Page 35 of SEAL Mates

Paula

Two cold showers later, and I kept looking in the mirror. Having one of the crazy conversations I’d become accustomed to having ever since I got here.

“P. Think. Are you really doing this? Really?” I was waving my hand in the air, and pacing up and down. I decided that if there was a camera in this room, for sure they would kick me out due to being a crazy person. I’d never had this many conversations with myself in a space of a week. As a writer, I had them all the time, but that was usually when the protagonist didn’t want to play ball. Normally, the men would be alright, it was the women that would always manage to piss me off. I’ll be telling them to do one thing and before I knew it, they were doing a completely different thing. It was as if they did it to piss me off. And most of the time, it worked.

I wrapped my towel tightly and tried to figure out what direction my phone was ringing from, as soon as I found it under my pillow, I picked it up.

It was mom.

She never rang me during the day, something was wrong. I was thinking about how to get my groove on and not acting like a responsible mother-of-three. I’d completely lost my senses.

“Mom. What’s up?”

“Paula.Sorry, are you busy?”

No. I just want to know why you’re calling. I sunk on the bed, feeling nervous about what she had to tell me.

“Don’t get mad. I can feel you’re going to get mad and I don’t want you to.”

She was dragging whatever she had to say, and I hated her more for doing it. Spit it out woman!

“Mom!”

“Okay, I’m going to say it, but I just don’t want you to panic. EVerything’s under control. Kylie. She has COVID.”

“Mom! When? How? Is she ok?”

“Don’t panic. Look we were watching a movie and well, Trent was coughing a little too much and well he took a test and then we found out that not only does he have it, but we all do. We’re in quarantine. Don’t worry I told the school, so maybe you should be there for another couple of weeks. You know till we’re really over it. Ray is negative, but I think that he’ll turn positive in the next few days. You know how it is. One person gets it and then it just goes round, and round. So best we all get it.”

She was rambling which meant that she was nervous and I had made her feel that way. I was sure she was horrified once she found out about him having COVID let alone the kids. I’d had one too many kids over and I always worried about their well being more than my own kids. There was something terrifying about other people’s kids being your responsibility that you tended to panic about everything that happened to them when they were in your care.

“Don’t worry. I’m looking after them.”

I sighed, as I tried to be calm and think about the most important thing.

“Mom, can I speak to them?”

She giggled, “Well Ray is really enjoying the situation and last night I found him, or rather the early hours of the morning he was playing on his game. I stopped him and told him to go to bed. As a result, he couldn’t get up this morning and Kylie, well she’s still sleeping. She had a rough night. Temperature and all that, but later when they’re both up I’ll let them call you okay?”

I realized that I was being selfish. I’d been too busy asking about the kids and worrying about them. I didn’t even ask how both her and Trent were doing.

“Mom and you? How do you feel?”

She chuckled, “this old boot. I’ve had it how many times now? Oh how I’ve lost count. Trent’s younger and he’s the one that is suffering badly. So, he’s in my room. I’m in yours and the kids. Well they are together. Just because I really want Ray to get it. So far my little plan’s not working.”

“What do you mean? How long have you had it?”

She sighed, and was hesitating telling me the whole story, which worried me even more.

“Sunday. We found out on Sunday.”

“Oh but it’s Tuesday. Why didn’t you call me.”

“Really Paula. You think I would call you on a Sunday so you could panic and in turn I could panic. No. I decided when everything was a little calmer here then I would call and talk to you about it. If it was really bad or the kids were in a bad way I would have called you without hesitation. You know I would.”

She sounded tired and instead of me being concerned about her well-being, I was too busy firing darts at her and making her feel worse than she probably already did.

“Mom. Sorry. Look, you get some rest. If the kids are up to it then call. If not, then let’s talk tomorrow.”

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