“Norbert was good to me. What a grand way I paid him back, in’nt. I dare say Adrian soon discovered for himself who the real problem was. Indeed, there are women who just aren’t cut out to be wives. Guess who the card-carrying member of that group is? Fifty-seven years old, two divorces, no steady man. That’s me. Some nice precedence I’ve set for your sister, huh? Little wonder she doesn’t want to be a wife altogether. To men, that is. Although, you’d think that she’d have got it now, from my experience you know and those cokehead druggies she dates. It takes more than a man to ruin a marriage, I tell you. Say, are you married? We couldn’t find you with your name. That fella I hired to find you thought maybe you were married.”

             “No, I’m still single.” I was praying she wouldn’t ask me why that was.

             “You are not gay, are you? I have no issues with that, if you are of course, don’t get me wrong. But I wouldn’t quite know how to get to grips if you are as your sister is. It would like a seal that I’m a bad mother. Which I probably am. But, who ever want it engraved in history.”

             If mom wasn’t still so new to me, I would have laughed. “No, I’m straight.” That’s when I caught sight of Phina’s aghast face. I immediately saw that this was a dicey topic between them. So, I changed the subject. “Work is great, I hope?”

             “I’m retiring soon; I don’t know how great that can be. I’m paying the price, I tell you. I’m paying the price. Your grandmother died without saying a word to me. I got told in a mail, how cruel. I have two ex-husbands that hate me. Phina barely tolerates me. I’m going to be out of job, with nothing to do with myself. Perfect, I say.” Mom was clearly a whiner.

I indulged her for fifteen more minutes, and got a summarize version of all that had gone on in her life since I was gone. Because I wanted to fill the mental gap of who she was, it was pretty informative. That notwithstanding, I doubted very much it was a story I would be able to endure hearing another time. Or maybe I just particular about being broken into gently. And mom, along with two-third of every other person I ever encountered, was missing that skill.

             “What was that ‘I’m straight’ about?” Phina attacked the instant I handed her phone back to her. She was livid. “Mom asked, in’nt? She had to make sure you aren’t a freak like me. I bet she didn’t happen to mention that she’s a drunk? I don’t think so. Mom has a twisted sense of morality. ‘Fornicate’ with a man, and it’s called making a mistake or fooling around. Do it with a woman, it’s eternal damnation.” I

f anyone had ever told me that I’d at any point feel the slightest gratitude to dad for taking me away with him, I would have shoot them right in the forehead. But, there it was happening.