My mother's house: This was where I grew up. And yet I hate that thought even though I almost do not recognize this place from all the changes that have occurred since I stormed out of this building forty-eight years ago and never once came back.
Now I have to cross this threshold again because the phone call from a hospice worker said that my mother has but weeks to live, and that she begged for me to come.
How do you explain to a stranger that you do not want to see your own mother before she dies? Feeling that way is almost incomprehensible to even me, and I know the reason, a reason I have never shared with anyone else, nor do I intend to. So I reluctantly told the woman who called that I'd be here today, and here I am, wishing I were somewhere else.
The nurse that greets me at the door does not offer a smile, and I learned later that she has cared for my mother for two years, and that she often wondered how a son could treat his mother that way. Her contempt was written all across her face, and I wanted to scream: "Do you know what she did to me? But I kept quiet and climbed the two flights of stairs to my mother's bedroom, the same room she and my father shared before he died when I was eighteen years old.
Why would she stay in this godforsaken place? My father’s life insurance made her a wealthy woman. She could have bought any house she wanted, and yet for forty-eight years after his death she stayed.
As I open the door to her bedroom I think the unthinkable. Should I give her the same poison she gave to my father?
(I am not sure I followed all of your rules, Greg, but I tried by just continuing from last week's "place" setting story. I am enjoying the challenge you have set up)
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 29
Thanks for sharing with Gather's Best Writers and Artists.
As for the story alluding to child abuse it does not. The poisoning is the theme. If A Child Called It is about child abuse I do not think I could read it. I get too sad whenever I read or hear anything about that subject, and any good I may have been able to do in my day is lost in the despair I feel.
That's correct, but it goes to the group page, not directly to the members. Part 1 never made it to GB, but you can fix that by going into 'edit" on that post.
Hey, my only rule is: build skill.
You have a great premise here. You have given us a lot of question; the plot will reveal the answers.
When Greg gave his prompts, and then told us where we were headed, it didn't dawn on me that we could write out the story in the fragments/parts he's taking us. That you can and have, is a testament to your amazing skills as a writer.
That's the long-winded response to this. My immediate reaction was WHOA!!!!
I have some catching up to do, before finding out how this ends. I will find out though. Gotta by now!
Gotta say: Amazing!...can't wait until the next section!! What a treat!!