Chapter 11 - Bri
Bri, like the other guys watched his mum pull into the camp car park and a warm feeling washed over him. It wasn't because he was a 'mummy's boy', but he loved her company. The only person, who understood him, even understood his strange and even weird places. His mother never questioned or judged his thoughts, and he shared all his thoughts with her.
They spoke in double meanings and provocative language, to get a rise out of the other; to see who would blink first in their game of personal chicken. It was 'personal chicken' because they would skirt around very personal or sensitive issues.
Bri had missed his mother these last two weeks more so then ever before, because he couldn't speak with the guys like this. Some of them understood, like Jeremy, but it wasn't the same. He and his mother knew the rules, knew the each other's buttons to push.
As Tracy pulled into the camp car park she could see her Bri, or Bri as she liked to call him and she was the only one he allowed call him that. As she had driven to the camp, the realization of just how much she had missed Bri had hit her quite hard. She too loved his company, and not just because he was the only one she had. But also, because he was like her; he thought like she did.
She too had been considered weird by her peers as a teenager, and she had always found it hard to make friends. Yet, in her 18 year old son, she found someone who was more then a 'like mind', she believed he was her soul mate. She thought about this driving the few hours to camp, and tears rolled down her face, because one day her Bri would find a girl and move away.
Tracy would be alone. How much did she want her Bri to stay with her? More than life itself! There he was, waiting for her and her heart raced, as his did when he first saw her car.
Bri threw his bags onto the back seat.
"Hey mum, fancy seeing you here."
He started, and her who body warmed to her young son.
"Well I was just passing and thought I would pick up some young play thing."
Now it was Bri's turn to feel that warm feeling born of the familiar, and the arousing path his mother had chosen to go.
"I doubt you'd now where to start to play with a young thing like me," Bri countered as he buckled up, and he saw his mother smile. It was on!
"If I started on you, you'd freak at what I could do."
Tracy was aroused by her son's willingness to push their normal bounds, and she wanted to go with him.
"Yeah you're probably right there," he sounded exacerbated.
Tracy frowned, thinking Bri had given up already, just when it was getting interesting.
"Yeah, I probably would freak with whatever you've got, it's probably very ugly and nasty."
Bri deliberately said this looking out of his window at the scenery whipping by. He heard an audible gasp from his mother, meaning in their game he had scored a point -- a very rare thing for either of them.
"Ugly and nasty?" Tracy questioned her son in surprise.
"You think so too do you; well that confirms my worst suspicions."
Bri had responded so quickly, he drew another gasp from Tracy. She had to think quickly, Bri was running away with this.
"Well at least they won't call me 'pee wee' at uni."
She thought that would enflame him into a rash come back, but Bri was in command.
"Na, they just called you 'ugly and nasty', where my mates call he 'Mr Perfect'."
He had had many hours to think what to say, how to counter and things were working out well. Again, another gasp from Tracy, and this time Bri turned to look at her to increase the pressure on his mother.
"'Mr. Perfect?' Oh give me a break, not with your pee wee. Tell me, are you the one guy who walks around with a towel around him all the time in the change rooms on camp, worried that the guys will laugh at you?"
Without hesitation Bri responded,
"No towel, but they do laugh."
He waited deliberately for her to think she had a point.
"Because you're so small?" she shot a look at her son and grinned.
"No, they laugh because they want to know how 'Mr. Perfect' could have come from 'ugly and nasty'."
He stared at Tracy as her face reddened -- another point to her son.
"Well maybe you were adopted," was the only thing she could think of, hoping to attack him at their wonderful relationship.
"Yeah, that's what the guys think because... well because they reckon 'ugly and nasty' probably never had any."
Tracy's eyes flew open, as did her mouth and she was speechless. Time for the piece de rΓ©sistance, thought Bri before his mother had time to recover and the game degenerated into ugly accusations.
"But I told the guys that I wasn't adopted, and that you were the hottest woman I know, and that you love me too much to not be my real mum."
It had the effect Bri was hoping for.
Tracy's eyes filled with tears, and she had to wipe them to see the road. She shot a quick look at her son to see the deep love he had for her in his eyes and etched all over his face. She smiled weakly at him, and then looked back at the road.
"Anyway mum, trust me I'm not a pee wee. I'm average I guess."
He had no idea why he told her that, and Tracy blushed at son's bold admission.
"And I dare say you look far from 'ugly and nasty'."
Bri left that last comment hang in the air.
"In fact I bet you're actually, 'beautiful and desirable," he left that hang too.
Mother and son travelled in silence for some time. Bri was having second thoughts about his 'brilliant strategy', thinking he had gone too far and upset his mum. Finally Tracy broke the silence. Her voice could be just heard above the sounds of the car and the road.
"I don't think I'm 'ugly and nasty', but it's been some time."
Bri could see by her expression, a sort of distant and whimsical look that Tracy was remember a better time.
"I also think you're 'Mr. Perfect'," she added in the same quiet voice.
"Always for you mum, always," Bri let her know he had heard and also where he stood, and his mother smiled, all tears gone.
The rest of the trip was once again travelled in silence, which was very unusual for these two. When they arrived home, both were worn out physically and mentally. They said their good-nights and went to their respective bathrooms, showered, changed for bed and slept long and deep. Yet, Bri had seen his opportunity with his mother, so he would begin again the next day, first thing.
When Bri walked into the kitchen the next morning for breakfast, Tracy was already getting the different cereals out he liked. They turned to each other and saw the same thing; the joy of being in each others company once again, shone in the eyes of mother and son. Bri smiled at his mother.