Extra– An Important Question 1

“Hey, Autumn?”



“Yeah?”
“I have to ask you an important question?”



“Yeah?”



“Was Mama a bad mother?”

“She left and never even called us. I’d say that makes her a bad mother, yeah.”

“I mean before that – before she left. Was she a bad mother before she left?”

“Why are you even asking me this?”



“Because Mama says she left because she was a bad mother, and Dad says she was a bad mother, but I wanted to ask someone else ‘cause I kind of don’t believe it. You must remember when she was here. You were big then. You’d know.”

“I wasn’t much older than you are now when she left.
”


“That’s what I mean. You were big. You must remember. I don’t even know what a bad mother is would be like… unless she forgot to feed her kids or something… and I don’t think Mama did that…  did she?”

“No, I don’t think she did that. But if she said it herself, why don’t you ask her why?”
“I tried. All she would say was that Dad knew that she was a bad Mother, he told her so. So you know what I said to her?”

“What did you say to her?”



“I told her that just because someone says something about you, doesn’t mean that it’s true.”

“And what did she say?”

“She said I was clever. So I told her, I didn’t think of that, Autumn did… you told me that when Thomas said I was a nuisance, remember?”



“Yeah, I remember… and what did she say about that?”

“She said that you were clever. And that I was still clever for knowing its the same thing. But you still haven’t answered my question. Was Mama a bad mother?”

“I don’t know, its hard to say. You don’t think about things like that when you’re a kid. I mean, really, could you tell me if Dad is a good father or a bad father?”



“He’s… good… I guess… I think…”

“There, you see what I mean? It’s not something you think about. All I know is she was our mother, and she left us. That’s all.”

“But she explained why she left.”

“Yeah?”



“Yeah… you know how people are made to do different stuff? Like, you and Dad are made to paint, and I’m not made to play sport, stuff like that?”

“Yeah, so…?”

“So some people, when they have kids, they’re made to be the kind of parents who stay at home all the time, and some people are made to be the kind of parents who have other jobs as well as being parents. Mum was that kind of person, she wanted to have a job, but Dad wanted her to be the kind of person who stayed at home. So she wasn’t happy, and they argued all the time and no one was happy… and so she left”



That doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t she just go get a job?”

“Because then Dad wouldn’t be happy! And they still would have argued. At least when she left, Dad could marry Heather. She likes staying home and not having another job. That makes her the right kind of person. See?

“I don’t know, she didn’t have to completely stay away. Lots of parents split up, not everyone goes to an island and doesn’t even call for years.”

“She thought we didn’t care about her any more… she thought we had forgotten her.”

“Why would she think that? Kids just don’t forget their  mother. Of course we didn’t forget.”

“Nor did she…”

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For crying out loud, Blogger, one line space means I want ONE LINE SPACE! How hard can it be?!

Yeah, for some reason the formatting is all crazy on this one... and its late here, and tomorrow I'm leaving on a trip that involves about five hours' driving so I'm not staying up any longer to fight with it. Might try to fix it when I get back, but in the meantime, well, at least I got it done before I left, in some form!