Conversations with My Mother

This is a coming-out story. Not mine, but one told to me on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I hope you enjoy the read.

I was always told when you got a phone call in the middle of the night, it brought bad news. So it was when I vaguely heard my phone buzzing on our bedside table. I grunted and swore. My hand went fishing around for it in the dark. Amanda mumbled and grunted telling me to answer the fucking phone.

It rang out and I thought I would wring their fucking neck, no matter who it was. I found the phone as it started to ring again. It was my eldest brother, the only one in my family who knew where I was. He is in New York and I am in Adelaide. I can tell you this, at 2:17 AM in Adelaide it is lunchtime the day before in NY or thereabouts.

Suddenly I was wide awake, as if someone had thrown a bucket of freezing cold water over me. "What's the matter," I asked urgently.

He took his time to answer. I could tell he was distressed. "It's Mum, she's had a stroke, and you should get here as soon as you can,"

I stopped breathing, I am sure of it. My hand reached out for Amanda and I started shaking her. "What's the matter?" She asked knowing when I was not kidding around.

"It's my Mum she has had a stroke or something, I need to get to home, as in San Diego," I told her while still talking to my brother Ken.

And just as suddenly Amanda was also wide awake, putting her arm around me and her ear to the phone, she listened in to the call. I told Ken I was putting it on speaker so Mandy could listen in.

"Hi Mandy," Was his first response, he and she always got on well. Unlike my mother or the rest of my family.

"Hi, sweetie," came her reply.

"It happened about an hour or so ago, she was doing some research for one of her clients and apparently she dropped to the ground," He took a deep breath. "I have a plane booked to San Diego, leaving at 2 pm local."

"Well, it's 2:30 am here, I will pack and start making some plans and call you once I have a ticket. Nothing direct to the States out of Adelaide, so I will have to go to Sydney I suspect," I was determined not to cry. Amanda hugged me.

Amanda kept shaking her head and indicating that she was coming too, by flapping her hand between the two of us. She was alone when her parents passed. She was determined I wasn't going to go through this alone.

She told Ken, "I'm coming too big brother," She knew that was his weak spot.

"I don't care one way or the other Mandy and neither will anyone else," He replied. His tone was always soothing.

"It will be about 6 or 7 hours before we can start ringing people Ken, and before you ask, yes both our passports are up to date." I could read his mind.

I heard him take another deep breath. "What did they tell you?" I asked him.

"Not a great deal, only that she was working in her den and she just keeled over,"

"Who rang you?" I was shooting questions at him as fast as Amanda could think of them. She jumped up got a notepad and started making another of her lists.

"Her housekeeper, you know, that young fella she keeps around to do odd jobs for her,"

Amanda covered her mouth to keep from laughing and wrote on her pad. 'No wonder she had a heart attack'. I slapped her hands playfully and tried not to smile.

I mouthed the words to her. 'This is my mother you are talking about'.

"Ken, what hospital is she in?"

"Sharp Memorial. In their ICU at the moment,"

"We'll start getting things organised at our end, and I'll give you a call once we have some answers ourselves. I'll give the hospital a ring."

OK, look I have to shoot if I am catching my flight. Ring me when you have a schedule."

"Ok Ken, I love you, you know," I told him. The only one who stood by me when I met Amanda and we decided to live together.

"I know you do, I love you more and don't forget it,"

"I'll see you soon big brother,"

"Me too Ken, I love you too," Amanda told him as he tried to hang up.

"I'll see you two in a day or so," he told us.

I looked at the clock, 2:47 a.m. And fell back onto my pillow. Amanda put her notepad down, turned off the bedside lamp and cuddled up into my arms. I let out a deep sigh.