Zombie Rock

Mama I'm Coming Home

Chapter Five: Mama I'm Coming Home

So, apparently, we traded an apartment in the city for a trailer in the middle of nowhere...I mean Osborne. The trailer was actually about the same size as our old apartment, though my room was a little smaller. There was a strange lack of noise that made me a bit uneasy. Most of the trailer park was empty.

My grandparents had died in a car crash a few years earlier. I'd never met them. I guess they never forgave my mom for running away and having me. Anyway, it was a touchy subject and I concentrated on not bringing it up. A young woman had been living in the trailer until recently, but a neighbor told Mom she'd gotten infected and disappeared. Lucky for us I guess.

Whoever she was, she hadn't bothered to change anything. Mom said it was exactly the same as when she walked out all those years ago. Normally, I would have said something about that...something to make Mom laugh. But now, I was drawing a blank.

It was odd to think that my room had once been Mom's. Then again, who else would've covered the pink walls with rock posters?

"You all unpacked?" Mom called.

I looked around my new room. "Sure," I said, walking into the living room.

"Whew, this place is dusty," she said, swiping a finger across the kitchen countertop and showing me the dirt she'd picked up. "We need to do some major cleaning before we cook in here. How about we head over to Mabel's Diner? The food's not bad...I promise."

Great, just what I needed-fake eating my first night in town. But I knew she wanted to go, so I nodded.

When we got to Mabel's, I could feel everyone's eyes on us. I wondered if anyone recognized my mom. It'd been seventeen years since she'd been here last, but to be honest, she didn't look much different. Sometimes people mistook us for siblings rather than parent and child.

I ordered something on the menu without paying attention to what it was, and tried to look like a sulky teen forced to move in the middle of his senior year. My crappy acting went unnoticed. Mom bought a paper and went through the classified ads. I carefully pushed my food around the plate, sneaking pieces into my napkin when no one was looking.

I wondered where a person bought brains in this town. Maybe I could at least get some raw hamburger.

"They closed the only music store in town," Mom said without looking up from the paper. "I guess it's some sort of outdoor clothing store now." She sounded sad. I'd often heard how music had been the only thing that kept her sane through her childhood. Now, after seeing Osborne for myself, I understood why.

"Any jobs look interesting?" I asked, managing to muster a little curiosity in my voice.

"Not really." She sighed. "There's an opening at the church, but Garret's still the pastor and I don't think I could work for him."

"Excuse me, ma'am." The waitress approached our table with a pot of coffee. "I couldn't help but overhear." She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, too young to know who Mom was. "If you don't want to work for Garret, you're going to have a tough time finding a job in Osborne. The preacher's got his fingers in just about every pie."

As the girl walked away, Mom frowned and looked down at the paper. "Well that's just great."

It seemed like things were going to be tougher than I thought. I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

****

Before my transition, the idea of starting a new school in the middle of the year would have terrified me. Now, I couldn't have cared less. My old school had been huge. Here, the entire high school was the same size as my graduating class back in the city. I wasn't impressed.