Nearly six weeks had passed by since Karl’s departure and though it was hard to maintain my job and a structured, non deviating, Aspergers friendly regime at home, I’d managed to make it so far. Brendon had become more tyrannical than ever insisting that he was now ‘man of the house.’ He played the role of despot a little too well and had taken to telling Bryony what she could and couldn’t do.
I had found it difficult to sleep, what with the break up and the work load and my appearance was suffering. The heady days of waking up fresh faced and dewy eyed were a thing of the past: it was more like sallow skinned and bad hair day 24/7. I made the decision to have my long hair cut off into a short bob that just tucked neatly behind my ears and was easy to get done at 6.30 in the morning. I wasn’t sure whether I had done this because it made life simpler or I was reinventing myself as a single woman, trying to be in charge of her life. The new look did not go down very well with Brendon. Aspergers and change do not walk down the same street.
“You look like a lesbian,” he said blank faced as he looked at me, “I hate it and I don’t want to look at you.” He walked off to his computer desk to avoid me.
“Really. That’s nice.” I shouted after him. “And exactly what do lesbians look like?”
“Like that.” He turned and nodded in my direction without making eye contact.
“Well good for lesbians, for they are clearly the most beautiful and stylish women on the planet. I don’t like the way you pigeon hole people Brendon, we have discussed this and it’s wrong.” I followed him through to his computer station.
“Whatever fam.” He turned on his screens and began to load World Of Warcraft, League of Legends and Facebook simultaneously.
“How would you like it if someone said, ‘You look autistic or you must be like Rain Man?”
“What? Who’s Rain Man?”
“Never mind. The point is that you’re not and you are an individual. That’s how you should treat everyone.” I pressed.
“Mother, I really don’t care what people think of me, so can you please desist from nagging like a fishwife and leave me to my guild.” He sat down, put on his noise reduction headphones and began to type and Skype to his warrior friends.
I left him to go and make dinner and hoped that every time I said these things they were actually sinking in.
“Your hair looks lovely,” Bryony appeared in her ‘Girl Power’ onesy. She was beautiful. Frighteningly so. Although only fourteen she looked much older and stood at 5’7″ with a figure that belonged in glossy magazines.
“Thank you, angel.” I hugged her tight. I was mindful to give her as much attention as possible since Brendon demanded the majority of it. We cooked lasagne together and chatted about boys and homework and Justin Bieber. I was very careful to remain positive on this subject despite thinking he was a precious little diva.
I served the portions of lasagne and poured myself a well deserved glass of Rioja and spent the next three minutes removing every trace of mushroom from Brendon’s food. He hated them passionately and if one was to be present on his plate, the whole dinner would have been ditched.
“Bren, your dinners ready,” shouted Bryony as she set the table with knives and forks.
Brendon was a world away. A virtual, sword wielding, spell making world away.
“What the fuck are you doing man? You noob, Tom! Focus Katarina…I’m going in…have you got ult?…” he was shouting directions to his team members through his mic. I sighed and wandered through to his room and tapped him on the shoulder.
“DINNER.”
He pulled his headphones to one side. “You’ll have to bring it here I’m in an instance. Thanks Mommy, I love you, you’re the best.” He returned to his virtual world and I brought his dinner to the Starship Enterprise. Some things weren’t worth an argument.
Once we had eaten Bryony scurried away to snapchat her friends whilst I slumped on the sofa with my iPad and some background TV. I clicked on the word game app on my tablet. I’d been playing an online scrabble game for a good year whenever I got a spare minute. I loved it and it kept me focussed and distracted from my reality. I had a few friends on there and some random players that I’d played with for some time. They were a nice bunch, mostly from the States since I tended to play in the evening or when I couldn’t sleep at night. I only had about five games so I decided to get another opponent as the others didn’t seem to be in speedy, play mode. I pressed random play and a new game appeared.
My opponent was called ‘The Voice’
S P T G E O D were my letters. Despot, I could play despot. How wildly appropriate.
SOPHISTICATED played Despot for 12 points.
My word appeared on the virtual board with a musical tring.
After one glass of wine and an hour of the History channel my body was giving up the will to function and the soft downs of my huge empty bed were beckoning. I got up and went to fetch a glass of water and noticed that Brendon was still playing online.
“Brendon, it’s past 11, you should go to bed now it’s school tomorrow.” I stood at his side, repeatedly yawning.
“I’m not going - it’s French and I hate French. The only good thing about it is my teachers fit and has an awesome pair of… you know, she has a very pleasant personality Mother!” he finished with a wicked grin.
I heard the cackle of pubescent boys through the Skype channel at the thought of Miss Frenchy’s upper assets.
“You’re going,” I insisted. “Besides, I’m coming in for your weekly review with Mrs. Armitage in the morning.”
“Oh God, another wasted hour of my life.”
“Bed.” I left the room and made my way upstairs, desperate for sleep.
I slipped into the sheets and shivered. The huge, super-king sized bed was so cold with just me inside. I reached down to the floor and retrieved my hairdryer where it had been tossed after drying my lesbian haircut earlier. I turned it on underneath the sheets to warm them up until I got the temperature to a point where I knew I could maintain it with my own body heat and went to switch off my bedside lamp.
My mobile phone pinged. I sighed, hoping I wasn’t going to have to enter into some lengthy texting session with someone. It was a notification from my word game to say someone had played.
The Voice had left me a chat message. They hadn’t played a word yet, just left some text. I opened the little green chat bubble and read:
THE VOICE: Despot. Is that the best you can do?