I threw open the door to our house, seeing that mom was now in the process of putting on her shoes.
"Woah! Take it easy on the door. It will break if you cont-" Mom got cut off mid sentence as I embraced her in a big hug, resting my head on hers, closing my eyes. "This is, unexpected, but I always enjoy your hugs," mom says as she hugs me back, and I can hear how she takes a deep breath while gently pressing her face into my chest.
"I hope you know that I'll always be here for you if you need me," I gently say, planting a quick kiss on the top of mom's head.
"That's so sweet of you. And I know that you are here."
"If you need anything, just ask me. You don't have to fight the virus alone ya know," I say. Mom goes quiet for a couple of seconds, before I feel her shaking in my arms, and how my shirt becomes wet. I held her closer, tears falling to the floor, her sobbing growing louder. We stood in the hall for a few minutes, holding each other closely as I let mom gather herself. With a large sigh, mom pulled away, and when I looked down at her face, her eyes were swollen, her face flushed and tears had soaked both my and her shirt.
"I-I *sob* I really appreciate your kindness. I love you so much," she says, pulling my arm, letting me know to bend down, and when I lowered myself, she planted a big kiss on my cheek, lingering a bit. Wiping away her tears, she swallowed the spit that had gathered in her throat as she took a step back. "I'm going grocery shopping. Do you wanna come with me?"
"Sure, let's go. I can drive if you want."
We made our way to the car, mom opened the passenger side and took a seat, while I pulled out my phone, shooting a quick text to Victoria.
"Me and mom are going shopping. Do you or Viola want anything?" I watched the three dots bounce on my screen. Victoria replied.
"Ice cream, and lots of it. Viola wants vanilla and I want strawberry <3"
Putting my phone away, I start approaching the car, and as I wrap my fingers around the handle, I notice something. The door to the house across the street opens, and out peeks the nervous head of Tabia. Glancing around her, she opens it fully as she cautiously steps outside. Tabia is originally from Egypt, somewhat apparent by her light brown skin tone and pitch black hair, but she had been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Harris who lives across from us. Tabia is the same age as me, having known each other during our childhood but never interacted much after we had turned 15. Now 7 years later, she was like a stranger, but I still see her from time to time.
Going goth somewhere around after we had stopped talking, her long black hair had been shaved on her right side, wearing mostly black with heavy eyeshadow, sporting a nice tattooed sleeve on her left arm. Tabia had always been a quiet girl, which had continued into early adult life.
I raised my hand, waving towards her, and she responded with a quick and shy half wave, before hurrying down the street. Opening the door, I took a seat next to mom, pulling the seat belt over me as I started the car.
"Our guests want some ice cream," I said as I began backing out of the driveway.
"That sounds wonderful. I also want some now that you mention it," mom said with a giddy voice, which made me feel at ease. "Who did you wave to sweetie?"
"Tabia. She was on her way out."
"I haven't seen her for ages, I wonder how she's doing. Her mom and I used to be so close, but that changed once you two stopped needing us to plan playdates," mom chuckled to herself, pulling out her phone to check her shopping list. "Drive us to the supermarket."
For the next 20 minutes, we sat in the car and listened to the radio, making small talk and laughing at the dumb jokes I made. I parked close to the entrance of the supermarket. We entered the store and grabbed a cart, starting to check off the list, one product at a time. I headed off to get the ice cream, grabbing three large tubs, one vanilla, one strawberry and one mango. As I began to walk back, I passed the bread section, where I saw a large woman, long brown hair, probably in her late 20's, eating and stuffing herself with bread. From her cart which she had tipped over, she grabbed cartoons of milk, chugging them down as well, her belly quickly expanding, bigger than Viola's. Moaning like crazy, she dragged herself and her bloated stomach further up the aisle, taking more bread off the shelves as she voraciously devoured it.
I chose to continue walking, and I could see how two security guards came rushing towards her, the last I saw was how they tried to drag her away from the shelves. Making my way to mom, I placed the tubs of ice cream in the cart, not mentioning what I'd just witnessed. Mom had finished off the list, and as we paid for everything, I could see that the woman from the aisle was being transported on a four wheeled box cart towards the other end of the store. I tried to distract mom from the large woman, but I could see how her face turned a little sad as she glanced over at her, looking down at her own body. I then gave her a comforting hug, before we left the supermarket, driving home.
Mom was quiet on our way back, and I felt worried for her, so I decided to turn the radio off as I began talking:
"Wanna talk about it? You won't end up like that, I promise."
"How do you know that?! What if I go grocery shopping and the hunger just takes over, or even worse, what if my pussy takes over, making me rape an innocent man?!" mom cried out, tears running down her face as she shriveled up into a ball in her seat.
"I know because you're my mom. You're amazing, and you wouldn't let the virus do anything you didn't want," I said, my voice serious as I put my hand on mom's lap. I could feel her tense up as the last words were said, her breathing quickly, as two teary frightened eyes looked at me.
"I-I-I..." was the only thing she could say, before she put her head in her hands as she began crying again. I gently stroked her thigh, trying to comfort her, but to no avail, feeling how she almost was shivering in her seat. Pulling into the driveway, mom quickly got out, still crying and ran into the house, leaving me alone in the car. Grabbing the groceries, I made my way into the house, putting them away, but leaving the ice cream out. I grabbed one of the larger spoons, picking up the mango flavored ice cream and walked up the stairs, going to mom's room.
I softly knocked on her door, waiting a couple of seconds but not getting an answer. I decided to knock again, and I could hear her disheveled voice yelling from the room.