(no subject)

[seymoure]

38.

The conversation was minimal as she re-entered the family apartment. It appeared that they were all covering the same points of surmise that she had mulled as she walked back down the
hallway.

She shooed everyone back to their homes and or their beds and sat on the sofa as they left. After 10 minutes Mickey came back out.

He was wearing his pajamas with “Batman” symbols on it.

It made her snicker to see him in the thing, it always had.

But he wasn’t the same carefree child she had sent to bed in those togs so many times before.

“Now, you didn’t even try to sleep,” She admonished him.

“Just going to get something to drink,” He said, and continued on to the kitchen.

“Something without caffeine I hope,” She called after him.

He came back with a root beer held high above his head as he walked through the room without looking at her.

After leaving, he stuck his head back through the doorway long enough to say, “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, kiddo,” She nearly sang back at him.

After a couple of minutes in the room, she looked at the door to her bedroom. Then she curled up on the couch to sleep.

She looked up in the air and whispered, “Good night Benjy, whoever you now are.”

After a few minutes she fell asleep.

© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens