After the ceremony, I distractedly bid a small number of schoolmates I was on good terms with goodbye and wished them well in their future endeavors. When I’d shaken my last hand and given my last wan smile to someone I doubted I would ever meet again, I went to my mother who was waiting a short distance away, looking as lovely and patient as humanly possible. She wore a ghost of a smile on her lips, but her eyes were filled with pride and joy for my sake.
When I stood before her, I simply nodded and said, “I think I would like to go home now, Mother.”
For a fraction of a second a look of concern flashed across her face, but it disappeared just as quickly. With a simple nod of understanding, she turned and slipped her arm into mine. “Of course, dear,” she said. “Home it is.”
The trip home was had in silence while I continued to brood and got lost in my thoughts. What that boy said had troubled me deeply. Mother, of course, recognized that I was thinking deeply and didn’t disturb me the whole time. When we got inside, however, she closed the front door behind us and said, “If you’d like to join me in the kitchen, I made you a graduation cake. We don’t have to eat all of it, but I’d like you to at least have one slice with me.”
Still swimming within my own mind, I numbly nodded to her and followed her into the kitchen. Sure enough, there on the table, sitting beneath a glass cover, was a small chocolate-iced cake with the words “Congratulations, Conrad!” elegantly painted on it. I sat down at the table while she cut the cake, removed a slice and put it on a plate for me. When she placed it in front of me and I stared at it stupidly, she finally had had enough.
“Okay, Conrad,” she said sternly. “Out with it. What’s eating you?”
I continued staring at the cake for a few seconds, gathering up the words and questions I wanted to have answered and took a deep breath. “Mom, are you single because of me?”
Mother blinked at that question in surprise. “I… what?”
Then I told her about the conversation I’d had with the boy at the graduation ceremony and the thoughts I’d had as a result. The whole time she was studiously silent and let me have my say, let me ask my questions, until I’d gotten it all out. When I was done, she just stared at me with this most peculiar expression on her face. Without a word, she simply got a slice of cake for herself and took a few bites, chewing on it pensively. Every once in a while her pink tongue would slip out and lick icing from her lips, which drove me crazy now that I was aware of how sexy she really was. I couldn’t tell if she was upset or amused or sad or what. I’d never seen these expressions before, not on her. I watched her eyes, which seemed to move in several directions for a few moments, until she finally looked directly back at me and put her fork down, her piece of cake only half-eaten. Still, however, she said nothing.
“Well?” I prompted her. “Am I right?”
My mother stood up slowly, never taking her eyes from mine. When she was completely on her feet, she said, “Stay here a moment, please. I need to get something. I’ll be right back.” Without another word, she turned and left. I waited in my seat at the dinner table for several long minutes until she came back, now holding a thick photo album in her hands. She gently pushed our plates of cake aside, set the book down on the table in front of me and sat back down across from me.
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