“You know, I would never have recognised you, if you had not said Mum when I came in. Debbie’s done quite a job on you.”
“How do you feel about it?” I timidly asked.
“Well, I can’t say I’m happy about it. But, I can see the reasoning behind it. Your dad would be furious. You know how homophobic he is! You and George are not...?”
“Alex? Alex… is that you?”
The words rang in my ears like church bells as my hand moved towards my face, covering my eyes.
“Eh, Mum! I didn’t expect you.” A pause.
“Obviously not! I think we’ve got some… talking to do.” she stated, as she stared right into my soul.
“I’ll bring Melissa through from the lounge; she’s due for a feed. Make yourself a coffee.” I said as I walked towards the door. I wheeled Melissa back into the room as Mum carried two mugs of coffee and set them on the table.
“Right young man. I believe you have some explaining to do.”
We both sat down. I began.
“You remember the last time you were down here and I said how George missed Grace so much? Well, I somehow got this daft idea that maybe having another female about the house would help.”
I paused looking for a reaction there was none. “A couple of days after you were here, I stupidly got dressed up in Graces things.”
Mom let out an audible sigh.
“While I was dressed, we had a visitor. You know, Amanda, the woman George has been seeing.” I stopped.
“Go on.” she said.
“Well, she caught me here all dressed. So, you can imagine what she would have done if she thought I was a guy dressing up in women’s clothes and looking after a child.”
“Surely there was another way?”
“Can you think of a good explanation? Anyway, I tricked her. She never read me and everything was ok. When George came home, he went ballistic. So we talked about it and we agreed that maybe it was better that I stayed this way.”
“You should have called me! Maybe I could have helped. Are you still prancing around in Grace’s clothes?”
“Eh no. George gave me some money to buy some stuff and Debbie has been helping me as well.” I paused.
“Debbie knows as well? Oh that’s just great!”
“No, it’s ok Mum. She hates Amanda and she’s having fun deceiving her. Deb’s fine with it, in fact, she’s been a great help.”
“This is going to take some… getting used to. You better feed Melissa” she finished as she got up from the table.
“I’m going outside for a cigarette and a think” she said as she left the room.
I busied myself in the kitchen making something for Melissa. Through the window, I could see Mum pacing up and down the porch with her coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I started feeding Melissa and just resigned myself to await her return. A few minutes later, she came back in.
“You know, I would never have recognised you, if you had not said Mum when I came in. Debbie’s done quite a job on you.”
“How do you feel about it?” I timidly asked.
“Well, I can’t say I’m happy about it. But, I can see the reasoning behind it. Your dad would be furious. You know how homophobic he is! You and George are not...?”
“Not what?” I asked.
“You know.”
“Know what?”
“There’s nothing going on between you two... is there?”
I blushed.
“NO! There’s not!” I said sharply. Now didn’t seem the time to tell her Debbie had just engineered a date for me.
“So what brought you down here anyway?” I asked.
“You got a letter from the school.” she said, grabbing her bag and taking an envelope out. She handed it to me.
I opened it.
“It’s just confirmation of my job, and an invite to an open day a couple of weeks before term starts.” I said, returning the letter to the envelope.
“So you’re still taking the job then?”
“Yeah. why wouldn’t I?” I replied. Although there was something not so convincing in the tone of my voice when I said that.
“How long do you plan to keep this up?”
“As long as I need to. Until George is better” I said.
“And has it worked? You know, you being a girl?” she asked.
“Yeah it has a bit. The drinking during the week has stopped. He still goes out with that bitch Amanda on the weekend and she leads him astray.”
“You don’t like her?”
“Not one bit. She’s not interested in Melissa; she just wants George and the farm his money.”
“Well, you’ll need to try and make sure that doesn’t happen.” she said.
“He’s a grown man. He can make up his own mind.”
“Well, you’ll just need to make him see the error of his ways.”
“Your ok with this?” I asked again, gesturing towards my clothes.
“Well it’s a tad unusual, but it it’s working. So long as you don’t get caught, then I suppose its ok for a little while. I’ll keep your dad away from coming down.”
“Thanks mum.” I said.
“I better be getting back. Now, if there are any problems, ring me and let me know.”
She kissed me on the forehead and picked up her bag. “I’ll come back down in a couple of weeks and we can go out together. Bring Debbie as well.”
“Ok, and thanks again mum!” I smiled as she walked towards the door.
As she reached it she turned and said “Oh, and by the way, you do look quite cute.”
I blushed again as she left.
The car had barely started and I was on the phone to Debbie telling her what happened. She could barely speak through all her laughter.
“You must have nearly had a heart attack!”
“You could say that. I said even more nerve racking than the shopping trip though. Oh, and buy the way, she wants us all to go out together one day.”
“I’ll look forward to it! That will be interesting.” she said.
“I don’t know what George will think though.”
“Well it’s done now, so he’ll just have to deal with it.”
“I suppose so.” I said. “You coming round tomorrow?”
“Yeah thought I would. We can go shopping get you something for your date.” she replied.
“Oh Christ! I’d almost forgotten about that! I owe you one for that! What in the world were you thinking about saying that?”
She laughed again.
“You’ll be fine! And as I said, it’s not as if you need to sleep with him.”
“Oh, well that’s ok then, because I won’t be!”
“And I should think not, on a first date.” she said.
“Quit it!”
“Look, I need to go. That’s Gavin getting back. See you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, around eleven?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Bye.” she said
“Bye.” I replied.
Checking up on Melissa, I saw that she was fine. I need a cigarette real bad! I thought to myself. So, picking up the pack, I went outside. As I lit up, I thought, “Well now, I need to break! Today’s two events to George: Mum might be the easy part, but my date with Pete could be a totally different matter!”
Comments
Brings back memories
I can imagine how shocked both of them were.
When I was a child, I put on my sister's skirt and walked out into the family room with the whole family there. I thought that they would think I was pretty. The uproar that followed is unforgetable.
When caught by Mom, I can imagine how she felt. It sort of draws me into the story, hanging by my bra strap.
Gwenellen
PS It would be helpful if you used Alex's girl name a bit more. I have forgotten what it is. (Alexis?)