Mom called.
It was almost five PM. My wife and I were sitting there, my phone on the desk beside me. We never heard my phone ring. I picked it up to check something else only to see that Mom called four times in a span of ten minutes. Left a voice mail just two minutes before.
Complaining about my phone while I wondered WTH was wrong with it – or was it my service? – I called VM but couldn’t decipher what Mom was trying to say. As I was listening to it, she called again.
After answering, I listened as she complained about my sister, Gina, and begged me to call Gina and ask her to take Mom shopping tomorrow. I agreed to text Gina with the message.
Mom then said, “I told Gina that I would give her $4,000 a month if she let me live with her.”
I replied, “I know. Gina said she will if you apologize to Pat about the things you said about him.” Pat is Gina’s husband.
“I never said anything about Pat.”
“Then apologize.”
“I’m willing to pay for a lie detector test for both of us.”
“Who?”
“Pat and me.”
“Why would you need a lie detector test? You said you never said anything about him.”
“I didn’t. After I moved into Gina’s house, Pat would come in and spy on me. But I never said anything about Pat.”
“You used to tell me that Pat was coming in and stealing your remote control.”
“Well, yes, that. He used to come in and take my remote control and hide it.”
“You told me that he used to come in and hurt your head.”
“Yes, Pat used to come in and use an invisible machine on my head. He had a control that he could use to make the device squeeze my head and make it hurt so much.”
“Mom, you just told me that you never said anything about Pat. Then you told me several things that you think he did. He never did any of those things, Mom. There’s no evidence of it. If you apologize to Gina for saying that he did, you can live with her.”
“Well, then I can’t live with her. I’d rather die before I lie. And I can’t live here like this any more, so I’ll just die.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll pass the message on. I love you.”
We said our goodbyes. I passed the message on.
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