We had dinner again with my parents, and my mother wasn’t as shrill, although she was still cool and aloof.
It wasn’t until I put him to bed in the guest room nearest to my room that I started to have trouble.
“I want my mommy.” Andrew stood next to the bed, refusing to get in.
“You’ll see her tomorrow,” I said. I pulled a book from his backpack. “Why don’t we read this plane book.”
His lower lip quivered and his eyes filled with tears. “I want my mommy. Where’s my mommy?”
An oh-shit feeling came over me. That and a feeling of total and complete ineptitude. “I tell you what,” I started wondering if bargaining was the right thing to do. I mentally added a parenting book on my list of items to buy. “You get into bed, and we’ll call your mom.”
“Promise?”
“Yes, of course.” I pulled the covers down as I slipped my phone from my pocket. “We’ll video chat, so you can see her.”
He sniffed and nodded. He climbed into the bed, and I called Serena.
“Devin?” Her blue eyes filled the screen. It occurred to me that Andrew had blue eyes like her, but the shape of them were like mine, as was much of the rest of him.
“Hi…ah…Andrew is homesick. He’d like to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
I handed Andrew the phone. “See your mom here? And she can see you too.”
“Hi Mommy.” He waved at the phone.
“Hi baby. You having fun?”
“Yes. I went swimming in my undies.”
“Goodness. We’ll remember to pack your swimsuit next time. What else did you do?”
“We played hide and seek and Carl calls me young master Andrew.”
I didn’t want to eavesdrop, and yet I didn’t want to leave him alone either. I went to the window and looked out into the darkened night.
“So, it’s been a good day?” she asked.
“Auntie Bri likes to make trouble. But I like her, she’s funny.”
“I’m glad. Did you see your grandparents too?”
When I didn’t hear anything, I looked over at him. His eyes were looking at me as he held the phone close to his mouth and whispered to Serena. I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
“I’m sure that’s not the case,” Serena said, but there was something in her tone that put me on edge. Like he’d told her something that made her upset.
“She doesn’t.” Andrew shook his head. “I even tried to give her a hug, because you said people sometimes need hugs. I don’t think she liked it.”
Ah fuck. He was talking about my mother.
“Maybe she’s having a hard day. You know, even you get grumpy sometimes and don’t want hugs.”
I had to hand it to Serena, she had the opportunity to skewer my mother in Andrew’s eyes, but wasn’t taking it.
“Are you going to sleep now?” she asked.
“Yes. Daddy said he’d read me a book.”