“Mindy?”
“Max’s best friend’s little sister. She’s having some… um… difficulties and Max is helping her out. I promised her a facial, I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, honey.”
“Love you, Mom.”
I heard the taps of fingers on a keyboard in the background over the phone and she said distractedly, “Love you too… erm, what’s the town you’re in called?”
“Gnaw Bone.”
A pause then, “Gnaw Bone?”
I laughed. “Why do you think I chose it? I had to stay in a place called Gnaw Bone.”
“I love it!” she cried.
She’d love it more if she saw the shops.
“Neens?” Mindy called. “Do you want to do the facial upstairs or down there?”
“Upstairs!” I called back then said to Mom, “Now I really have to go.”
“Love you, sweetie.”
“Love you, bye.”
I touched the screen to end the call and yelled to Mindy, “We’ll need a towel and washcloth!”
“Got it!” she yelled back.
“Do you want another cup of coffee?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind!”
“Okay!”
Then I put my phone on the counter, poured Mindy a cup of coffee and prayed that facials could induce skip-dancing in recently raped, brokenhearted, twenty-four year old girls and, I figured, I had my work cut out for me.
* * * * *
“What’s your Mom like?” Mindy asked, it was post-facial and she was sitting in the rocking chair that she pulled up next to the roll top while I fiddled with the card reader I’d brought. I was sending my mother the Cotton picture of Max and me as well as the photo of Max I surreptitiously took.
“She’s a nut,” I answered.
“Like you?”
Surprised, I turned my head to look at her and stated, “I’m not a nut.”
“You spent, like, a gazillion dollars on clothes and all sorts of shit yesterday and then ate more pizza than any girl I’ve ever met and then you laughed until you nearly fell off your bar stool about, I don’t know, a gazillion times and then you got right in Damon’s face and no one, except someone as big as Max, gets right in Damon’s face, not even Arlene and Arlene’s ornery,” she replied then, having stated her case, she summed up, “You’re a nut.”
“Well, I’m on vacation,” I replied haughtily, haughty and vacation being my only two defenses and seeing the attachment had loaded on Mom’s e-mail I hit send.
“You’re not on vacation, you’re a nut,” Mindy said and I could swear I heard a smile in her voice so I looked at her and saw there was a smile on her face.
Maybe it was the facial that did it but I was thinking it was more me being a nut. I didn’t care. Either way, I was relieved.
“Then I guess I’m a nut,” I said, scanning my inbox to see if Niles had written, he hadn’t, so I shut it down.