The Spell - Family Ties Ch. 02

"Ten minutes is fine," Rashida said, "You've barely spoken a word in three hours, and when you have it was about my 'condition',"

"So?" Aaron questioned,

"So..." Rashida continued, "I saw how uncomfortable you were back at the doctors, especially how you looked when we were in Dr Friedman's office, you looked about ready to implode in on yourself like a dying star,"

"Actually in that case it was more the opposite," he muttered.

"Aaron, hon, I want you to answer me honestly here, and just know that whatever you answer I'm not gonna be insulted by, okay?" She began,

"Okay," Aaron said, slightly concerned,

Rashida hesitated for a moment.

"Are you... embarrassed by me?" Rashida asked, "Now that I'm like... this?"

"What?" Aaron questioned, "No, I'm not embarrassed by you, absolutely not, not in a million years."

"Okay," Rashida accepted with just a hint of doubt in her voice,

They sat in silence for a beat as they struggled with what to say next.

"In all honesty I'm proud," Aaron admitted, "You've been put through the worst of what life has to offer with getting hit by cancer, the spell... and y'know, having me. And you just keep rolling with the punches no matter how many times you get hit, if in the future I can be half as tough or half as brave as you've been these last couple of months I'll consider it my great life achievement... I'm proud that I'm able to call you mom."

Aaron noticed Rashida blinking back a small tear.

"Thank you for that," she smiled, "And for the record, if I could go back in time to that party and do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing,"

"You sure?" Aaron questioned, "Not even try to stay sober enough so you could remember who dad was?"

"Nah," she said in a joking tone, "What if he was a loser, maybe I would've turned him down, despite the stereotype I wasn't that easy in high school,"

"Look at me," Aaron joked, puffing out his chest, "Do I look like I have any loser in me?"

"Sure ya do," Rashida retorted, lifting her arm and pointing to his face, "It's right there, check the mirror."

Aaron reflexively lunged away from her touch, creating an awkward moment as Rashida realized what she had almost done and pulled her hand away,

"So you're not embarrassed..." she said calmly, "But you're uncomfortable,"

"Yeah, I guess," Aaron agreed, relaxing his shoulders, "I mean can you blame me, you're my mother and you're walking around like... that, and I know you can't help it but it doesn't make it any less worse, it also doesn't help that the world feels the need to remind me at every available opportunity that apparently you're good looking,"

"Apparently I'm good-looking," Rashida repeated with amusement, "Wow, you're a charmer aren't you,"

"You know what I mean," Aaron groaned, "But imagine if the situation was reversed, if I was the one running around like that, wouldn't you feel uncomfortable?"

"Before all this happened, honestly, yeah," she nodded, "But this Spell thing has kinda changed my perspective on the whole dilemma, if you ever decided to join me I wouldn't have a problem with it,"

"Yeah, sure," Aaron rolled his eyes, not at all taking the statement seriously,

"I'm sure that Chloe girl would be mighty receptive to it," Rashida teased,

"What like Clark?" Aaron shot back,

Rashida smiled as they continued their drive.

Aaron hadn't realized it at the time but that moment of honesty in the car had been needed for a long time,

When he woke up the following morning and went downstairs for breakfast it felt as if a great weight had been taken off of his shoulders, he and Rashida were able to talk like they used to, listen along to the radio as she made breakfast and he flipped through his phone, She had even made him a lunch to take with him to work that day, something she hadn't done in nearly a month,

He still had a hard time looking straight at her but he felt as though things were getting back to normal as he walked out the front door where Clark was waiting in the driveway to head out to work.

Aaron relayed the events of yesterday and last night as they pulled into the customer's driveway and began unloading the truck, pausing for a moment to exchange pleasantries with the homeowner as he walked out of his house with a briefcase in hand, off to work, but not before kissing his wife, the woman Aaron and Clark had met the other day, goodbye in the doorway.

His wife was wearing perhaps the thinnest bathrobe known to man, tightly tied in a way that they could make out every curve on her body, her husband seemed to have no concern at all that she was demonstrating herself in such a way to these random men, instead waving at her as he drove away,

The woman smiled at Aaron and Clark before disappearing back into the house allowing them to get back to work.

"So when did they say she would get the test results back?" Clark asked as they dug the holes out for fence posts,

"Tonight I think," Aaron remembered,

"What did they think they were going to find?" Clark asked,

Aaron thought for a moment,

"I actually have no idea," He realized, "I meant it when I say the girl was... odd, the test could be a good sign, bad sign, perhaps she planning to clone mom, she could just collect lung biopsies, I don't fuckin know,"

"Watch the language," Clark hissed at him, "We're on the clock,"

He nodded his head over to the house where the woman from before was walking out the back door and across the front porch with two bottles of blue Gatorade, wearing the same robe from before only this time it hung noticeably more loose.

"You boys look warm," she said, handing them the bottles with a smile, "Thought you could use a drink,"

"Thank you, Miss-," Clark began,

"Maddie," she interrupted, "You can call me Maddie,"

"Thanks for the drink Maddie," Clark corrected, opening the bottle and taking a sip.

"So how's the job going," Maddie asked, "My husband wants to know how long it's gonna take,"

"Somewhere in the ballpark of a week," Clark guessed, "Today we're just gonna dig the places for the fence posts to go, then we..."

Aaron began to stop listening,

Whenever Clark went into 'contractor mode' both he and his mom would tune out and start making faces when he wasn't looking,

They hadn't done that in a while though since Rashida's cancer popped up,

He supposed that with her newfound vigour, he had the return of that and various other inside jokes to look forward to,

He would have spent the time listing all of the old jokes in his head were it not he noticed something that almost made him choke on his Gatorade.

He began to notice that as Clark droned on about the fence Maddie had put her hands in the pockets of her robe and had begun pushing them outward, slowly pulling the belt undone.

To Clark's credit, he didn't even skip a beat in his rundown as her robe fell open giving both men a clear view of her well-kept blonde bush and the inside of her breasts, the faint hint of a nipple just beginning to peek out.

Aaron could feel his eyes nearly pop out of his head,

He wondered if her husband were here would he have kicked his ass like Aaron wanted to kick Dr Friedman's.

"So a week," Maddie repeated as Clark finished up his very long explanation,

"Yeah," Clark sighed with a chuckle, "Give or take a day, and depending on the weather,"

"Then that's what I'll tell the hubby," Maddie smiled, turning back towards the house, "Happy digging boys,"

"Thanks for the refreshments," Clark waved politely as she disappeared back inside the house.

"Oh my god," Aaron said, finally allowing himself to breathe,

"Keep it to yourself, son," Clark said, putting his drink down and picking his shovel back up, "We're on the job, gotta be professional,"

"How the hell did you manage to keep talking about fences during that?" Aaron asked, putting down his own drink,

"Ain't my first rodeo kid," Clark almost bragged, "More women than you would think have a yard worker fantasy, you get used to it, build up an immunity,"

"Then why do you freeze when you see mom?" Aaron asked,

Clark paused,

They both knew the answer to that,

"Get back to your digging," Clark ordered.

Thankfully Maddie hid inside her house for the rest of the afternoon so Aaron and Clark were able to get their work done ahead of schedule, clocking out a full half hour early, and making conversation as Clark drove them home.

Or rather Aaron made conversation, he could tell Clark had his mind set on the results of Rashida's test, his face looked pale and ill as he thought about it,

Aaron wasn't feeling much better, he could feel things bubbling up in his stomach as the worry crept into his brain, he had to open a window to keep himself from spewing his guts out,

Although that might have been the body odour they had acquired working all day in the hot sun,

It certainly didn't help.

As they pulled into the driveway Aaron looked at his front door with dread,

He had read once that it was called "Cosmic Horror", a genre H.P. Lovecraft had popularized when he wasn't busy locking himself in his apartment and naming cats, long story short the genre deals with the fear of the unknowable and how truly powerless we are in a indifferent and vindictive universe.

Anything could have been waiting for him from behind that door, he could be faced with the sight of his mother sobbing after being told the Spell had worsened her condition and she only had days to live, she could be apathetic after being told the spell didn't affect her cancer in any way shape or form and nothing had changed, or she could still be waiting on the call in limbo,

Aaron couldn't decide which option was worse.

"You good bud?" Clark asked, having already stepped out of the truck and just now noticing Aaron hadn't moved,

"Yeah," Aaron nodded, hesitantly unbuckling his seat belt and stepping out of the car,

"Hey listen," Clark said, stopping him before he could walk out onto the porch, "Whatever's waiting for you in there... no matter how bad it is... just know  that you're not alone in it,"

"Thanks," was all Aaron could say as he stepped onto the porch and walked through the front door.

The house was still, almost like that stillness you usually find in the kitchen at three a.m. when you're going downstairs for a midnight snack.

"Mom?" Aaron called out into the abyss,

"Our by the pool, hon," Rashida called back,

He carefully walked through the house and out the sliding glass door to the swimming pool they and Clark shared in their backyard,

"Thought I take the opportunity to even out tan lines," She remarked as she lay back in the deck chair with a glass of lemonade, "Since they're on display now and all,"

"Nice enough weather for it," Aaron shrugged, glancing up at the clear blue sky, the small talk was already killing him

"They didn't call yet," Rashida informed him,

"Oh," Aaron said, his breath growing right with even more uncertainty, "I didn't wanna bother you by asking,"

"Yeah," Rashida smiled, "You were not asking very loudly,"

"Sorry," Aaron apologized,

"So how was work?" She asked,

"Sweaty," He admitted,

"I can smell," Rashida chuckled, "Tell you what, why don't you take a dip and you can wait with me by the phone,"

"I'll go get my trunks," Aaron agreed, turning and walking back through the glass door,

"Of course," Rashida said loudly and sarcastically, "Big proponents of modesty in this family, we are."

Aaron chuckled as he walked up to his room, quickly getting changed into his swim trunks and throwing a towel over his shoulder,

As he glanced through his bedroom window he saw Chloe standing at the end of her driveway way holding two large shopping bags fit to burst onto the pavement,

Even when she was standing around bored there was something about Chloe that you just couldn't look away from,

He wondered how would she react if she knew he was looking at her, would she be mad? Would her dad come to kick the shit out of him for starring like he wanted to do with Dr Friedman and Maddie's husband might have wanted to do to him.

Regardless of any moral qualms he might have he couldn't look away, he kept looking until a car of Chloe's friends stopped in front of her driveway and she hopped in.

With a sigh, he walked down the stairs and headed back towards the backyard when he froze,

Rashida was on the phone.

As soon as she saw Aaron she waved him over and put the call on speaker,

"I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you Rashida," Edna apologized, Aaron had to strain his ears to make out what she was saying over the sounds of the neighbourhood, "I was so puzzled by what I was looking at I had to get a second opinion by three separate colleagues, those I suppose in that case it would be third and fourth opinion respectively-,"

"Edna!" Rashida interrupted pacing back and forth nervously, "Not to be rude but we're kinda on the edge of our seats here,"

"Oh, of course!" Edna remembered, "Well I guess long story short, you don't have cancer,"

Aaron and Rashida fell silent for a moment as they took in what they just heard,

"Run that by me one more time," Rashida requested, her face and voice numb,

"Let me go back a step," Edna said, "The Spell at a fundamental removes contaminates from the body, such as microplastics and foreign chemicals, but it seems to go overboard with it which is why you and I are running around "starkers", now the going theory is that the Spell identified the tumours in your lungs as contaminates and did what it seemed to have evolved to do, the sample we got from you were actually brand new healthy cells, one of the colleagues I sent the data to thought the resembled stem cells to a certain extent and is going to analyze it further, hell even the chemo drugs are nowhere to be found, you know if I ran the world every person should be required to give urine samples after every major life event."

Aaron and Rashida fell silent but this time for a completely different reason,

"Well anyway," Edna said as Rashida mouthed 'What the fuck?', "Have a good rest of your life, I'll be sure to send you a link to the paper when we've finished looking into this,"

Then Edna hung up, leaving Rashida to hold a beeping phone,

"What the fuck just happened?" She asked, rhetorically,

"I guess you don't have cancer anymore," Aaron shrugged,

"I don't have cancer," Rashida repeated, taking it in,

"You don't have cancer," Aaron smiled,

"I don't have cancer!" Rashida cheered,

Without thinking Aaron leapt forward and hugged his mother,

The two froze as they realized what just happened,

Eventually, Rashida shrugged and hugged him back.

Despite now being infected all Aaron could think about was how warm she was, the heat they both felt as his bare chest pressed against her bare chest felt foreign, after all the time sharing cold clammy embraces.

Aaron only felt the need to finally pull away when he felt his trunks fall to his ankles,

Rashida looked at him with joyful tears in her eyes as they pulled apart,

"Sorry hon," she said, sniffing and rubbing her nose, "But you smell like a sewer,"

Without another word she gave her son a violent shove to the side, causing him to lose his balance and topple into the pool,

He surfaced just in time to see his mother laughing her naked ass off with a new lease on life as she carried away the last piece of clothes Aaron ever wore.

To be continued...