As the years passed, Tammy did her best to raise Michael up right. She never did marry, but she did have her share of losers in and out of her life. And, although her own life had been a major let down, Tammy found strength and pride in her son. He was now a senior in high school and kept himself busy with football and filling out college applications.
Over the years, Tammy had managed to put quite a bit of money away, thus enabling her to send Michael to just about any college of his choice. Fortunately, three colleges already wanted to send Michael on a sport's scholarship, which meant all that money would be used for his first apartment and upkeep on the old clunker he drove back and forth to school.
One afternoon, the phone rang, it was the sheriff's department with news about Larry, Michael's absentee father, better known as "The Piece of Shit Sperm Donor," as Tammy would often refer to him as.
"Mrs. Simms?"
"Yes?"
"This is Officer Smith, with the sheriff's department, do you know a Mr. Larry Shiffen?" he asked.
"Not well, but yes, I do know him, why?" she said, taking a seat on the infamous couch where Michael had been conceived 18 years earlier.
"Well, Mrs. Simms, Mr. Shiffen was killed last night in a bar fight and you were listed as his next of kin," explained the officer.
Tammy was speechless, for a moment, almost dropping the phone. All these years, despite her hatred for Larry, she had always hoped he would pop up and try to be a part of Michael's life, of course he never did, and now he never would.
"I'm sorry to hear that," said Tammy, after taking a long, deep breath.
"Mrs. Simms, we need you to come identify the body and collect his belongings," continued the officer, "And, one more thing, Mr. Shiffen had $4,000.00 on him, at the time of his death, that too, is also yours."
Tammy didn't know what to say exactly, so she agreed to come identify Larry and pick up his belongings.
Hours later, she returned, feeling somewhat sad and empty, but not knowing why. This man had raped her 18 years ago. True, he had given her her wonderful son, but he did rape her all the same. He never even called, not one time to check on either her or Michael, so why on Earth was she sad?
She went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine, she was either going to unwind or get drunk, she'd decide later.
Four glasses and two hours later, Tammy was getting highly buzzed. The sadness was leaving her, but unfortunately for her, drinking had always made her horny. So, she got out her little phone book and decided to give one of her ex's a call. And, as luck would have it, all of them were either out or had gotten their number changed, so Tammy was back to square one.
Later that night, Michael came in, bustling around like a summer tornado through the house.
"Mom!!! I'm home!!! Where are you?" he hollered, pulling a tray of lunch meat from the refrigerator.
"I'm in here," she said, slumped down into the couch.
Michael grabbed some food and headed towards the living room.
"Why are you sitting in the dark?" he asked, reaching to turn on the table lamp.
"No, leave it off," she said quickly, not wanting him to see her in this condition.
"But, Mom, it's so dark in here," he said, "Can't I just turn on one light? How bout that one over there on the fireplace mantle, it's not too bright."
"Alright, Michael, if you insist," she said, trying to pull herself up before the light of the lamp revealed her ridiculous state.
"Mom, you look awful, you alright?" he asked, taking a bite off his sandwich he had made.
"I'm okay, honey," she said, "I've just had a rough day is all, nothing to concern yourself with."
"Oh ... well, I hope things get better for you, Mom," he said, giving her a smile and his famous wink.
"Thanks, baby," she said, "I'll be okay, I just need some rest, I guess."
