Page 109 of Five Summers

"Hey, Mom," I say, trying to make things less awkward.

“Hey Poppy, what brings you here?” she asks, glancing down at Alex. “He looks more like his father every day.” I pick up on the tone in her voice.

Under her intense stare, Alex finds refuge behind my legs. I’m tempted to just quit and not bother asking her, but I've already spent the ten thousand dollars.

“Can we talk?” I ask, noticing she’s blocking the gate, not allowing us to walk through. Taking a brief pause, she continues to gaze at Alex, before eventually granting us access by opening the gate.

Alex and I move through the gate and wait off to one side.

"Hello Alex," my mother says with a warm smile as she closes the gate behind us.

"Hi," Alex's tiny voice sounds from behind my leg.

Mom moves around us and leads us to the front steps. When she gets to the front door, she takes off her gardening gloves and puts them on the small table on the patio, before she heads into the house.

I close the door behind us and move further into the house. I see that the interior of the house is still the same as before.

“You never said why you were here?” she asks, making her way to the kitchen.

“You won't believe it, but I've got an opportunity to make a huge difference in our lives.”

She walks around to the other side of the kitchen counter as if to put a barrier between us. I try to keep it positive because as soon as I tell her what it is, she’ll be annoyed.

“So, what’s this opportunity?” she asks.

“This is a real chance for me to get us into a house.”

“Okay. So what do you need from me?”

She gets straight to the point. As I look at her and listen to her tone, I notice she has become even more hardened since the last time I saw her.

When I first brought Alex home after he was born, she offered no help whatsoever because he shared the same name as his father. Every day, she kept pestering me to change it, but I wanted their names to be linked. Eventually, she realized that I would not change Alex's name, so she gave me some help, but it was minimal.

I never want to follow in my mom's footsteps with how she would avoid talking about my dad. I didn’t want that for Alex. Even though Xander doesn't care about us, I've always been honest with Alex about his dad. Well, at least as much as I can be. I haven't broken the news that his dad wants nothing to do with him. But he knows who his dad is, and I've told him he's doing something really important. When he's older, he can ask Xander all the questions he needs. Hopefully, Xander will be interested in meeting him someday.

“I was wondering if you could do me a favor and look after Alex for a few days. The lady who was supposed to watch him had to leave for a family emergency. Hopefully, she'll be back in a few days.”

“Why? Where are you going?”

I swallow hard as I’m about to drop this bombshell. “I've been offered a chance to go to Australia and New Zealand for eight weeks.”

“Eight weeks?”

“Yes,” I respond. “However, Mrs. B, who lives across the hall, is more than willing to take care of Alex for the majority of the time. Unfortunately, her daughter had an accident and she had to leave unexpectedly today.” I realize I’m waffling but I can’t seem to stop. “It’s just for a few days until she returns, and then she’ll be able to stay at the apartment to look after Alex.” I let out a sigh and finally shut my mouth.

“So essentially, you need me now because the person you initially asked is unable to do it at the moment.”

I can't help but notice the sarcasm in her voice.

“Well, that's one way to look at it but-.”

“So, why are you heading to the other side of the world?” She cuts me off.

Here we go. I lick my lips, feeling unsure of what to say to her because I know that as soon as she hears this news, it will make her mad. “So, here’s the deal. I’ve been offered a position to join a band on tour,” I finally say.

In an instant, she withdraws into herself. Her face becomes rigid, her body tenses up, and she folds her arms tightly.

“Mom, it’s a great opportunity. I can’t pass it up.”

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