Life, As Usual

#1

Alan had dreaded seeing his mother again, because he knew she’d be so much older than when he’d last seen her.

He had requested to wait for his family in the hall, so that the others that hadn’t left the hospital yet wouldn’t serve as a set of unwanted voyeurs for the reunion. Of course, he had to hug the wall while he waited, making sure to keep out of the way of the hospital staff, several of whom gave him concerned or dirty looks.

Alan’s treatment in custody was relatively brief, compared to some of the others. Compared to Crispin and Astrid and Claudia, he’d gotten out with barely a scratch. Though he’d miss those fingertips, they didn’t take too long for the doctors to patch up, and now that Alan and the others were free to go, he was set to go home.

Victoria Melnyk’s Gift was focused on spurring activity in the hair follicles in others, spurring on a side gig where she would help balding men to win their wars with their hairlines and self-conscious teenagers to fill out a proper beard. Of course, use had side effects, among them being that she had begun to suffer from very aggressive hair loss in the years following her divorce, as she needed to take on more work to make up for lost income.

When Alan finally did see her, she looked a lot like she had over the past couple of years, wearing a blonde wig and eyebrows drawn on. They were likely convincing enough at a glance, but to Alan, who had seen his mother drinking alone in the deep hours of the night, they seemed like a cheap disguise.

But what drew his attention most were all the new lines on her face.

A noise that wasn’t quite a word escaped Victoria’s throat when their eyes met and she rushed toward him and wrapped him in her arms, head pressed against his shoulder.

Victoria Melnyk’s real “gift” was that she could be in five places at once, and that had its own side effects. She always seemed to be drawn thin, skin a bit too pale, gaze a bit too distant if things were quiet for too long. Sometimes, one would get the impression that her body might simply tear itself apart under the strain.

An observable shiver ran through her body and it took Alan a moment to realize that she was crying. Obviously she was crying, it was just something he hadn’t seen from her in a long time. Alan felt something twist up inside his guts and his arms, which felt unnaturally stiff, finally returned the embrace.

They had spoken over the phone already and he’d gotten through that without issue. But here, words were hard to come by.

“S’alright, mom.” He breathed. That seemed to prompt her body to grow stiff, and she pulled back from him, rubbing her face, smudging the makeup around her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I know you’ve- I probably look like a mess.” She tried to laugh, but he could tell it was a bit forced. Alan found it a bit difficult to look at her too long, and instead his eyes were drawn to the lean, bony thing that lurked just a bit behind his mother, its beady eyes flashing between the two of them while maintaining an impassive expression.

“You lost your fingers. Was it that Jenelle girl?” Alan’s grandmother spoke matter-of-factly, her gaze now seemingly fixed firmly on him. Alan never quite understood her apparent hang-up with Jenelle in particular among all his friends, though his pet theory was that she still didn’t fully grasp that he was not, nor was he ever going to be, into girls.

“Mom, please.” Victoria spoke up, her voice still a bit quiet as she attempted to position herself more firmly between her mother and her son, as if bracing for a fight that she should’ve known wasn’t going to come.

In the end, though Alan did get the sense that his grandmother didn’t quite care for him, he knew the greater part of her simply didn’t care much about him. She’d written him off at some point long ago.

Not long after his dad left.

“It’s fine, mom.” Alan spoke up, his voice and expression calm and even. This was expected, just back to life as usual.

“It wasn’t Jenelle, just another kid. He attacked me and Crispin. So, yeah.” He spoke a bit slowly, not sure of the best words to describe what had happened with Ray, both because Ray had seemed less like a person and more like just a weird flesh monster by the time Alan encountered him, and also because he was still a classmate that he’d helped kill. Better to just stick to the bare bones.

“Well… good.” The old woman gave a slow nod. “We should get going then. I’m still going to the casino with Gertrude this weekend. We’ve been planning it for months and I still need to get my things ready.” The pitch of her voice raised strangely when she spoke of going to the casino, in a way where Alan couldn’t quite tell whether or not she was making some poor attempt at a joke.

Regardless, she began to walk away after another glance at her family members, and Victoria let out a sigh.

“Sorry I… We’re going to do something, alright? I just-” She began, giving Alan a small smile, before her phone started to buzz and she pulled it from her bag, bringing it to her ear after glancing at the screen.

“Hello? I’m busy and I… Okay, I understand that, but there’s more- alright. Look, has Ted looked into it? I told you…” And all of a sudden she was somewhere else, arguing with whoever was on the other end, giving Alan an apologetic look, and then turning to follow after her own mother.

Alan’s hands found their way into his pockets and he let his lips form into an “o” shape as he let out a slow, heavy breath. And he slowly made his way after both of them.

And life marched on.