GOT ME GOOD

Last Thursday SupahStah had called me several times and we kept playing phone tag, narrowly missing each other. I tried again around 9pm our time. Tink answered the phone. I mentioned he'd called a couple of times and asked if he was alright (the Mama-worry gene hard at work.)

She replied, "He's okay...considering."

My heart positively lurched. Deep breath. I choked out, "Considering what???"

She proceeded to tell me he could no longer get the time off work to come home, and knowing how much I was looking forward to it...well, he was pretty disappointed all-around. He got on the line and told me his boss had asked him to stay another few weeks; they were in a bind with scheduling problems and summer holidays.

I admit it. What I heard in my head was, "...boss is an incompetant jerk...my kid can't come home...will try for August...not fair, not fair, not fair!!! oh, snap out of it you selfish woman...don't wanna be a grown-up, want to hug my kid now...he's being adult about it...be proud he won't leave work in a lurch...that shows real responsibility...don't let him hear how disappointed you are...oh, piss off I need to cry..."

Needless to say, I didn't do a very good job hiding it from him. He said he, "...heard the waver." But, I did TRY!!!! Obviously need more practice, but I TRY not to be a whiny, pain in the ass.

To speed this story along, allow me to say that, after a few third party phone messages and emails over the weekend, I was under the impression he'd raised a stink at work and was coming home on Friday. Yes, I was disappointed I wouldn't see much of him before I leave for VAB, but when the option was not seeing him at all until mid-August...I didn't complain again, but I figured it would be a long week. Tonight I had one of those piercing, my-eyeballs-must've-been-poked-with-spears kinda headaches, and asked Manimal to wait up for Sweet Pea because I needed dark, quiet, sleep. Half-asleep, I drifted in that semi-conscious state, half-hearing a car door slam, then talking outside my door before it slowly opened. A weight settled on my bed behind me and I thought, "Ah, good. Sweet Pea's home safe, come to say goodnight."

As I felt her hand on my shoulder, her deep voice rumbled, "Mom?"

Huh? Familiar, yet unfamiliar. Her deep voice? In that split second, neurons firing and synapses popping...you could've heard my brain crackling in the dark as it tried to make sense of it. I sort of squealed when I realized...there in front of me, not a dream...my boy!

Thinking he'd startled me in my sleep, he said calmly, "It's okay, Mom. It's me."

As I pounced to hug him, I yelled "EEEEYYYYYEEEEE KNOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!" : )

Standing there laughing at me were Sweet Pea, Sugah Pie and Elvis, who'd picked him up at the airport and drove him home. To surprise me.

It was the plan all along and the whole family knew at some point over the last two weeks. Nobody can ever pull suprises off on me...I'm too damn nosy and suspicious, and with alarming regularity, I discover secrets without meaning to. But this time, they got me good.

Thanx for the best surprise ever : )