Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves - K.A. Merikan Page 0,71
have the guts to come see you for a while.”
Her breath wheezed but she stopped Yev from coming closer with a single gesture. “You lost your arm, and you didn’t think it would make sense to call me? What kind of son are you?”
Discomfort squeezed Radek’s stomach, causing uncomfortable cramps. “Because you always yell at me!”
She took a deep breath through her nose. “Mr. Yevhen? Could you excuse us?”
Yev shifted his weight but at least had the decency to glance at Radek. There was no way around it.
“I’m sorry, could you wait in the living room? I’ll be back soon.” Radek huffed in frustration when Mom squinted at him as if her eyes were daggers she’d throw as soon as Yev left.
Yev’s gray eyes expressed very little, but he nodded and said his goodbyes to Mom before leaving the room.
Radek’s stomach twisted at the sound of his footsteps getting ever quieter but was forced to look up when Mom rose from her chair, shoulders squared as if she were preparing for battle despite only wearing a mustard-colored dress. “What have I done wrong? What did I do that you treat me like this?”
“You criticize me all the time! Nothing’s ever good enough, so of course I was afraid to show this to you, because you’d just say the accident was somehow my fault!” He was glad he’d already cried his eyes out on Yev’s shoulder today, because they were itching again.
She took a deep breath, shaking her head as she raised both her forearms in a helpless gesture. “Because it is! How come you’re always the one who does stupid things? Why can my friends all have normal children? You won’t even be able to write now!”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Radek hated that her opinion still mattered to him, regardless of what he liked to tell his friends. “I’m trying to adjust, but it’s not been easy, okay?”
She shook her head, growing ever more flushed as she spoke in a high-pitched staccato, face red. “Unbelievable. Your whole life’s been a piece of cake so far! Even your so-called work was arranged by your father! When I was your age, we both lived in a tiny room at your grandparents’, because we couldn’t get our own place. You don’t know what hardship means! You’re spoiled! Even when you got hurt, you prioritized yourself over telling me the truth, because you didn’t want me to yell at you! Are you five? You were supposed to come back and help take care of me once you finished university. That was months ago!”
“I’m the one prioritizing myself? It’s you who wants me to drop everything to come live here. I’ve been through a traumatic event, and all you do is complain even though you have help and everything you need provided!” He couldn’t help the bitter rage spouting out of him. Their conversations always escalated into fights, and he didn’t know if they would ever talk normally anymore. “I’m selfish? Why aren’t you asking me if it hurts?”
She shook her head, but her lips pressed together, as if she were swallowing angry words. “Because you didn’t tell me. I’m your mother. I should have known something happened, but you always push me away as if I were a burden!” Her voice broke, and she spun around, covering her face with both hands.
Oh. Now she was crying. As if guilt-tripping him with words wasn’t enough. “Well, you got your wish. I’ll be staying in Dybukowo for a while. I need to recover my phone and stuff, but you’ll be able to reach me if you actually want to. I’m… sorry I didn’t stay for Christmas,” he choked out in the end. “But what’s done is done.”
She only sobbed harder, her slender shoulders shaking. “Telephone? Reach you? What? You won’t be here?”
“I’ll be staying at Yev’s cabin in the forest. He’s been helping me out.”
“Why would he help you? He hates our family because he has a pet fox and therefore it’s somehow unethical for everyone else to enjoy fur!”
Radek took a deep breath. This wasn’t ripping off Band-Aids anymore. If he kept going, he might bleed out altogether. “I want to close the fox farm. I’ve been there, and… it’s just not right.”
That had her spinning back, index finger raised in protest. Tears had trailed down her cheeks, taking with them some of the makeup she wore, but her face expressed determination. “You will not do that. Your father left it to you!”