called!”  She actually managed to look indignant.

          “Why would I call my own…what the hell are you doing here?  Are you…are you actually cooking meth??  You have set up a meth lab in my apartment??”   I couldn’t keep my voice from shrieking.  “And where’s Roger?  What have you done with my dog??” 

          “Relax, dear, your dog is fine.  I took him to stay with a friend.  This is no place for a dog, you know.”

          “It’s no place for you either!! I demand to know what’s going on.”  Daniel took out his cell phone and started to call the police but then he stopped himself as he realized he would be turning in his own mother.

          “Okay, Okay, calm down and I will explain.  Just give me one minute” and his mother turned back to her work, turned off the heat and wiped her hands.   She came over to give me a hug, but I stood back from her.  I was in shock.

          “Now Daniel, please don’t judge me.  I had nowhere to work since they raided my last lab and I knew you were away so I didn’t think you would mind me setting up here. I would have been gone before you got back but you had to come home early and ruin everything.”  Was that a tear in her blue eyes?

          “You thought it would be okay to use my apartment for a meth lab? Your other lab was raided?? Who are you and what have you done with my mother?”   My knees felt weak and I looked around for a place to sit.  Then I remembered the door hadn’t been locked.   “And why is the door not locked, anyone could just walk in here…” and I remembered the man I met at the elevator.   “Was that a customer I just saw??”  This was all so surreal. 

          “Oh no, customers don’t come here!  That was one of my suppliers.”

I just stared at her, not believing my ears.   Seeing that I was not able to speak my mother told me the whole story.   She had been cooking meth for years.  It was how she had managed to give me everything I wanted all of my life.   The best schools, the best toys, the clothes, vacations…it had all come from drug money!   My mind was reeling and she continued.  She had a huge order to fill when the feds had come and raided her lab.  Luckily she wasn’t there but she lost her whole set up and in desperation, she needed a new place to work. 

          “You don’t want to miss a delivery with these people, let me tell you..”  she said.

          “Mom, do you have any idea how dangerous this is?  And how wrong??  You could get killed!  Or end up in prison!”  

          “Honey, I know what I am doing, please trust me.  Now do you want to help me with this and then I can get out of your hair?” 

I couldn’t believe my mother was asking me to help her make meth!  This was not happening.  This must be a joke.  She was going to shout “surprise” at any moment and all my friends would jump out and it would all be a big joke. An epic prank.  I looked around to see if I could spot anyone hiding.  I ran to the bathroom and threw open the door. 

Suddenly there was a commotion and something hit me on the back of the head.   I slumped to the floor and everything went black.  The last thing I heard was my mother saying “Don’t kill him!  He’s my son!”

I woke up in a hospital bed with the worst headache of my life.   I reached up and tenderly felt my heavily bandaged head.  I was hooked up to an I.V and there was a heart monitor attached to my chest.  Struggling to keep my eyes open I looked around and saw my mother sitting on a chair in the corner. 

          “Oh you’re awake!” she said, coming quickly to my side.  “I’ve been so worried.   How are you feeling?”

          “Mom…what happened?” I croaked

          “You just surprised Leo that’s all…he’s very protective of me and didn’t know who you were so he overreacted.  You have a concussion but you are going to be just fine”.

It all came back to me in a terrifying rush, the meth lab, my mother, the whack on my head.

          “Mom you have to stop doing this.  You…you need to turn yourself in and come clean.  You can’t keep living this life of danger, you’ll get yourself killed!  Please, let’s go to the police…tell them you are being forced into this…”  I pleaded

          “Oh, Daniel…I wish you hadn’t said that.  Now you have given me no choice”, and that’s when I noticed the syringe in her hand.  She went over to my IV.

          “What …. what are you doing??”  fear had tightened my vocal cords and all that came out was a squeak.

          “I’m going to make all of this go away for you, son.  I can’t have you ruining my plans.  There are millions of dollars at stake here.  Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay….”.

          “NO, Mom, NO, don’t do this. I won’t tell, I’ll do whatever you want! Please!”

I woke up in darkness, bathed in sweat.  Looking around I realized I was in my own apartment, in my own room.   A wet nose pushed itself in my face and licked me.  Roger!   It had all been a dream!!  Everything was as it should be and my mother was not a drug lord.  I wept with relief.  I must have been so tired from my travel I didn’t remember coming home and getting into bed and had fallen asleep to this horrible dream.

          “Daniel? I heard you screaming are you okay??” it was my Mom.

          “What are you doing here?”  I asked, memories of my dream making stirring up fear.  Why was my mother here?

          “Now, now dear, don’t worry…everything is going to be okay…”.