Rache

An hour or so later, Mom came home. I heard the car door shut and came out of my room. Mom came in with two giant paper bags of groceries, so her eyes just peaked over the tops. Davvie was just behind her.

“Elizabeth!” he yelled out as he ran around her.

“Davvie!” I picked him up and spun him around a couple of times. Davvie was fourteen, but he was really small for his age, so he wasn’t heavy. I set him down and shook his hand.

“How was your day?” he asked.

“Very good,” I said. “And how was your day?”

“Very good.”

Patrick had dinner ready, so when the groceries were put up, we sat down. Potato soup. The man can cook, but he isn’t very creative.

“Ooh, Patrick, I see you discovered black pepper today,” I said.

“So,” Mom said, trying to lace up a fight. “How was Rache today?”

“Dead,” I said.

“Couldn’t stand the company anymore,” Patrick said.

“Patrick!” Mom said. “That’s kind of sudden, isn’t it, honey?”

“Um, not really,” I said. “I mean, she wasn’t sick or anything, but she was getting close to 90. Last week she said she was getting tired and that she figured it was time to start packing. Sounded crazy last week, but then two days ago, she just stopped getting out of bed.”

“And then today she…passed on.”

“Yeah.”

“Honey.” She paused. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I mean, she was old. And she didn’t get sick or anything, so she didn’t have to suffer.”

“Did you?”

“Suffer? I didn’t die.” Mom looked at me funny. She always does that when you answer the wrong question. “Nah, I’m okay. I mean, I couldn’t spend the rest of my life hanging out with her anyway.” Mom nodded slowly.

“So, do you know what college you’re going to go to, yet?” she asked.

“College?” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, it is what most people do after they get out of high school.”

“Yeah, so, anyway, it turns out that Rache doesn’t have any living relatives. She’s just got this lawyer who’s supposed to divvy out the estate and take care of the funeral. Tiffany at the home said that I was probably the closest thing she had to a relative, so I had to leave my number there in case the lawyer wanted to contact me…”

“So all that sucking up to old people finally paid…off,” Patrick said. Everything went real quiet when he said it.

“Patrick!” Mom said, and then slowly looked at me.

Patrick hadn’t closed his mouth after the last word he said. It was just hanging open as his face was turning whiter and whiter. Davvie, sitting next to Mom started looking back and forth between me and Patrick. For once I was actually glad that I was the center of attention. Without ever taking my eyes off of Patrick, I stood up, pushed my chair back in, and walked slowly to my room. I closed the door as silently as I could.