the mother from hell

Upload: george-pollock

Post on 31-May-2018

222 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    1/7

    George Pollock

    State Kid

    Issue 52

    The Mother from Hell

    What's wrong with you? Billy's mother asked as she flapped into Director Carson'soffice like some exotic tropical bird, all lipstick, rouge, gloss and bottle-blond plumage.Her long, gold-glittered artificial nails protruded like talons, over-sized and aggressive.She reeked of perfume. How come you didn't call?

    Billy, dressed in jeans, sweatshirt and sneakers -- his strategic need for a suit havingpassed -- took a perfume-laden breath. I'm sorry. I was busy. This is Director Carson ...Captain O'Toole... Vera O'Toole.

    Where's your suit? the mother asked her oldest son, reprimanding him for being under-dressed.

    Billy was at a loss for words.

    Well, Mrs. Stone, Director Carson said, stepping in.

    Narchos. Mrs. Narchos. Narchos Construction. That's my husband.

    Yes, Mrs. Narchos. I have heard of Narchos Construction. Very ... very, er ... big.

    Mrs. Narchos lifted her nose. Vera blinked rapidly, her early-warning system kicking in.

    Just have to ask you to sign some papers,Director Carson said, spreading the papers onhis desk and handing Mrs. Narchos a pen. Your acceptance of custody.

    Mrs. Narchos signed. That it? We can go now?

    Yes.

    Director Carson turned to Billy. Well, there's the door, Billy. All you have to do now iswalk out into a fine spring day -- a good day to start a new life, I would think.

    The Director reached over his desk and shook Billy's hand.

    Thank you, Mr. Carson, Billy said. It worked, didn't it?

    Yes -- and I'm glad it did.

    Congratulations, Captain O'Toole said. Justice has been served.

    Now you and your officers get to get out of prison, too, Billy said, smiling.

    Yes, as soon as the correction officers' night shift comes on.Mission accomplished. No casualties. Not bad, huh, Captain.

    Captain O'Toole and Billy shook hands.

    All this hand-shaking. An old man told me that, way back in history, men shook handsto show that they were not reaching for a sword. I guess we're still doing it.

    Well, I'm not going to shake your hand, Vera said, pulling Billy to her.

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    2/7

    As they hugged, Billy whispered, Behave yourself.

    If she says one more thing...

    Let's get out of this place, Mrs. Narchos said.

    Vera was about to respond. Not here, please, Billy said into her ear.

    Okay, but she's asking for it.

    What's with the whispers? Mrs Narchos said. Let's go. I got things to do.

    ***

    Billy and his mother went out the front door into a fine, bright, late afternoon spring day,with Vera following. They met Wally Witkowski arriving for his shift.

    Wally!

    Billy! You're leaving. You're really leaving. You're free!

    Yes, and I see you're still on the graveyard shift. Wally, you've got to get on days. I'mgoing to talk to Carson. The guards are back tonight?

    Yeah. Now that we've gotten rid of you, things can get back to normal.

    Let's hope not. Tell the guys that they're going to get the hearings and everything elsethey've been promised.

    Mrs. Narchos, visibly impatient, looked at her watch.

    Well, I've got to go, Wally. Thanks. Okay, later.

    Later, Billy.

    Billy turned around just in time to catch Vera throwing herself into his arms -- again.Attached like two powerful magnets, they indulged in a languorous hug and kiss, Vera

    sneaking a peek at a sour-faced Mrs. Narchos.Until tonight, Vera said.

    Until tonight.

    Vera went back inside. Within minutes, she would leave for home with her Dad, CaptainO'Toole.

    ***

    Billy lifted his face and took luxuriant notice of cottony, bright-white clouds movingalmost imperceptibly in a robin's-egg sky.

    What are you doing? Mrs. Narchos asked. We're late.

    Nothing ... nothing at all ... just looking around.

    Well, your stepfather is waiting for us. They walked down the driveway. Wait till yousee your new home, son. Brand new. Finally, after struggling year after year, a home ofmy own. You don't know how hard it has been for me. One rotten job after another ... nomoney ... always sick, just when I just get back on my feet...living in one dump afteranother. Oh, you don't know how hard it's been. But now, Nicholas -- that's yourstepfather -- is so good to me. I don't have to work. He buys me anything I want. We're

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    3/7

    going to take you out tonight to the best restaurant in town. Wait till you see the waitersjump up when we walk in. It's wonderful to have money, son. From what I read, you'renot doing too bad in the money department, either. Don't worry, Nicholas -- that's yourstepfather -- will invest it for you so you'll never have to work and can still buy anythingyou want.

    About the dinner tonight. That's very nice of you, but I'm afraid that I already madeplans with Vera-- a lobster feast to celebrate. Maybe tomorrow night we could ...

    Don't be ridiculous. You can go out with her any time. I'm your mother. We're taking youout and that's that.

    They reached the car, a long black Lincoln. Billy, this is your stepfather, NicholasNarchos. Mr. Narchos thrust a hairy, bejeweled hand out the car window. Glad to meetya, kid. Call me Nick. Welcome back to the world. Heard about that book deal of yours.Don't worry -- I'll invest it for you, put you on easy street. Get in.

    ***

    On the way, Billy heard the rags-to-riches story of Nicholas Narchos: How he and his

    brother came to the U.S. from Greece and started out as construction laborers, saved theirmoney, went out on their own, and built Narchos Construction from scratch:

    How did we do it? Simple. Beat up the subcontractors. You want to make it big, you haveto kill the subs. We slaughtered them; how they built a gorgeous retirement home for theirmother, a palace, a goddam palace complete with slaves to wait on her hand and foot;how Narchos Construction was third in New England now, but we're gonna be numberone in two years, easy. Know how? Simple. Buy the pols. In the big time -- and this is thebig time, kid -- you gotta have the pols in your pocket. Everything and everybody is forsale, kid, remember that.

    The life story of Nicholas Narchos, with emphasis on lessons learned, was still gushing

    forth by the time they pulled up to the house, which was huge, white-pillared, gated,immaculately landscaped -- a screaming arriviste billboard. Also living in the sameneighborhood was none other than District Attorney John Conroy, whose house Mr.Narchos pointed out as they drove by it.

    I own the guy, Narchos said. And you know what? He came cheap. I woulda paid himmore, but I didn't have to. Another thing to remember, kid. The bigger you are, the lessyou have to pay.

    Despite having seen Billy at work on TV, Nicholas Narchos never considered that abraggadocio moment with his new wife's kid might not be a swift idea. The kid was a kid.It would fly right over his head. Billy thought: So Narchos is paying off Conroy...imagine that.

    ***

    Inside, Mr. Narchos excused himself saying, Gotta go squeeze a couple of subs. Couplaguys think I'm playing. I'm playing all right -- playing stomp on their freakin' necks.

    Mrs. Narchos said of her husband of three months, That's a provider. Always pushing,pushing. Pays for all this.

    She led Billy up a wide, formal staircase. Never thought I could ever be so lucky. Year

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    4/7

    after year I struggled. You don't know how hard it's been for me. Put your stuff in thatroom and I'll show you around.

    She showed him everything: the three-car garage, the three full bathrooms, the spaciouskitchen with all new appliances, the formal dining room, the swimming pool. Foreverything, she gave a dollar figure for what it should have cost and what Narchos

    actually paid.The bigger you are, the less you pay, she said.

    Nice. Great deal, Billy said over and over.

    After the tour, and with Mr. Narchos still on the phone transmitting terror, Billy said,Can we talk a bit?

    Sure.

    She led him into the recreation room, a room dominated by a TV screen only slightlysmaller than a movie screen. Nick's favorite room. Mine, too. I always wanted a roomlike this and now I have one. When I'm in this room, I feel like I died and went to heaven.

    Well, what do you want to talk about?I used to wait for you. But you never came.

    Oh, now, wait a minute. You're not going to lay some guilt trip on me. No way. I don'tdeserve it. Not the way I had to struggle, year after year, with nobody to help me. Nothank you. Keep your guilt trip. You want to talk? Ask me how hard I've had it. Ask me.I'll tell you.

    How hard has it been for you?

    After your father died -- he was only 27, rheumatic heart -- I was left in an apartment inRoxbury with four kids and one on the way.

    Raymond was the one on the way -- getting ready to join Mary, Rebecca, Vince, andme.

    That's right . You were five, Mary four, Rebecca three and Vince one. I was all alone, nojob, no money and one of you kids was always sick, sometimes all of you at the sametime. Then I got sick and they had to rush me to the emergency room.

    No relatives who could help?

    No. There was your father's side, but they were nothing but a bunch of _____. I couldn'tstand them. They were against me from the start. My two sisters were just as bad. Wedidn't speak then and we still don't. Ain't seen them in years. Fine with me. If they walkedin here now, I'd spit on them.

    Then what happened?I got real sick... couldn't eat... lost weight. You should have seen me, nothing but a bagof bones. They put me in the hospital and nobody could figure out what was wrong.Know what I told the doctors? I told them that what was killing me was four kids, beingpregnant and broke, worrying how to pay the rent, never getting any rest. Every minute ofthe day you kids were tuggin' at me and at night you took turns screamin' and I was allalone.

    It was too much?

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    5/7

    Too much for anybody and I was sick, alone and didn't have two nickels to rub together.While I was in the hospital, the state took all you kids.

    Then you had Raymond.

    Yes. There I was alone with a new baby and too sick to work. I had to go down to thewelfare office and beg and those bastards did everything they could to beat me down.When I got better, I still couldn't work and take care of a new baby, too. I was all bymyself and I didn't have any money for child care.

    And nobody to help?

    Nobody. And then I ended up in the hospital again.

    The state took Raymond?

    Yes -- while I was in the hospital. I was never able to get my kids back. I tried, Godknows, I tried. But it was always something. Job history no good... no regular paycheck...no family infinitestructure, or whatever they call it... not enough bedrooms. You know,with boys and girls, the state said I had to have three bedrooms. The most I could ever get

    was two; usually I only had one. Then they said they don't want to disrupt you kids bychanging schools, moving and all that. They had a whole bunch of other crap that theythrew at me. Finally, I got too tired to fight them any more.

    How long has it been since you have seen the kids?

    Oh, I don't know. A long time, I guess.

    Years?

    I don't know, maybe. But I never stopped trying to find a father and provider for youkids. Only trouble is the only ones I met turned out to be drunks and pigs. Every one ofthem beat up on me. One guy punched me so hard he knocked my teeth out. She openedher mouth. See, these are fake. After he punched me in the mouth, I was on the floor

    spitting out blood and he kicked me again and broke three ribs. That's not the worst, son.That's not the worse.

    ***

    As Mrs. Narchos talked, Billy began feeling exactly as he had felt all his life as a fosterchild -- invisible, out in the cold, on his own, something for people to step on and use.Now the abuser was his own mother, whom he had dreamed of and longed for all his life.Now it was his own motherwho, enveloped in a cloud of selfishness and ignorance andhate, trampled on his feelings.

    Strangely, it did not come as a great shock; it was, after all, all that he had ever known.But now he felt, finally and without question, the full weight of the greatest rejection a

    human being can suffer-- that by a mother. Overwhelmed by grief, he spoke in aprofoundly sad and hollow voice.

    Tell me.

    You really want to know?

    Yes.

    It poured out of her, like someone trying to reconstruct a drunken brawl:

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    6/7

    He hit me, I hit him back, then somebody jumped me from behind, and then they were allover me, the bastards, crash, bang; they won because it was just me fighting all of them,the rotten bastards, they were all against me.

    When she had finished, Billy went over to her and put his arms around her. I'm sorry,he said mechanically. You have had it very hard.

    You don't hate me?

    No, I don't hate you.

    Oh, my son, my dear, dear son!!

    Mrs. Narchos pulled him close, crying, laughing, kissing his face all over. Oh, Billy, myfirst-born. After all these years, all these years. I love you, son. I always have.

    ***

    Mr. Narchos entered sputtering. Wouldn't you know. Big problem at a site. I gotta go. Idon't know when I'll be back. Damn.

    He pulled out his wallet and put a credit card in his wife's hands. Here, you guys go.Order anything you want. Eat until you get sick. Don't forget -- leave a thirty percent tip.When you walk in, just let'em know who you are. Damn.

    He hurried out the door.

    Mother, I think you got yourself one heck of a provider.

    Mother. You called me Mother.

    Yes, I did.

    Oh, Billy, my dear, dear Billy.

    Billy excused himself to call Vera.

    But it was supposed to be just the two of us,Vera said when he told her about hismother's plans for the night.

    I know. But I need to go through with this. It's just this one night -- then it's you and me.Tomorrow night, princess?

    Well, you are the freedom guy....

    Thank you, princess.

    ***

    That night Billy Stone and his mother, Mrs. Ruby Narchos, both dressed as statements,went out for lobster at the most expensive restaurant in town, The Bostonian. When their

    long, sleek black chauffeured Lincoln, license plate NARCHOS, pulled up in front of theformal canopied entrance, a valet parking attendant scrambled to open the car doors forthem.

    Narchos Construction, Mrs. Narchos said.

    Once inside, the maitre d' approached with a deferential half-bow. May I suggest theGarden Room, Mrs. Narchos? It's our most elegant room.

    They were seated at one of the better tables in the house, well away from the door, in a

  • 8/15/2019 The Mother From Hell

    7/7

    stepped-up corner rendered semi-private by a jungle of potted plants, from where theycould survey other diners and look slightly down upon them.

    They feasted for hours as guests of Narchos Construction and Billy's mother left a thirtypercent tip. The whole time, Billy's birth mother talked about how hard her life had beenand how now she could buy anything she wanted.

    She showed no curiosity whatsoever about what had gone on with her first-born son allthese years, or what might become of him next week or in the years ahead. However, shedid ask him probing questions about how much money he expected from his book.