P.I.

Mommy and Me

It's been a few hours and I haven't heard from Lucy. I'll give it a little more time, but I'm beginning to worry. What if I made the wrong call... what if I shouldn't have sent her home? And another thought that popped into my brain while slumming through the vast internet database of public criminal lists of people who lived in this area was why Lucy didn't go to the police.

 I didn't understand, she could have been in serious trouble, and instead called me, on my private cell phone. Things were getting a little hairy the more and more I thought about it. I need Julian to get his butt working. Even though that would be unfair of me to ask him to drop whatever he was doing to help me out.  

 I close my laptop and lay my face on the warmth of it for a moment, then my phone rings, and I jump up, startled.

"Hello?" I speak.

"Nikki?" I hear my mother's voice say.

"Oh! Hi mom," I chuckle. It was weird that she was calling me, she didn't call me much any more since she remarried. Too busy doing the horizontal tango with her beau, I guess.

"I'm coming into town for a visit," she chirps, singsongy.

"R-really?" I ask, glancing around my apartment. Not something a mother would be proud of, with clothes and things strewn about haphazardly. Not to mention we haven't talked in a century.

"Yes, isn't it great?" she asks, seemingly overjoyed.

I couldn't really share it with her. "Um, yeah," I say, trying my best to sound enthused.

"Jake has a business meeting next week and I thought a visit was in order." she says, her constant ray of sunshiny-ness was already getting to me.

"Wow, mom. Um, next week, you say?" I ask, popping open my laptop again and bringing up my calendar. It was blank for this entire month.

"Yes, sweetie. Is it a problem?" she asks.

I hiss a little though my teeth. "It looks a little tough, but I guess I'll have to squeeze you in there," I manage.

"Oh, could you? I haven't seen you in so long, in fact, I haven't seen you since--"

"--Since the wedding, yeah I know." I finish for her. I sigh, remembering the night that my mom and Jake promised the rest of thier lives to each other. I had gotten a little too drunk that night for my own good, and to say the least I was a little off my rocker. I mean, like, really off. If you put it to scale, my rocker would be out on the moon compared to where one's rocker should be. I said things I shouldn't have, embarrassed a bunch of people and myself, and basically didn't want to show my face to anyone on that wedding guest list ever again, including my step dad, who had probably gotten the worst of it. I had been going on and on about my birth dad, who had died in the line of duty when I was 14. Needless to say, I didn't really talk to my family after that.

"Well, I want to see your new place," she said, trying to keep the mood lighthearted.

"Okay, well..." I trail off. "Um, call me when it gets closer to when you're coming." I say.

"Of course," she says, all happy.

"Okay, mom, I'll talk to you soon."

"Okidokie, sweetie! Bye!" she hangs up, leaving me with a phone with no one on the other end to say goodbye to.

"Bye." I say, as more of a period to the conversation than anything else.

I sit in silence for a long, long time.