Chapter 3- Homemade Garlic Bread

“Hey sleepy, we’re home. Are you ok?”

I slowly opened my eyes to see Rose standing in the seat in front of me, her arms dangling in front of me. It wasn’t until I leaned forward and my shirt stuck to the seat, that I realised I was sweating. Rose’s eye brows were knitted together in concern.

“Ya, I’m good, I was just really tired and couldn’t stay awake,” I mumbled, rubbing my dripping face on the collar of my shirt.

“Good, now get up, sleepy! I want to go check on mom, she may be up by now,” Rose exclaimed as she bounded off of the bus. I grabbed my backpack off the floor and stumbled off the bus, shaking myself, trying to forget the dream that I just had. Rose was already at the door, digging in her bag for her key.

“Dang it, I forgot my key again! Do you have yours, Aaron?” Rose asked dejectedly. Digging into my pocket, I removed my key and handed it to her. She excited jammed it into the lock and flung the door wide.

“OH MY GOODNESS!” Rose squealed. Glancing over her shoulder, my heart leapt. Mom sitting at the kitchen table, a newspaper spread out before her. Her hair hung over her bowed head, for once looking clean and shiney. She had a newspaper spread out in front of her, with a small desk light illuminating it, and was so involved in it, she didn’t notice us at first. But when Rose squealed, her head shot up, and a smile spread across her face. As Rose ran to hug her, I noticed that the kitchen looked scrubbed and cleaned, and there was a clear bag full of empty bottles sitting by the back door. Rose had started up a conversation, but I was too in shock to hear it. The floors no longer had dirt smeared on them, and the old picture on the walls were no longer draped in cobwebs. The house was cleaner than I had ever seen it. I had tried to keep it clean by myself, but there was just so much on my plate, that the house was often neglected.

I dropped my backpack, and before I could stop myself, I had my arms wrapped around Mom’s neck, tears streaming down my face. As we embraced, Mom rubbed my back and cooed comforting words into my ear. I felt like I finally had my normal mom back. I soon felt Rose’s arm around my shoulder, and her tears mingled with mine. We stayed like this, embracing and crying, for what seemed like years. I never wanted this moment to end, and I was disappointed when Mom broke the embrace. Looking into her eyes, I could see they were no longer clouded by alcohol, and their familiar warmth was back in them.

“Mom, the house looks amazing, you look amazing, this whole thing is amazing,” I exclaimed, grabbing a napkin to blow my nose on. “I’m so glad you’re up, a-and sober!” It felt like all my dreams had finally came true.

“Come here, sit down and we’ll talk,” Mom said, standing up and pushing her newspaper away. She grabbed two chairs and pushed them to the opposite side of the table. As Rose and I sat down, Mom cleared her throat, and seemed to be thinking of the right thing to say. We waited as she fiddled with her hair and cleared her throat some more. Rose placed her hand over Mom’s and pleaded with her eyes for Mom to start talking. Mom cleared her throat one last time, then began speaking in a low, shaky tone.

“First off, I want to apologize for, um, not being here for the past three years. I know its been hard, with me not being able to help, It’s- it’s just been hard for me and I didn’t know how to cope with it, so I turned to alcohol. It helped with the pain, until I woke up again...” she said, trailing off, at a loss for words. Taking a deep breath, she continued, louder and more assured this time.

“But that is never going to happen again, I’m done with that crap,” she said, waving her hand toward the bag by the back door. “I had a kind of epiphany this morning after you guys left, and I decided to clean up my act. So I called the electric company and the water company, got them to turn everything back on, I took a shower, and started cleaning everything up. This just came, so I decided to take a break and read up on everything I’ve missed,” She finished, fingering the newspaper.

“I’m just happy to have my mom back,” Rose said, as she stood to hug mom again. I quickly mumbled an excuse about having a ton of homework, and escaped to my room.

As I sat on my bed, I tried to wade through everything that just happened. I had my mom back, and I really wanted it to last, but I was skeptical. I had never heard of someone doing such a huge 180 in only a matter of hours. I sat and tried to wrap my head around it, but soon gave up, and pulled out my pile of work from school. Sitting at my desk, I breezed through most of it, until I came to Algebra. It seems they had started a new unit that day, and Mr. Greene hadn’t included the lesson. After spending ten minutes on one problem, and getting nowhere, I walked down the hall to ask Mom for help.

As I approached, I saw Rose speaking to Mom in a hushed and excited voice. When she caught sight of me, she quickly stopped and refused to look at me. When I looked at Mom to ask her my question, she never once made eye contact, instead staring over my shoulder or at my paper. It seems that Mom was fantastic at math during highschool, and she quickly explained it and we finished the worksheet in a few minutes. I thanked her, and began to walk back to my room, but I felt eyes following me. Deciding last minute to turn into the bathroom, I saw Mom staring at me from the corner of my eye. She had a peculiar look on her face and Rose was too busy studying birds out the window to notice. When I exited the bathroom, they were both deep in conversation again.

After putting my work back into my bag, I pulled out my copy of Maximum Ride and read until Mom came in to tell me that dinner was ready. As I walked out of my room, my nose was assaulted by the smell of fresh baked bread and the thick smell of garlic. As I entered the kitchen, I saw a huge plate of fresh garlic bread in the middle of the table. There were glasses of milk sitting on the table, and Mom was dishing out the last of the spaghetti onto plates. She poured sauce over the pasta, and with a flourish, set the plates on the table. My mouth was watering as I sat down in my chair, noticing it was not longer rickety.

As I bit into the bread, my mouth exploded with flavor, and my head filled with memories. The last time I had tasted homemade garlic bread was when Dad was still around. He and Mom would spend hours in the kitchen, trying out new recipes, or making up their own. I quickly shoved the memory from my thoughts when I felt my eyes begin to tear up.

The dinner conversation consisted mainly of Mom trying to catch up with our lives during the past three years. I told her about my last year of junior high,and my first two years of high school, leaving out the bit about hating where I went to school. Rose babbled about her first year of high school, and lied about how much she loved the new school. I knew she had a few friends, but she barely scraped by, like me.

After dinner, Mom cleared up the dishes while I headed to the shower. Stepping under the water, I tried to let the water wash away all of my concerns about Mom, but I couldn’t help but think that something was off about the whole situation. When I got out of the bathroom, Rose was curled up on the couch, her head resting on Mom’s shoulder. I grabbed a blanket and threw it over them. I walked back to my room, and pulled back the covers on my bed. As I climb into bed, I think about the day’s events. I tell my teacher how bad my mom is, then I  come home, and she is perfectly fine? Not to mention the dream... My last thoughts were about Rose, and how well she seemed to be accepting the whole thing. I tried to clear my mind as I felt myself drifting to sleep.