Chapter 9 #3
Laughing at himself, Abbott laid down on his bed.
He’d been taking a nap daily since moving in, and it was working out well for him.
He wasn’t lazy by any means, but he felt like he’d lost a lot of sleep while running the funeral home.
Probably not as much as he thought, but he had to be up at all hours talking to people who had just lost a loved one.
It had been the worst part of his job. Talking to people when they were at their worst.
He was just waking up when his phone rang.
He nearly didn’t answer it; he couldn’t find it in his mess of boxes, but he was glad to see his mom’s picture there when he finally found it.
Saying how much he loved her in a way of answering his phone, he could tell that she thought it was wonderful, by the way she laughed with him.
“I was just thinking about you. How about we have dinner out somewhere nice? I was thinking seafood, but I remembered that you don’t much care for it.
How about we get ourselves a nice steak and potato?
Then perhaps see a movie?” He told her that he loved that idea.
“You won’t have to worry about getting a call now that you’ve sold the home, and the two of us can stay out late. ”
“Perfect. We can go see that new movie that came out on Friday. I’ve been dying to see it. It’s supposed to be really good.” She said that she’d been thinking the same thing. “Good. I’ll pick you up at five, and we’ll take our time eating, then have us a good time with lots of salt on our popcorn.”
“Butter too. Let’s not forget the butter.” He said never, and she laughed again. “It’s going on three now, so I have to get ready. I’m not dressing up too much, just so you know. A skirt and blouse.”
“I’ll wear some jeans and a shirt and tie.” Mom told him that would be perfect. After hanging up with her, he decided to take another shower and get dressed. It was still a couple of hours away, but he could stretch that out so that he would pick her up on time.
Once or twice a month, Mom would call one of them to go to the movies with her.
She and Dad used to do it all the time. Go see a new movie that had just come out and tell them about it.
Not giving away the plot, but giving them enough information that they’d want to go see it too.
Sometimes the movie wouldn’t be what they wanted, and they’d tell them that.
He’d discovered that his tastes in movies were similar to his mom’s.
What she liked, he usually did as well. He couldn’t wait until he picked up his mom.
Abbott knew he was going to have to get him a job sooner rather than later.
Right now, he was enjoying being unemployed.
But it wouldn’t be long before he needed something else to take up his time, and he would need to have a paycheck coming in.
Not that he needed the money, but he never touched his savings account or anything in his stocks and bonds.
He didn’t become a wealthy man by spending all his hard-earned cash at once.
He would work a job for the money coming in and have fun with it.
Abbott was what his brothers called stingy. He called himself frugal.
Just as he was getting out of the shower, his phone rang.
Since he didn’t recognize the number, he didn’t answer.
Pulling on his jeans and shirt, it rang again.
Still no clue who was calling him, he ignored the call and decided to block the number the next time it came in.
They didn’t leave him a message, so it must not be all that important.
He got three more calls after that and did block the number.
If it was all that much important to speak to him, then leave a message, and he might call back.
As it was, he was annoyed with the calls and decided that this date with his mom was the perfect outlet for him.
As he was leaving the condo, he tried to make himself feel better by singing along with the radio and forgetting about the caller.
Pulling into his mom’s driveway, he knew something had happened to her, too.
“What’s wrong?” She said that one of her roses had gotten the rot. “I’m going to assume that’s a bad thing. I’ve never had much to do with flowers.”
“No, you wouldn’t, would you? Oh well. I’m going to have to have someone come out and dig it up for me.
I don’t think I could do a good enough job because all the roots have to be taken out, or it will spread to the other flowers in my garden.
” She looked at him. “You’ve been annoyed too since I last talked to you. ”
He told her about the call and how no one had left him a message, so he didn’t answer. She said that she hated it when people did that. Like he’d said, if it was important enough to call about, then leave a message. He told her how he’d blocked the number so it couldn’t come through anymore.
“If it’s some kind of sales call, they’ll just use a different number.
I’m not saying to answer it, but they can be pretty sneaky when it comes to calling you for a sales pitch.
” He agreed with his mother and was glad when she changed the subject.
“Now that you’re off for a while, what are your plans?
I’m sure you have a list of things that you want to get done, don’t you? ”
“I don’t really. I have a couple of projects that I want to get done. One of them is building my house.” She congratulated him on that. “Thank you so much. I think I’ve found the perfect home too, and I’m excited about it.”
“You’re not going to be having homeless people living with you, are you, son?
” He laughed and told her how Bastain had brought up the same thing.
She told him that she was forever fearful of him bringing home people all the time after that.
“You did bring home an occasional friend, but not too many of those. I think when you were growing up, you were always the odd man out.”
“I remember that. Kids used to call me a nerd.” It had served him well being a nerd.
He’d gotten out of college before anyone else.
“I should go back to school to learn another trade. Right now I’m not using what I’d gone for, and I’m happy about that.
Being a funeral director takes a special kind of person, and I’m not so sure I was the right one.
I never had a family complain about what I was doing, but I do know that I never felt like I was giving them the best that I could. Understand?”
“You have a good heart, son. A very good one.” As they were pulling up to the restaurant, his cell rang again.
This number he knew and answered it by the second ring.
It was his brother, Callen. Telling him where they were and what they were about to do, he invited himself along.
Mom didn’t care. She loved having them around her all the time.
So Callen and Zavier joined them for dinner and the movie.
After the movie, they decided to get something to snack on and had a good time at the Pizza Parlor.
They weren’t that hungry, but did eat two large pizzas between the four of them.
Mom didn’t eat all that much, so it was left up to them to not have any leftovers.
It was a hard job, he thought to himself, but he was willing to do that for them.
Abbott had never laughed as much as he did tonight, hanging out with family.
His mom would tell stories about them, and that was fun too.
He’d forgotten what a pain in the ass his little brothers had been growing up, and Mom had pointed out that they’d been jealous of the attention they got from girls.
“If I remember correctly, you had your fair share of the fairer sex, too. I don’t remember a single weekend when the two of you didn’t have a date to go out on.” Zavier said that they double-dated at times and would swap dates halfway through the night. “Why does that not surprise me?”
They talked about Dad a lot, too, and that made him happen.
Abbott missed his father so much at times that he’d find himself looking for old pictures so that he could remember his face.
Dad had been a force, too, one that they could depend on when things needed to be explained.
Yes, Abbott thought, he really missed his dad a great deal.