reflections (care enough)

"If I'm not good enough or somehow undeserving of a mother's love, you could have had the decency to give me up before you gave me life."

I'd known Nye for seven months and never met her mom. We lived up the block from each other, and walked to school together in the morning. Nye often came to my house after school as well. We watched movies, played video games, etc. But I had never stepped foot inside her house.

I thought this was odd, and when my opportunity came to insist we go in her house I too it. It was near the end of the school year and the weather was finally warm enough for kids to head to the pool. A lot of kids from our classes were going, so I insisted that Nye and I go as well.

I told her we could just drop by her house to pick up her swimsuit, then change at my place. She reluctantly agreed.

So there I was. Inside Nye's house. Once we got there, it appeared Nye's mom wasn't home. She decided to take a quick shower to shave her legs before we left. I sat in the living room while waiting.

About three minutes after Nye got in the shower, her mother came in the front door. I stood up to greet her but once I said I was Nye's friend she became disinterested. She asked if I had seen Kyle, Nye's younger brother. And then moved on after I said no.

About five minutes later, I heard Nye and her mother talking from the upstairs hallway. The disdain in her mother's voice was hard to miss, even without seeing her face. As Nye attempted to explain that we were going to the pool, her mother quickly cut her off and said she didn't care. She told Nye she didn't care if she jumped off a bridge. She just wanted to know where Kyle was.

As Nye came down the stairs, I did my best to pretend that I hadn't heard the discussion upstairs. But Nye was visibly shaken. So as we walked to my house, I tried to cheer her with funny stories from homeroom. By the time we got to the pool, Nye was in much better spirits.

That night I talked to my mom about what happened at Nye's house. It completely baffled me that a mother wouldn't care about her child. But Mom knew Nye's mother well. She had Nye her senior year of high school. Nye's father left her five months after she was born. She resented Nye for taking away her senior year and she blamed Nye for her father leaving.