Celebration

I sat in my parent’s kitchen at the dinner table. I and mom were both splitting a thin crust double pepperoni pizza from Papa John’s. I had ordered it earlier off the internet. They had just delivered it. Mom and I try to eat together every Thursday night.

“I almost left,” I said as I munched on a piece of pizza.

“Left to go where?” Mom asked.

“To live in my car and travel,” I replied. “Don’t tell dad, okay?”

“Where would you go?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I just wanted to get away.”

“You worry me talking like this,” She said.

“Well, I changed my mind,” I replied. “I love you all too much.”

Mom then started to pull pepperoni off her slice of pizza and placed it on a napkin. She placed the napkin on the floor for her cat, Muffin, to eat. Muffin ran over and hungrily ate what Mom had offered.

“I have good news,” Mom said changing the subject as see looked up to me.

“What?” I asked.

“Next week I will have paid off all my credit cards,” She said with an ecstatic grin.

A few years ago, my mother ran up $30,000 dollars on her credit cards. It has taken her a long time to pay them off.

“Congratulations,” I said as I reached over and gave her a hug. “You deserve it.”

We finished up eating our pizza. I gave mom a hug goodbye and walked home in the dark; stumbling to find my way.