out of the dark

Irwin felt it had been the quietest days of his life... for the longest time. After all, summer school was in full throttle, yet would end in a day or so. Such a rush, yet he felt he'd fallen behind on so many things at home.

Julie threw up as soon as she'd get home from teaching, then be famished. She would wolf down cold biscuits and usually stay to herself. It seemed they had time for nothing, other than getting ready for the next day at school. Naturally, there were no short cuts.

It was the mundane schedule of things. Making dinners, packing them in the freezer, doing laundry and back to the school..with kids who were only there to visit with friends.

At the moment, Irwin didn't think he had any friends. Gordy was too busy with the house, summer school and even building sets on the weekend at the playhouse. Still, he didn't want to bring him up... because this might lead to having a conversation about Tiffany.

Yet, Tiffany's mother was always checking up on Julie to see how she was feeling. At least, he would hear her on the phone chatting about morning sickness which was actually evening sickness.

"But my appetite is still good." Julie would say. Then she would listen to all of Betty's problems.

"Why..does she do this to herself?" Julie asked no one, when she got off the phone with Betty.

"What?" Irwin looked at her, wondering what that was about.

Naturally, she shot him a look that he wasn't a part of the conversation. Finally she set her phone aside and walked over to where he was folding her clothes on the bed.

"Why don't you ever tell me..anything?" Her voice was quiet, yet he still felt the hiss of her voice.

Irwin looked back at her wide-eyed. It pained him to think she was completely mad at him.

"I..I..didn't think it was important." He was closed mouth about a lot of things, she told him then. Not just about Tiffany, who he dated, before he got together with Julie.

"I've never seen you on the phone with your Mom." She made it sound as if he might have done something to his mother.

"Well..." He didn't know if he could remember all the things he was suppose to say about her. He wanted Julie to believe his life was quite normal. Although, it was far from it..but it had been quite a while since he'd even thought of his mother. "She..she is..OK." But he couldn't even hear himself think.

"That's all you can say..about her? Does she even know about the baby?" Julie was serious. She took the towels and went down the hall with them, to put in the bathroom.

Irwin sighed.

"I think..I think..her husband would call me..if.." Warm tears welled in his eyes. He couldn't let a drop go. He cleared his throat.

"How long has it been?" She leaned in the bedroom doorway. "Since..you've talked to her."

"Oh..well.." A part of him thought of his mother being an imaginary friend he used to converse with, but she was not exactly that person.  Did he dare want to tell Julie how his mother really was? "Things..things got pretty bad during high school." He nodded. "She was..a lot to handle..and then she was angry..and..and she used to shut me out of the house..a lot. Next thing..she'd be calling the cops on me. Complaining, I'd ran away." He nursed his bottom lip. "Long story short, I did end up at Boystown." He told her he'd been on his own, since then.