I know how these stories start. I'm supposed to tell you that my mom is the hottest person I know. That all my friends come over whenever they get the chance just to ogle her. I should say that I get mad at them for thinking of my mom in that way, but really I'm just mad because I think of her that way but could never do anything about it.
Unfortunately that's not how this story starts.
My mom is not a hot woman. She's forty years old and has a face that only a son could love. She's the kind of woman who didn't so much get hit with the ugly stick as she did fall out of the ugly tree, hitting every branch on her way down. With her face. Her hair is a dull brown and hangs lankly from her head. Her eyes are too small and too close together. Her nose and teeth all manage to be crooked, but not in the same direction.
The rest of her? That's where the clichΓ© might be true. But that's getting ahead of myself. When this story starts I was as clueless as anyone else as to the charms that lay below my mother's neck. I had never seen her in a bikini. Nor a swimming costume. Not even a tight t-shirt. Hell, whatever the weather she only ever seemed to wear baggy jumpers and jeans that just didn't fit. Her choice of clothes didn't accentuate her curves, it hid them under folds of spare fabric.
From what I could tell, she'd always been this way. She hadn't been ravaged by the years. If anything, she looked the same now as she had since she had turned eighteen. You're probably thinking that she can't be that ugly, she has a son after all! Yeah, well. My mom may be ugly, but at least she's here. My father, on the other hand, has been conspicuous by his absence for my entire life. Part of me can't really blame him. My mother isn't unaware of how she looks and has become seriously introverted because of it. She's not exactly a bundle of joy to be around unless you really get to know her. I couldn't name a single friend of hers. She works from home, avoids family parties, and as far as I know has never dated anyone in her life. We've never discussed my father or my conception, thank God, but I assume it was a drunken one night stand, or a masquerade party where my mom's mask never came off. At least, not until it was too late.
With all that, it's fair to say that I'm about the only good thing in my mom's life. I try to be a good son, and I think I succeed. For eighteen years I've been my mom's constant companion, best friend, and the only person who's really loved her.
All good things must come to an end, though. Soon I'd be leaving for college. I'd got a scholarship to the state University. It was about a four hour drive away so I'd promised my mom I'd drive back to visit her as often as possible, but she wasn't convinced and she wasn't happy. I'd foreseen that reaction. The reaction I hadn't foreseen was her suddenly becoming broody.
"A baby?" I asked, certain I'd misheard my mother.
"That's right," she said. She was in the middle of washing up the dishes from breakfast. I was sat at the kitchen table behind her, orange juice in hand, and mouth agape.
"A baby," I said again. Not really a question this time. Just an attempt to make my brain understand the words. It didn't.
"Yes, Steven, a baby." My mother sighed. "You know what a baby is, don't you?"
"Yeah, mom," I said, shifting uncomfortably. "It's just... You want a baby? Now?"
"Well not right this minute, but yes. You're leaving me, Steven. I don't want you to feel guilty about it, you have your life to live, I know. But when you're gone, what will I do?"
"Geez, mom," I said. I wanted to say 'You'll be able to see your friends more' or 'You can start dating again', as if she wasn't doing those things because of me. But we both knew it had nothing to do with me. "A baby. Huh."
"You leave for college in two months, right?" she said, glancing over at the calendar on the kitchen wall. "Ideally I'd like to be pregnant by then. Then I won't be alone, not really." She absentmindedly touched her stomach, getting bubbles on her jumper.
"Okay," I said. "I guess it would be pretty amazing to have a little brother or sister."
Mom looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go into the details, but part of me was morbidly curious, so I asked anyway.
"So, uh, mom. How're you... you know?" Mom had turned back to the washing up but I could see her neck start to turn red with embarrassment. I suspected mine was too. "Will the hospital, you know, artificially... you know." I really wished I hadn't started that sentence.
Mom shook her head. "No, hon. My insurance won't cover that sort of procedure, especially if I'm, ah, that is to say. Not if I can conceive... naturally."
Now my face was definitely red. "Oh." I managed to say. "Well then. I'm sure you'll find... can't be that difficult... yep." I finished lamely.
Mom finished the washing up during my dazzling soliloquy and stared at the floor as she dried her hands. "Yes, I'm sure I'll manage." With that she almost ran from the room and I heard her bedroom door shut. I went up to my own room and tried to think of anything apart from that morning's conversation. Eventually, I succeeded.
--
The next month was a flurry of activity for me. I hadn't quite foreseen how much preparation was involved in leaving home for the first time. I also had my friends to see as much as possible before we scattered across the land. Unlike my mother I did manage to have a group of close friends, and intended to stay in touch with them.
I should also probably point out that I didn't inherit my mother's looks. Thank you, dad! I'd even landed myself a girlfriend, Cassie, during my final year of high school. We'd done quite a lot of heavy petting in my car, and I'd even gone down on her a few times, but my cherry remained thoroughly intact. When she asked to meet me a month before college started I let myself believe that this was the night. It turned out she didn't want to fuck me, she actually wanted to break up with me. There would be lots of girls at college, she told me, and she didn't want me to feel beholden to a girl on the other side of the country. I suspected it wasn't my freedom to fuck around that she was trying to ensure, but I decided not to pursue it. I smiled, nodded, said the right things and got out of there. It was probably for the best. Cassie and I got on just fine but I'd never really felt anything for her other than a teenage desire to get off.
My preparations for college may have been going apace, but my mom's attempts to find a willing sperm donor were going nowhere. We hadn't discussed it since that first chat in the kitchen, but I knew mom hadn't left home for anything more than grocery shopping since then, and I was pretty sure no one had been around while I was out with my friends or my now ex-girlfriend.
I'd wondered how my mom was trying to find someone willing to get her pregnant, and with about three weeks to go before I left I stumbled upon the answer. I'd been on Craigslist, trying to sell some stuff I'd no longer need and buy a couple of items that I was lacking. I'd arranged most of what I needed when, on a whim, I decided to check out the personals section for my town. Hell, maybe Suzie from high school was on there begging for a one night stand. I'd always had a thing for Suzie.
Suzie was not on Craigslist. My mother was.