I was playing sock tug-of-war with Bear when Mom walked into the living room.
“The stores are having a Tuesday two-for-one sale,” she said. “Are you up for some shopping and lunch?”
I wasn’t all that crazy about the mall. Too many people, too many choices, and too much noise. But I needed some plain white underwear for taekwondo days and wanted to look for a birthday present for Tony. Plus, it’d been forever since Mom and I had done something together.
“We could have lunch at that Chinese restaurant you like,” she said in a singsongy way. “Crab rangoons.”
One whole day alone with Mom. And rangoons.
“I’m in,” I told her.
Right before we backed out of the garage, Mom put the car in park and unclipped her seat belt. “Oops. I forgot my phone, and I’m on call. I’ll be right back.”
On call. It figured. It seemed that even when Mom wasn’t working, she was on call.
When we got to the mall, Mom wanted to look for new tennis shoes she’d heard other ER nurses raving about. We went into a few places, and I got stuck sitting on the bench while Mom wandered down the rows of shoes looking for the right brand.
“What do you think?” Mom asked as she modeled a pair of super-ugly tennis shoes.
“They’re fine,” I said.
Mom studied my face for a bit. Then she yanked off the shoes and put them back into the box.
“All right,” she said. “Ditching my errand. Let’s go do yours.” She was trying to sound cheerful but I could tell she was annoyed.
Good.
In the underwear section, I pretended to be looking at some socks while Mom went through the underwear packages. “What size do you wear, Eliza?”
“I dunno,” I told her.
Even though I don’t think she was supposed to, she opened a package and took out a pair of underwear. She walked over and held them up to my waist. “I think these will work,” she said.
I stepped away as fast as I could. “Mooomm!” An older lady walked by and smiled.
“Relax,” Mom said. “It’s no big deal. Everyone wears underwear.”
Relax. That was easy for Mom to say. She saw kids’ underwear all the time when they came into the emergency room. Bodies were no big deal to her.
I pointed to the white underwear she was holding. “Those are good,” I said. “Can I go wait outside while you pay?”