3.1 Back to Life

Mama wasted no time visiting her man friend when we got home from Mt. Komorebi. At breakfast, the morning after our return, she started acting weird, asking us dumb questions, like if we knew were where the fire extinguisher was and how much to feed the dog. She would only be gone for the weekend, but the way she acted, someone would have thought she was moving in with him or something. It reminded me of when we used to go back to Dad’s house on Sunday nights when we were kids. She’d hug us 15 times, tell us she loved us, and told us to call if we needed anything. Honestly, the questions and worry at our age were annoying, and I just wanted to tell her to leave already. She’d be 10 minutes away not going back to the mountain. But that night, when she finally left, Less and I felt oddly alone. In that moment, we realized we’d never been on our own before. We weren’t scared or anything, but it was just one of those defining moments when you realize you’re not a little kid anymore. Our whole lives, Mama was everything. But soon, we’d be the ones walking out the door, never to return.

For the next two weeks, we were straight up bums. We slept late, lounged around in our PJs, ate everything, watched movies, and played video games. I got out of the house from time to time to go for a jog or skate at the rink behind our house. And of course I practiced my yoga. But we totally embraced that no more school life, and it was beautiful. I felt like Mama understood we needed that time to decompress because she let us enjoy it. But after a while, I felt her nudging us gently to do more meaningful things. She was never the type of mom to tell us what to do or whatever, but when she did, she was always so gentle and nice. She’d wake me up from time to time to help her with breakfast. At first I was annoyed because I was in that good good sleep and she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. But after the third time, I understood what she was trying to do. I’m a man now. Ready or not, she’s preparing me for life on my own.

Not only did she get me cooking, but also she taught me how to take care of her garden. I’m still trying to find the value in that one since I don’t intend to start growing my own food. Either way, I enjoyed the time with her.

Besides the cooking and gardening lessons, Mama also made us go to work with her sometimes. Well, she didn’t make us craft candles, but we had to go to the community center. I guess she really wanted to get us out of the house. We enjoyed it, mostly. There weren’t too many age-appropriate activities for us, so we skated and used the gym a lot. Well, I did. Less was more interested in seeing who she could meet. I don’t think anyone impressed her, but she seemed to enjoy the attention.

Life without the school routine was great, but with Mama’s prompting, we developed a new routine. It wasn’t anything near as structured as school, but it was something. Helping Mama cook and clean, exercise, walk the dog and clean up after her, etc. was the nice, easy transition we needed back to real life. Now I need to figure out what to do with mine.