Dear Mom

Dear Mom

Kara places a call to her mother.

“Mother! I’ve just got to tell you about this guy I met at Valerie’s wedding!”

“Oh, this I gotta hear! Don’t tell me, you’ve met your soulmate.”

“Mother! Don’t be like that. You don’t understand, I really did this time!”

“Okay, okay. Tell me all about it but start with the meeting. I mean, you were supposed to be there for Valerie. Maid of honor and all that.”

“I know, and it wasn’t like I went there looking for him. It just kinda happened.”

“So, tell me the story already, I’m babysitting you know. I don’t have all day!”

“We arrived at the clubhouse for the wedding. Valerie was beautiful and I could tell she was nervous. I was too, so I barely remember the actual wedding. We got to the reception, and both were ready to join the party, and we started changing into our swimsuits.

She was happy and Marcus was already hanging by the pool with his friends, while we got the bar and snacks ready to take stuff poolside. That’s where Marcus introduced me to one of their friends, Reggie.

It was no big deal, he was cute, and I noted that, and then proceeded to learn more about Marcus and his family along with Valerie. Reggie kept looking at me and sort of placing himself near us and our conversation. Then he flashed that charming smile of his, and it worked like a snake charmer coaxing a cobra from the basket. Something about him just oozed sexuality.

Valerie seemed good, so Reggie and I started a conversation by the pool, then decided to jump in. I spied the hot tub, and we went over there for a soak, carrying our drinks with us. I’d never been in a hot tub, so it was quite the new experience. Everyone seemed to be making a game of sitting in the tub for a while and then hopping back in the pool. We kept doing that for hours it seemed. It’s a wonder I don’t have pneumonia!

Reggie was a complete gentleman, and I was smitten. Whether from his good looks or his sad story, I couldn’t get enough of hm. By week’s end, we were a thing. I told him I was still in the service and stationed at in Killeen, so it would have to be a weekend romance until I got out.

So, now you know. We plan to get together when I come home, so I’m just letting you know you’re going to meet him soon.”

“Okay, so this weekend then?”

“Dear Mom,

I couldn’t get away this weekend because I was working guard duty Friday night to Saturday night. I didn’t figure coming home for one day was feasible. I hope Devyn is doing well and not giving you much trouble. I miss him terribly, but my sergeant does not care. He is awful mean to me sometimes. I promise to be home next weekend.”

 Kara spends the next week calling Reggie and planning their upcoming date. She’s told him all the circumstances of how her son Devyn came to be. He has no issue with it. She feels excited, yet apprehensive at the same time. Devyn is mixed race, and Kara doesn’t know who his father is. That story is so sad to tell, and she feels ashamed. Not of his race, just that he came to be the way he did. She knows it will be hard explaining that when he gets old enough.

The other worry is that her mother will try to take him from her. She’s letting her take care of him only because a baby on base would be difficult to manage, according to her mom, and she supposedly needs to finish school. Well, she’s tried but Ft Hood will not send her back to San Antonio due to a supposed shortage of women on base. Kara feels it’s a lie, but she has appealed to higher ups to no avail.

She can’t wait for Reggie to meet him and observe his behavior around him. Devyn is a good baby for the most part, yet he was colicky when younger and she fears her mother is spoiling him. Luckily, she babysits someone’s child every day, so Devyn has playmates and at least he isn’t growing up as an only child. Reggie is excited to meet him, so they are planning an outing to the zoo and then back to his apartment.

 Friday comes and Kara packs her new car-a Plymouth Arrow with gold racing stripes- up with her typical road snacks and starts the three-hour trek home to Watauga, Texas with Devyn and Reggie on her mind. And her mother. How will she take to him? She’s anxious, and smokes too much on the drive home.

Kara doesn’t go straight home though. She drives to River Oaks to pick up Reggie. She needs him as a buffer when he meets her mom. She feels its going to be easier to go right ahead and break the ice.

“Mom? We’re home!” Kara proclaims as they walk in the door. Her dad is out in the back yard, so they encounter her mom first.

 “Oh! You didn’t tell me you were bringing Reggie!”

“Hello, nice to meet you Mrs Robinson “

“Where are you from young man?”

“I’m from Ohio, ma’am.”

“What brought you all the way to Texas? Are you also in the service?”

“Oh, I’ve been here for a while. Marcus and I worked together on a project out at Carswell Airforce base. I am a helicopter mechanic.”

“Kara has a thing for flyboys.” joked her mom.

“Wheres my Devyn?” Kara calls down the hall. She sees him peeking out of his doorway.

“Devynnnnn” calls her mom. Come meet your mom’s friend.”

Devyn comes toddling down the hall with his pacifier in his mouth. This one has Mickey Mouse ears on it and looks so comical Kara has to laugh.

She lifts him up and tells him to say hi to Reggie. He responds by holding his arms out.

Reggie reaches for him as her mother laughs, “You’re a winner in his book!”

Reggie flashes his sexy smile and that’s when Kara believes he had her mom charmed as well. Her dad walks in right about then.

“Hi, Dad! This is Reggie.”

“Hello, Sir. Nice to meet you…”

“Pierre.”

The two men shake hands and Reggie flashes him a smile as well. Her dad looks to Kara and smiles his acceptance. Kara relaxes a smidge.

He asks them what the plan is for the day.

“We thought we’d take Devyn to the zoo and over to Reggie’s apartment for a while so they can get to know one another. Can we come back here for dinner?”

“Of course, I’ll fix some gumbo and rice.”

“That sounds wonderful! Reggie won’t know what hit him after he tastes your gumbo.”

Kara’s mom, Bess says “You guys better get going before it gets too hot at the zoo. We will see ya later and be careful!

“We will, see ya later. We should be back around seven.”

Kara, Reggie, and Devyn load themselves into the car, where Kara releases a pent-up breath.

“That went better than I thought.”

“I told you I know how to talk to parents.” Reg agrees with a smile.

Kara’s heart melts. Every time he smiles at her, she feels butterflies in her belly. Reggie has dark hair and olive skin and says he’s of Greek heritage. She looks at Devyn in the backseat, sitting in his booster chair car seat. He seems content, for a two-and-a-half-year-old.

She asks him “Are you ready to go to the zoo?”

He nods and bounces in his seat.

Reg smiles at him in the rearview mirror. Devyn’s voice is deep as he giggles around that darn pacifier. Kara can’t wait until he sheds that thing. For now, she allows it. It comforts him and that is whats important.

The drive to the zoo is a nail biter as usual. She hates Ft Worth traffic, but at least they aren’t in Dallas, where the traffic is horrid. Once they arrive, she fights with the stroller and gets Devyn into it, feeling accomplished. She knows she could be taking care of him herself, but her mother has her authority firmly planted. She doesn’t want to make waves, so she leaves things as they are for now.

She has told Kara more than once that before Devyn came along, she felt a hole in her heart that he fills. This has Kara worried, yet she assures her she won’t take him away from her like her mother took Kara from her for a while.

The zoo visit goes well until Devyn gets tired and cranky, so they go on to Reggie’s place and have snacks and nap time. That gives them some alone time, but Kara listens with her “mother’s ears” for any peep from Devyn. Kara is falling hard for Reg, even though she’s noticing his addictive personality. He carries a cooler of beer everywhere he goes. She brushes it aside, thinking she can somehow help him, a flaw in her personality. She’s always been a “fixer”, ever since her days working in nursing homes.

Returning to her parent’s house for dinner, everything seems to be happy and upbeat, her mom holds her snarky tongue until out of earshot of Reggie. Then he leaves and she tells Kara, “He may be the one, so don’t screw this up.” Secretly, Kara smiles. She never gets her mother’s blessing when it comes to boyfriends. She always claims they are users or abusers and to get away before she gets hurt. Reggie is an exception, and her dad seems to like him too.

Time goes by and they have been dating for a while, eventually Kara gets out of the service and gets her own apartment. Still her mother does not return her son, claiming now it’s time to finish her education and school would be too hard while trying to raise her baby.

“He’s fine and happy here. Don’t worry about him, go start your classes.”

Kara reluctantly does so but gets more and more depressed. By now, she and Reggie have been experimenting with the latest craze…crank. Kara loves the way it makes her feel, like she can do anything and commonly stays up for two to three days before crashing hard. Eventually, she realizes the harm it’s caused and quits, but not Reggie. He starts getting into trouble and she bails him out over and over. She feels guilty for introducing him to the hard stuff. Soon she realizes that he is no good for her or Devyn and writes her mother again. Problem is, he’s given her a ring. She realizes she still can’t go through with it and feels ashamed because she was the one who started it all.

“Dear Mom,

I’m going to have to leave Reggie, I fear he is an addict. I can’t get him to stop, even when I stopped myself, he won’t. I love him, but I can’t live like this, especially when Devyn comes to live with me. How am I going to get him out of my apartment? “

Her mother calls later on, telling her that her father will assist. They have talked together about the drugs and the ring, but agree she will need help to get him to leave without sucking Kara back in.

Her father does come, and “helps” Reggie remove himself and his belongings from Kara’s apartment. She knows she is powerless against his charms and her mother knows some other secrets she’s confessed about him and his behavior. The fact that he is in trouble with the law is enough for Kara’s dad, and he is effective at getting his point across.

Kara’s heart is broken but knows it’s for the best. While her dad is alone with her, she asks him if he thinks her mom is trying to take Devyn away. He assures her that she would not.

Meanwhile, Reggie continues to get in trouble with the law and eventually gets banned from the state of Texas. Kara never sees him again but wonders from time to time if he is still alive and ok. The meeting at the wedding seems long ago and far away, even if it was just about a year before. She vows never to give her heart away so quickly in the future and shies away from weddings.

The next man she meets she marries within three months of meeting him, and they’re still together to this day.

Devyn was never returned.