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Teenage Ghost
Evan was grateful his friend’s mom had relented and decided it was ok for him to come over. It was a shame she was always working, he never got to meet her. As he was leaving Jeff’s house, to go home and he saw a woman in her late thirties get out of a car and walk into the house.
It had to be Jeff’s mom.
Evan rushed back to thank her for letting him come over during the summer. But he heard screaming and yelling as he reached the porch and decided it would be better to just go home.
Jeff stood wide eyed as the woman who owned the house came home to find it fully furnished and lived in. He stayed where she could not see him as she went from room to room searching for personal evidence.
The woman entered the kitchen and found it fully stocked. A plastic bag of fudge sat in the forefront. She grabbed it and tried some as she sat down at the kitchen table. Her ranting stopped. The anger in her eyes slowly began to fade. “This is really good fudge.” She said out loud before taking another bite.
“Thank you.” Jeff stood in the kitchen doorway.
The woman dropped the bag of fudge on the table and reached for the knives in the butchers block.
Jeff began explaining hurriedly, “I’m sorry I startled you. I thought this place was abandoned. You see my mom died.”
The woman slid the knife back, but did not face the boy.
“I don’t have any place to live. I’m enrolled at Deerborne High, this house is in the district. Look I’ll pack up my stuff and move out. I didn’t cause your house any damage. I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused you.” Jeff backed away from the doorway and walked to the back bedrooms.
“You can stay.” the woman said. She pushed her long sandy blonde hair out of her face to reveal sad green eyes. “I just lost my mother too. This is her house.” She sighed and sat down at the table. After a few moments she pulled a bottle of pills out of her purse and took a few without water.
The woman stared vacantly at the wall for a few hours, then ate some more fudge.
Jeff sat down across from her and looked at her. “I told my friends I live here with my mother. They are going to think you’re her.”
The woman looked at the teenager and chuckled. “You have a real problem facing the truth.” She opened up the bottle and took two more pills.
“Would you like me to make you something to eat? I can whip up some soup.” Jeff offered.
“Whip up some soup.” she chuckled. “I don’t need soup kid. I need a lot of things, but soup’s not one.” She put the bottle in her purse, “You want to be my kid, fine I’ll have that, and you can take care of me too. And clean up this mess.” She laughed half out of her mind.
The woman walked to the master bedroom and laid down on the bed. “Momma, why’d you leave me like this.”
Jeff watched her fall asleep and got flash backs of his drunken mother coming home at four am. Was it really worth it? Was it really worth going through all of that again?