Cupid Collections

7. Peyton - 2: The Mommy Time

“She hasn’t stopped crying in hours,” Psyche mumbled sadly. “I cannot help. She won’t let me.”

“I doubt that I would do much good,” Eros said with a sigh. “She only wants one person.”

Suddenly the room rang with the screams and cries of a five year old girl calling for her mother.

“She’s only met her once,” Psyche commented unable to believe it. “How did she develop that strong of a relationship to her mother when she only met her once?”

Hedone suddenly entered the room with a cookie in her hands. She was finishing it off and licking the chocolate off of her fingers.

“What a kid, huh?” she said motioning toward the screams. Psyche couldn’t help but to glare at her own daughter. How did she ignore the cries of her child so easily?

“I thought you said she was quiet,” Hedone muttered distastefully. “It appears that you were wrong about that.”

“She would be quiet if her mother would just give her the attention she deserves!” Psyche yelled as she approached her daughter menacingly. “She is crying for you!”

Hedone shrugged unaffected by this news. “Fine. I will go see what the little brat wants.”

Psyche looked helplessly at her husband. He could only shrug in return. Eros was at a complete loss as well.

Inside the little girl’s bedroom, a small redheaded child was wailing away. She stopped as her mother entered into the room. Her tears were present on her cheeks and still in her eyes. She peered wide-eyed at her mother as she approached.

Hedone gave her a disgusted look. Children were nothing but messes. They caused messes and they were messes. Just look at that little kid in front of her. Her face was all splotchy and red and she was all wet with tears. She was… a mess.

Peyton lifted up her hands and motioned for her mother to pick her up. Hedone looked at her confused. She didn’t know what to do. She had never had to deal with children. She was normally long gone from a man’s house before his children awoke.

Peyton didn’t understand either. This was her mother. Grandma Psyche had introduced them this morning and Peyton practically fell in love. She became obsessed. She had always wondered why other people got to have a mother but she didn’t. She had been introduced to some other kids her age. They all got picked up by their mothers who they would run to. She would see the other mothers pick up the kids and swing them around while they squealed in delight. She would see the other mothers tend to their kids if they cried. Why didn’t she get to have that too?

Hedone picked her up even though she was almost too big to be doing such a thing. Peyton wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck and hugged her closely. She smelled the signature scent of cigarettes and alcohol. She didn’t understand them but suddenly loved them. This was her mother’s smell. And she loved her mother wholeheartedly.

Hedone felt differently though. The child in her hands smelled of substances that she was unfamiliar with. She didn’t like it though. She took her child’s hands away from her neck and set her back on the ground. She had had enough of that.

She began to leave the room. The kid had stopped crying and therefore her job was done.

“Mommy?” Peyton asked quietly with a confused tone. Hedone didn’t even turn back to look as she left the room.

Peyton’s bottom lip quivered slightly. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Her mother was the one who should’ve been tucking her in and giving her home cooked meals. Her mother should’ve been the one tending to her little ‘ouchies’. And yet, Psyche was always the one to come to her side. Why couldn’t she be like the other kids? Why couldn’t her mom be like the other moms? It wasn’t fair.