When Ralph was gone my mother looked at me intently, then brushed my hair back with a nice little move of her fingers. "Something's happening, Chris". My heart stopped talking because it didn't want to talk any more for a while. It waited. I opened my mouth, but Jhene went on: "Something's up somewhere. I had two calls at work today. One from your teacher. One from I can't say. I don't want to say until things happen".
My heart started talking again, slow and warm. "Don't tell me, then, Jhene. She just looked at me. She took my hand between her two soft warm ones. "You're so young, Chris. You're so awfully young". I didn't speak. Her eyes brightened. "You never knew your father. I wish you had. You know what he was, Chris?" I said, "Yeah. He worked in a Chemistry Lab, deep underground most of the time". And, my mother added, strangely, "He worked deep under the ground, Chris, and never saw the stars".
My heart yelled in my chest. Yelled loud and hard. "Oh, Mother. Mother ". It was the first time in years I had called her mother.
-20-
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