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| Neapolitan Cupcakes by Wayne Theibaud |
He didn’t know what to expect, and it was so dark in the bedroom (the heavy curtains were drawn, shutting out the bright mid-day sunshine, and the thick, deep purple bedspread soaked up most of the dim lamplight that emanated from the awkward, oversized ceramic lamp on the bedside table) that he could barely see her, but it was clear to him there was a new mom in his parents’ room because this mom was so much thinner than Cupcakes-For-Your-Birthday, Let’s-Go-To-The-Pool Mom that she looked lost in the huge bed, and although Hysterectomy Mom needed a lot of rest, too, she had blond hair that she sprayed with hairspray in the car on the way to church even when the windows were closed, and this mom had a shaved head that was bandaged, and while Nervous-Breakdown Mom cried too much, both sides of her face always did the same things, and the new mom was trying to smile but only the good half of her mouth turned up, only the good cheek puffed out, and only the good eye crinkled, but he decided to keep it cool and just said, “Hi, Mom,” and her good eye blinked while her bad eye stayed shut as she murmured, “Peter,” so then he asked, “How are you?” and when she answered, “Glad to be home. How are you?” he noticed her voice was different, too, weak and raspy, so he mumbled, “Okay,” and when she sighed, “That’s good,” and her good eye fluttered closed, he turned and dashed out of the room—whew!—Cupcakes-For-Your-Birthday, Let’s-Go-To-The-Pool Mom would have yelled at him because he hadn’t visited her in the hospital (“I’m a paperboy and I go out at five-o’clock every morning to deliver newspapers by myself so you can just leave me home alone,” he told his father, and refused to budge), but Brain-Tumor Mom hadn’t said a word to him about it—maybe she understood that there was only so much he could take, or maybe she had been so sick that she hadn’t even noticed his father, brother, and sister were at the hospital without him—yeah, that was probably it—Brain-Tumor Mom hadn’t even noticed.
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