Chapter 1
I had been home from school for a couple of weeks, in my old room, first door to the right at the top of the stairs. Having just completed my 2nd year of college, I decided I was wasting my time, so I was back home and enrolled in a trade school learning to be a welder. In school, both high school and college, I had run track and boxed. At 6'4 and 185 I was lean and in shape.
The house had not changed since I had left. Mom had not changed it since Dad had died. She still slept in their bedroom, upstairs at the end of the hall.
Dad had worked hard to be without debt, so the house was free and clear, and he had provided enough padding in the bank account and investments so that mom did not have to worry.
We got along okay, she didn't have a bunch of rules for me to follow, and I didn't give her cause to make up a bunch. I tried to make myself useful, she did not assign chores and I did things that I saw needed to be done before she had to ask.
Mom was independent for the most part. At 41 years old, mom was happy and relatively carefree. She kept busy with community volunteer work. I worried about her getting taken advantage of after dad passed, but she has navigated those waters well. She seemed, to me, to be doing well... stable... secure. Little did I know the emotional storm to come.
It was a porn video, absentmindedly left on pause on my lap top at the kitchen table that began the avalanche. Just a pebble, accidentally kicked loose, that brought down half the mountain almost destroying everything...
I did not have a steady, not here at home or back at college, though I had always done well in the dating/hookup culture of school.
Sunday morning and I was bored and feeling lazy. Mom was out either at church or doing some charity work for the poor or homeless. I sat at the breakfast table and logged into a porn streaming site. Cruising through videos of one of my favorite porn stars, I saw one that had always been a favorite, a favorite because of her. It was a POV, mom and son seduction. I was about half way through it when my phone rang. I paused the video, answered the phone and began a "catch up" call from an old friend that had just heard I was back home. He invited me out to lunch, which turned into a pick up softball game, and then beers with a few other old friends, and introductions to a few new prospects. Frankly, I got excited about seeing Gerry, and the possibility of finding out what his sister Carol was up to as well.
I ran out of the house, leaving the lap top on and the screen up. After a few minutes it went black, but I did not give it a thought until later, when I got home, a little bit in the cups... remembered it, looked for it, could not find it where I remembered leaving it... figured I must have actually put it away, and then forgot about it. Mom was, I assumed, asleep, so, as quietly as I could, I put my drunk ass to bed.
The next morning my lap top was back on the kitchen table, lid closed and turned off. For the next two days I hardly saw my mother, though it wasn't until the third day that I really noticed that something was radically wrong.
I went down to breakfast and mom was sitting at the table, a cup of coffee in her hands. Usually she was dressed and put together before leaving her room... this morning she was in her robe, hair un-brushed... unwashed even. Her face was pale, her eyes red... almost like she had been crying.
Crossing to her I bent to hug her and ask if she were fighting a cold or flue... but she flinched and began crying again.
"Mom?"
Asking if something was wrong would just be a stupid question, so I didn't ask it... instead I poured a cup of coffee for me, then moved her cup and filled it.
I had never seen my mom lose herself like this before, but, frankly, I was sort of surprised that I did not get a call after dad died, telling me that mom had crashed and burned. Both of them seemed pretty co dependent and I honestly had expected to have to hold the hand of whichever one was left when the other went first.
Wiping her eyes and taking a few deep breaths seemed to allow her to get a grip, at least temporarily. "I am mad... pissed off... at myself and the world."
It was a simple statement that did not give me nearly enough information to comment, so I sipped my coffee and waited for her to continue.
"I am embarrassed. I am very upset with you young man, but now I find myself having to ask for your help."
"I'm not sure what I did to cause you to be upset with me, but you know... you should know... that I will do what ever you need me to do to help. I don't know what's wrong, but you can count on me to give you whatever assistance you need." i offered, trying to reasure.
"I always thought I could... now I don't... don't know..." and then the hot tears began again.
I have never been a man of the world, but I knew enough to know that no matter what I did right now was going to be the wrong thing. I had already tried a hug and she had pulled away... it could mean that I would get my eyes scratched out if I tried again, or it could fix everything... I already offered to help and that just precipitated more tears, so something else had to be dealt with first. I sipped some more.
She gathered herself again. "I am angry and disappointed with you, I am embarrassed and disappointed with me even more for the same thing... and I am angry because I need your help to continue doing what I am embarrassed, angry and disappointed about... so it's hard for me to ask you... hard for me to tell you."
I waited again.
"You are a perverted young man... which makes me even worse... I don't even know what to call it..." she continued
At least now I knew what I had done. It explained, at least it looked like it might explain the mystery of my lap top.
"I need you to help me fix the computer in my room."
"What's wrong..." I asked
"Its infected. It has multiple viruses and now I can't get it to work properly... it's slow and I am inundated with pop ups." she explained
"That seems like an easy ask mom, any local shop can fix it..." i offered.
"I can't take it to 'just any local shop'."
I almost asked why not, then I remembered the embarrassment, and the reason for that embarrassment.
"Okay mom. I have some security software that should be able to clean it and set it right. If push comes to shove I can do a hard reset and get you started again."