Mom sits on the couch, with her thinking face on, her legs drawn up beside her in her reading glasses. She works on a crossword puzzle, but with the thousand-yard stare… I plop down beside her. “What’s your troubles, mamacita?” She looks at me kind of, but mostly looking through me. I snap my fingers. “Audrey Priscilla Vanilla Albright!” She grabs my snapping fingers and slowly lowers them. The sober look she gives me has me frightened. “Did someone die?”
She shakes her head. “No. But, our past is about to catch up with us. Do you remember that annoying reporter, Rico Tomas, who used to go to all of your games and was always putting questionable media statements on the line about you?”
I sigh. “Mother, for the last time, it’s online. And yes, I remember Rico Tomas. So What?”
She opens up her laptop and pulls something up on her screen and hands it to me to read. “Kate the Great has left the State” is the headliner. Okay? I read on. “After many dead ends, it has finally been discovered that Kate and her mother have left Florida. The rumors are true. Kate has abandoned her once-top championship team in a lurch. They are reeling to replace their top rebounder and scorer.” The article goes on to air out my dad’s dirty laundry on social media, no less!
“How infuriating! How invasive!” I yell at the screen. I turn to my mom. “Isn’t there some law against slander, and defamation of character? Something that can be done to shut him up?”
My mom looks at me, all teary-eyed. “It’s all true, Kate. None of it is a lie.”
“Yes, I know, Mom, but it’s our personal life he’s talking about, and he’s doing it without our permission!”
My mom looks down. She shakes her head back and forth. “I’m just so sorry, Katie, that all of this is going to come down on you.”
I grab her hand. “Mom, don’t apologize. The only one who should be apologizing is Dad and this stupid reporter, Ric-o Tom-as. You didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did I. Let people talk, I don’t care. I didn’t ask for this kind of attention and neither did you.” I squeeze her hand. I take her laptop and shut it down. “Now. Let’s put that away like it never happened. What do you always tell me? I’m responsible for my life. I make my own choices. Right? The past is in the past. Let it stay there.”
She’s still not convinced, I can tell. “Mom. I’m going to go run you a bath. You’re going to go soak your worries away in the tub and then you are going to emerge a new woman. Because I said so.” I try her favorite mom line before I head to the bathroom and start running the water. I throw in a sparkly fancy bath bomb. I put on some Norah Jones for mom because I know that’s her favorite.
I light a few candles around the tub. I come out acting all boss. “Now go in there, wash off your weakness, and find your strength.” I clap my hands like Esmerelda. “Go, do it, Mom. Now.” I clap my hands again at her like she does to me. She goes. Pretty soon, I hear PINK blaring through the bathroom door? Mom belts it out. “Now, that’s more like it!” I yell, even though she can’t hear me. I raise a fist in victory.