Member-only story
Things Get Weird, Complete
In case you missed it.
I. The Syncretic Church
Since her mother had entered hospice care, Alexa visited diligently and regularly. As she and her mother had not been close since she reached adulthood, her diligence harbored a certain last-chance urgency made much more so by her mom’s increasingly rapid decline. On this day, as she hurried down the neatly kept hallways, it was as if the potted plants, the generic pictures on the walls, the innocuous table lamps, the decor common to every nursing home, hospital waiting room, dentist’s office — the whole mind numbing lot of it — stared at her. She entered Mom’s room and stopped short. There was no mistaking it. Her mom’s breathing rattled like an old plastic bag. She hurried to mom’s bedside and bent down so that she could make out what the old woman was saying.
“Do…you…remember…that…crucifix…you…wanted…sweet…ie?”
Mom had to take a breath between each word, each syllable almost, so it took a while for her to get that out. Of course Alexa remembered! Why was Mom bringing that up now?
“I…knew…why…you…wanted…it…so…much…heh”
Was that a smile? What was Mom getting at? That she knew her daughter wanted a crucifix in order to masturbate to it? Why wouldn’t she know that? Alexa had no daughters, but she…
