“Yes Mom, I’m eating
my vegetables,” Cayden King said as he rolled his eyes and
held the telephone pressed firmly against his ear.
“You sound awful,”
Victoria King noted. “Are you sick? Cayden, have you been
doing drugs? God knows what goes on in New York. Please tell
me that you’re not addicted to crack.”
“No, I haven’t done
any crack, I don’t even know where to buy crack.”
“Oh, thank God. I still
don’t know why you chose to move to New York,” his
mother admitted.
“I actually like New York,”
Cayden admitted.
“I can’t imagine
why. Honestly, Cayden, why would you want to stay in a place
where people want to kill you?”
“Mom, that’s ridiculous,
no one’s even tried to kill me for weeks,” Cayden retorted.
“What about that crazy
guy in the corner store that you told me about? Didn’t he
try to kill you?” Victoria questioned.
“Yes, but that doesn’t
count because that guy didn’t really shoot me, the bullet
just grazed my arm. Besides, I’m fine.”
“No, you were lucky,”
Victoria said.
“Mom,” Cayden said
as he paced back and forth in the living room, deciding to change
the subject. “I can’t wait to come home for Christmas.
I miss you and Dad. I got you guys these really cool presents,
I think you’re going to love them.”
“Oh . . . Cayden,”
Victoria said softly. “Sweetheart, I know you’ve had
your heart set on coming home for Christmas, but . . . your father
and I can’t really afford it.”
“You can’t afford
it?” Cayden repeated, feeling his hopes slightly crushed.
The fact was that he did want to go home for Christmas. When
he moved to New York, he thought things were going to be different.
He had dreams about meeting someone and falling in love, but
the reality of the situation never quite held up to the dream.
The only person that he felt
he could have had something with was married and had a child.
All he really wanted to do was go home to his mother where he
knew she would be able to make everything all better for him
in that special way that only she could.
“I’m sorry, but there
was a problem with the boiler. We had to replace it and it cost
a lot of money, Cayden. “
“No, it’s okay,”
Cayden said softly, “I understand.”
“You sound upset,”
Victoria said softly. “I promise, the very first chance
we get, we’ll send for you. I really miss you,” she
admitted.
“I miss you too, Mom,”
Cayden replied. “Well listen . . . I have to go. I have
my last final on Monday and I need to study for it.”
“Okay, Sweetheart. I know
you’ll do great on your test, you always do.”
“Thank you, Mom. Goodbye,”
Cayden said softly as he hung up the phone. |
