SMOTHER MOTHER
Written by Katherine Tomlinson
Illustrated by Mark Satchwill
Shannon could hear her son
sobbing all the way from the parking lot. When she entered the office of the
little motel they owned, she was upset to see her mother Maeve holding down the
counter instead of Nori, the guest who usually covered for her when she had to
run out on an errand.
She was torn between
confronting her mother and tending to her son, who had hurled himself into her arms
the moment he saw her. “What’s wrong Liam?” she asked as he burrowed his head
into her leg.
“Nothing’s wrong,” her
mother said. “He’s just a little cry-baby.”
“I am not a cry-baby,” Liam
wailed.
Shannon stroked his back. “I
know sweetie,” she said, giving her mother a lethal look. “Let’s get you
cleaned up.”
She took Liam's hand and led
him into the little apartment behind the office.
“You’re doing him no favors
by coddling him like that,” Maeve said, loudly enough that she could be heard
through the locked door.
It had taken Shannon 15
minutes to calm Liam down and get the story out of him. He kept apologizing for
“making Grandma mad,” and every time he did, the red haze clouding Shannon’s
vision got a little redder.
She remembered apologizing
for making her mother mad, even when she’d had no idea what she’d done.
Liam had set Maeve off by
asking her where Nori was when he saw his grandmother behind the front desk in
the motel’s office. Maeve had flown into a rage, ranting that he was dissing
her and that she wasn’t going to stand for it.
