A Wolf in Mom’s Clothing

“Why am I always buying herbs?” I thought to myself as I waited in the impeccably long check-out line at the grocery store. I just got off work and was on my way home to make Mom’s recipe for authentic Mexican enchiladas. It was her tradition to always make them for us on the first day of spring, so I decided to give it a whirl since she’s no longer with us. My whole family is coming over to my apartment to try them, so I was determined to make them exactly as she did. I feel closer to her when I cook Mexican dishes, so I find myself cooking more than usual lately. 

It’s almost the first anniversary of her death, and I find myself searching for her more than ever. She was my best friend, and I never imaged a day when I would have to live without her.

Back to why I’m the store. Mom used like twenty different spices in the enchilada recipe, and it doesn’t taste the same unless you have them all. So that’s why I’m pillaging through the long check-out line. 

As I was cashing out, I noticed a strange woman glaring at me. Her hair looked like woven silver threads on her scalp and her ivory green glare looked like it could cut with a knife. The only time I ever saw a look like that was from my dad when I accidentally ran his brand new suburban into the guard rail.

I decided to just ignore her instead of pondering on things I can’t control. I stumbled my way to the car with all my grocery bags. As I plopped them in the trunk, I looked over my shoulder and saw her lurking again. This time by the store entrance. She still had that ice-cold stare. It made me uneasy so I quickly got in my car and drove away. 

That was the first time we crossed paths. At that moment, I had no idea that she would be the end of me.

When I got to my apartment building, I parked in the spot closest to the stairs to avoid walking farther than I had to. I dreaded getting out of the car because that meant that I would have to lug ten bags of groceries up to the top floor. I sighed and reluctantly opened the door.

When I finally got to the top floor, I was astounded to see that the door to my apartment was slightly ajar. I thought that maybe I left it open in a rush to get to work this morning. I’ve never been careless enough to leave the door open, but that’s what I told myself to belittle my nerves.

As I slowly pushed the door open, I saw that all the lights were on. That was odd because I always turned them off when I left to save my electric bill. Now I knew something was unexplainably wrong.

I turned the corner and put groceries down. No use carrying them in my arms if I need to fight off an intruder. Then I scurried to my closet and grabbed the hot pink handgun I stored in the safe. As I closed the safe, I heard movement. “Someone is here.” I murmured to myself, panicked. I breathed in and started to look for the intruder.

As I looked around my house, I didn’t see anyone. I contemplated whether I was finally going insane. But then I heard you. I think you thought you were being sneaky, trying to leave without being noticed. 

When I first saw you running from my kitchen, I was scared that you were trying to kill me. But then I noticed that you were just a feeble old woman. Hobbling around my house as if you were a fearful mouse stealing from the pantry.

“Hey.” I said in a low, assertive voice, “Who are you and why are you in my house?” As I turned to get a better look at her, I was amazed to see the old woman in my house was the same woman from the grocery store. 

“Aren’t you the lady from the grocery store? Why did you follow me?” I asked.

She didn’t answer, simply just looked at me. As she stared, I saw her eyes start to change. They turned from ivory green to a deep purple in a matter of seconds. Then she fell on the ground and started to shake. I was so scared that I could hear my pulse beating in my ears. “What’s happening?” I shrieked in disarray. “Don’t worry lady. I’m calling 911.” I raced to my bedroom to grab my cell phone off the dresser.

When I got back to the seizing woman, I was shocked to see that she changed her appearance. Instead of looking like a grey-haired old lady, she now looked like my mother. She wasn’t seizing anymore either. She was taking the groceries out of the bags and putting them in my fridge. “Mija, you need to be more organized. This fridge looks like your dad stocked it.” She chuckled and looked at me lovingly. 

I didn’t know what to say. All I could muster up was, “How are you here, Mama? I thought you died last summer. I was at the funeral.” She didn’t say anything. She just walked over to me with a toothy smile and opened her arms wide to hug me.

Her warm embrace felt so perfect that I didn’t have time to think about how all this was happening. All I was focusing on was sinking into her and smelling her perfume.

She wrapped her arms around my neck tight and I was home. That is until she started squeezing.

Suddenly, all the bones in my neck were being crushed and I couldn’t breathe. I tried to cry out but it was all I could do to catch my breath. 

She pulled away from me to get a better grip around my neck and what I saw haunted me. The figure was no longer my tender-hearted mother looking back at me, but a tall, gangly alien-looking creature with purple slimy skin. The goo resonating off the creature clung to my neck and burned my skin.

As I took my last breaths before I passed out from lack of oxygen, I started to hallucinate. Suddenly it wasn’t the purple-skinned creature strangling me, but my dear mother. I looked into her big, brown doe eyes and thought, “Why would mama hurt me?”