Creatures of the Night…

I just drove over to get my diet Pepsi. Mom and dad’s kitchen light was on.  Mom was up and snacking.  She does this often – getting up to get something to eat in the wee hours of the morning.  Dad says it sounds like mice in the kitchen in the middle of the night munching on things – food packages crackling.  I knocked on the door and mom opened it.  I just wanted to say a quick hello and was interested in what she was eating. She was cooking cherry Poptarts in the toaster oven. 

“I noticed yesterday when I was using your bathroom that you are low on toilet paper,” mom said not saying hello and foregoing any pleasantries.  She was strictly business.  “Meet me down at the garage door and I will give you some.”

Mom opened the garage door.  Well, this woke up dad – his bedroom being just above the garage.  Today is his day off and he has had a grueling past few 12 hour days of work since his co-pharmacist took some vacation days.  He was hoping to sleep in.

“Goddamn,” dad said poking his head out the garage door after walking downstairs to see what was going on.  Mom handed me the biggest package of toilet paper I have ever seen. “You two need to learn to sleep like normal people! Shit!”

I smiled and laughed.  Mom was so serious and apologized profusely.

“Martha, go get in the bed.  Take some of your medicine and go to sleep,” dad said saying goodbye to me and shutting the garage door. “Goddamn!”

I drove home realizing how interesting lives mom and I can live with our odd schedules and our mental illnesses.  Who else in the world would be doling out toilet paper at five in the morning to her son other than my mother?