(Blog 30) An Unsettling Moment for Pip
Thursday Evening, October 6: Pip’s House: Pip opened the door to his house. His mother was stretched across the sofa like a sunbathing serpent, one wing lazily draped over the armrest, her talons delicately pinching a piece of melon on a porcelain dish. The flicker from the TV screen playing her evening drama series was the sole lighting in the room. Her eyes stayed fixed on the screen.
“Mom…” Pip started in a stretched, sad tone.
Without looking at him, she broke his words with an agitated quickness as to express that she was irritated with him for interrupting her show. “Chelsea called. The baby dragon died.”
Pip froze, backpack still slung over one shoulder.
The show paused for a commercial break. His mother finally turned her head, shifting her eyes directly to his. “What were you thinking, Pip? Running off into some cave after a trail of blood? What if something had happened to you? Did you even stop to think what that would’ve done to me?”
“I was trying to help her… I was trying to do the right thing.” Pip said quickly, his voice cracking. “Mrs. Locke said we gave her the best chance.”
“Of course she said that.” His mother said with a sharp chuckle. “What, you think they’re going to blame a teenage dragon? No, sweet heart. Grown dragons know how to protect your feelings, but the truth remains that you’re little hero stunt ended in a baby dragon’s funeral.”
She set her plate down on the side table, sat up and leaned over to look further into him and continued to speak in a frantic tone, “I have to explain this to my friends now, Pip. I have to act like a grieving mother while they whisper that my son was a part of this mess. Me, the single mother doing everything I can on my own, and I can’t keep you out of trouble. Do you know how that feels? No. Because you weren’t thinking about me when you decided to go running into that cave. You were just chasing something… reckless… Typical.”
Pip stood there silently, hollowed out from her words and feeling like he could faint. He turned around and used the energy left in his tired body to climb the stairs to his room.
Pip slid onto his bed, covered in a blanket and stared up at the ceiling as tears rolled down the sides of his cheeks. He steady his breathing to calm his nerves so he wouldn’t make noticeable sniffling sounds that his mother might hear. It felt like the space above his head was pressing down on him like an invisible fog gradually settling into suffocation as he ruminated about everything she had just said.
Within a short time, he shifted to lighter thoughts of how he wished she would have responded. Spyder’s mother was always empathetic and accepting. He desired those qualities from his mother. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a half sleep.
The phone rang, waking him from his doze. In the distance he heard his mother answer in a delightful tone.
“Hello?… Oh sure… How are you doing?… Awful how it turned out… Let me get him for you.”
“Pip. Honey! Spyder is on the phone for you!”
Spyder had called for their agreed last check before the day ended. Pip picks up the phone to Spyder’s voice on the other end. “How did it go with your mom? What did you decide about school tomorrow?”
“She was really upset too. We had my favorite meal for dinner and talked a lot. It’s been a hard night for both of us. Mom said she thinks it’s best if I try to go to school tomorrow instead of staying home and getting stuck in saddeness. Of course, she’ll let me check out if I decide it’s too much. What about you?”
Pip had never lied to his best friend, but he was too embarrassed to share what his mother really said and he didn’t want someone else to have a bad opinion of her, as he once again felt the weight of her words replaying over and over again in his head.
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