Dad didn't make it home last night therefore there was no one to wake me up. Not that it would have mattered. I couldn't sleep till the early hours of this morning and thanks to some extra pills, I woke up just when the sun was about to set.
When I saw the time, my body ran cold. The first thing that came to my mind was that Dad was going to kill me. With his mood these days, I swear one should stay out of his way.
The lethargic feeling threatening to drag me back to bed lifted immediately. I remembered that I was supposed to deliver flower pots to the store but never even made the return trip from yesterday. I grabbed a dress and dashed out of my room only to run into the last person I expected to see.
When did she return?
"Mum?" I asked in shock. I am sure my eyes were going to fall out of their sockets.
"Caitlin darling. You look like horror." She beamed as her silvery blue, 'pierce-y' eyes roamed the length and breadth of me.
That's where our differences started and ended. Her copy of silvery-blue eyes are as sharp and penetrating as darts while my copies are lazy and sleepy.
Ouch! That hurts.
I know better than to think that she was being jovial. If mum says I look like horror, the smiling, sparkling eyes don't matter. Her words are what does. She will sweeten them up and package them in frills but she doesn't mince them.
Here I was, just last night, taking pride in letting my appearance go wild. How unlucky can a single person be? I needed to breathe, but here she was, the mother dragon, back to her lair after 4 months of absence, to make my life hellish and chocolatey.
At least there would be chocolate. Lots of it.
"Mum, I thought you would be back next week." I fake screamed as I ran up to her like the most exciting puppy ever.
My little act pleased her and she beamed even wider as she opened her long, sexy hands and took me in her embrace in the most elegantly careful and impersonal way possible:
She caught me on both shoulders and then widened her arms to encompass me without touching me. Then grab my shoulders again before planting kisses in the air just beside my cheeks on both sides of the face like French nobles. Finally, she planted the last kiss just a few inches from my lips. Before now turning me around with an upturned nose.
"It's good I am back early. You need a makeover."
"Sure. Erm, I will see you later mum, I…" I tried to run around her so I could escape but she grabbed my wrist and made me tumble after her, towards her side of the house.
"You don't have to worry about that. It has been taken care of." She said, I didn't have to ask to know she was talking about my flower pot truck.
"Oh. Thanks. "
Actually I was thankful. Driving to the greenhouse and back is four hours and I needed a fix down there as soon as possible. Now that the truck had been taken care of, all that remained was to get rid of her and return to my room, attend to my needs, take more pills and just keep sleeping until it was time to leave for NewYork. That was a solid plan and as we headed to her study with her chirping away like a woodpecker, I was formulating the best strategy to make our rendezvous shorter than it would have been on a regular day as Mum has the habit of recounting all her travel tales to me. She started doing this in a bid to get me interested in traveling with her but over the years, it has become second nature. I have a feeling she always knew that I don't listen to her rants and bants.
By the time we made it to her Lilac office as I named it, I was edgy and very uncomfortable. I also didn't hear a single thing she said.
"Sit." She ordered the moment we entered the study.
As I settled down with my thighs, squeezed together to curb the discomfort in-between my legs, my eyes followed Mum as she leisurely strolled to her wall cabinet. Everything in her office is silver while the wall is Lilac.Though the two colours created a great contrast, I am not impressed. The colors are too vibrant and unsettling for me. I stayed away from her study while still in school, but spent countless hours reading or studying in Dad's study which is painted in gray and ash colors. Cool, calming, unassuming.
"How is he?" She asked, still backing me and gliding her hands across some ornaments in front of her.
"How is who?" I asked, puzzled.
"Your Dad, how is he?"
Oh that was true. Dad!
"Has he not returned today?" I asked worriedly.
"How would I know?" Mum retorted with a bored look.
"When did you arrive Mum?"
"Early in the afternoon?"
"And you haven't seen him?"
She shook her head in the negative and a worried look crept up my spine.
"Call in the butler mum." I said in an ordering tone similar to hers. She must have sensed that I was tense and stopped playing with the pen in her hand to assess me properly.
"Okay." She said before strolling to her desk where she pressed a button.
"Now tell me, what is going on?" She demanded.
"Nothing mum. It's just that the last time I saw him was last morning and if I remember well, he promised to come home."
He didn't say it to me though. He said it to the butler. I only overheard him.
"I see." She said before getting behind her desk and settling down at last.
Just then the butler, a stoic man in his late fifties who had been with us since I could remember came in quietly and just stood there like a military man, saying nothing.
"Has Dad been home since last morning?" I asked without preamble.
"No ma'am." He replied.
"Did he call to say he wouldn't?"
"Yes ma'am. Boss is going to be away for the whole week."
"I see." Mum said again and I turned to apprise her body language with a suspicious look. Her tone had ticked me off.