“Er, the sandwiches, I think I’ve got them in one of my bags, but you’ve got the thermos with the coffee and… mum?”
“Oh, the thermos, sure, let’s see now…”
And with that she busied herself preparing our picnic, seemingly very intent on the design of the plastic plates.
The preparations took only a few minutes, but that was sufficient time for mum to gather herself together and face me, kneeling upright on the blanket.
“Eddie, I… Eddie…” She had a small smile on her face which expanded into a broad grin.
“We’re a right couple of wassocks, aren’t we? I, haha, back there, I really wanted to jam on the brakes but, I don’t know, I just couldn’t… I could see it coming towards me like in slow motion and… whoosh..!” She flung up her arms and spread her fingers and “Spladoosh! Wurgh! All over me…!” Her fingers spiralled down over her body, “But you, you looked so shocked… Like you were asking yourself ‘what the hell just happened to me?’ But you weren’t getting any answers. Oh, haaaaahaaahaaa…!!” She rolled on her back convulsed in laughter, clutching her stomach, “It was sooo funny..!” The epitome of ‘rotflmao’….
But she’d broken the tension. We laughed and chatted easily as we downed the coffee and sandwiches, and after that we lay back on the blanket in the sun and let it bake us dry.
Maybe I fell asleep to the droning of the bees and flies, but my nose tickled and – I opened my eyes. Mum was crouched over me with a long blade of grass which she was now using to caress my cheek. She replaced it with a kiss, her breast squeezing up against my bare chest as she did so.
“Come on, we’ve got places to see, nooks and crannies to explore…” She looked like she was considering what she’d just said but then shrugged and bent over to pick up her dress, her bum cheeks seeming to give me a little wave in so doing …
“Why don’t you leave your shirt off, Eddie? You’ve got a great body and I noticed you can do with a little sun. I mean, you know, all that studying…” Had my mum been sussing me out while I dozed?
But I did as she said and stuffed my shirt into one of the side bags.
Then we were off again, and it was getting to middle afternoon, though I wished I could have halted time on this day and played it over and over.
Mum now seemed to be in her element, and started swinging her bike from left to right, singing along to herself, something about raindrops falling on her head. I was easily pedalling behind her, savouring the pleasures of being her spectator, when a deep roar emerged from round the bend. A flash of racing green suddenly appeared in the middle of the road just as mum’s swing also took her into the middle.
It was a confused second. The sportscar swerved frantically to the side, mum swerved as well, losing control of the bike and careening off the side of the road. The driver didn’t stop. I watched the taillights of the car disappear over the hill with an added burst of acceleration, then turned back to where mum had disappeared. Mum? I couldn’t see her. I could only see the rear wheel of her bike on its side turning lazily, but where was mum?? I frantically dropped my own bike and raced over to the edge. There she was, sprawled in the ditch, arms and legs at all angles. I shimmied quickly down to her, tears already beginning to swim in front of my eyes. I took her head as gently as possible into my arms and wiped away the hair and blood and brought my face close to hers.