I turn the television to a random channel and mute it. I need something to concentrate on while talking to her. I just wish it was something I would actually like to watch, instead of the endless repeats and rehashes. Even the news channels aren't live any more, most Saturdays. I end up back on Disney. At least that what it looks like. As long as it doesn't interfere too much with this.
She picks up on the fifth ring, just my luck.
"Hello Chris. Why are you calling me again, this late and on a Saturday?" She is always direct.
"Hi mom. I'm calling from New York, and I need to talk to you."
"New York? Don't tell me you are taking care of that kid. I thought you weren't going to do it."
"As for right now, it will just be for the weekend or until I get the estate settled. Why didn't you tell me his family was loaded?" I can be just as direct.
She waits about three seconds to answer.
"You are at the mansion? I didn't think he would keep that creepy place after all this time." Huh.
"You have been here? I could have used that information earlier." She's also great at holding things back.
"Everything about that family was creepy. His father had kept his dead kids' rooms the same way after they died. Wouldn't even let me stay on the same floor. Had to sleep downstairs in one of the servant's rooms, at least until we were married. Even then, we stayed at his apartment more than there."
I wait silently for a few seconds before I land the big one. "There was a tribute to him this evening. I saw the movie with you, and the ruler." How long will she wait before ...
"Oh my. At least you know how sick that man was. He never told me what he was doing! Being naked like that, with other men nearby. How wrong that was. I swear, I never would have done such, such filth. I tell you ..."
"Filth? It wasn't porn. It was an art film, for goodness sakes! I admit, it is a little weird, but it is nothing that shocking." I am not sure if this is a lie or not. I just don't want my mother to be right.
"Look. I met him during my last semester of college. Me and some of my girlfriends went down to Berea to see the first art fair of the spring." Yeah, my mom graduated from college, somehow. Can't remember her degree though. Social work, or something? She never followed up on it.
"He had come down from New York, taking a day off from his first year of grad school, maybe it was his spring break, I forget. He was this folksy kind of guy. Interested in the old-fashioned type stuff. The kind of crap that rich guys just slurp up. But he was hot. He picked up on me in a flash. He would come down every weekend for the rest of the spring semester, while I would drive to one fair or another in my old Beretta to catch him. After I graduated, we went back to New York. I didn't have a job, nor did I really want one yet. I had to stay at his family's place for most of the time. His daddy didn't take to me at all, so I had to stay downstairs, not that anything was going on mind you. I was still a young lady."
How things have changed since then. I'm lucky she didn't have a 'friend' over tonight.
"We got married in August. Almost a year to the day before you were born. Then, everything changed. When he went back to school, he started working on these movies. I found out from some of his friends that he had made quite a few of them for his classes. The professors were pushing to expand his horizons and such stuff."
"Therefore, the nudity and the arousals, I take it." I tried to be neutral. No way was I going to talk to mother about sex, especially since she is the expert.
"Until that day, he was the only man I had ever, you know, saw. And there he was, take as a jaybird, sitting with these two other men. And they were, like that! He never even warned me. It was sick, I tell you. That was September. By November, he had made other short movies. I told him I didn't want to be in them, so he didn't ask again. We never did talk about his sick mind. Then I found out I was pregnant, with you. Between him and his creepy father, I knew I had to leave. I never told my ma about it, and she didn't even come to the wedding. Just a phone call and a letter. I had broken her heart, and I didn't care one bit.
"So, I found a lawyer and made plans to divorce the creep as soon as I gave birth. I knew I had to keep you away from them, so the lawyer and I hitched up a plan. For someone so cheap, he was brilliant. I was to keep moving from state to state, changing my and your names, and staying as far away from Kentucky and my ma as possible. The lawyer hooked me up with the names of various other guys who could help me out. To cap it off, he had a friend who worked for the Burton's attorneys! That guy made sure that any leads would be lost so we wouldn't be found.
"I barely contacted ma, and never directly. Always through a friend of a friend and such. When I found out old man Burton had died, I made my way back to Kentucky, with you and our current names. For some reason, your father was never looking for me. At least not as hard as the father."
I was stunned. My mother had a complicated plan, and it had worked for decades. She never is good at this.
"Mom, what you did was worse than anything my father filmed."
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