Part I: Reverse Psychology
I'd had a hard day. It was Monday; I'd got up at 7:30am to be at class for 8:30, had classes until 4:30pm, and worked in the pizza parlour from 5pm until 10pm. To make matters worse, I'd been playing soccer the previous afternoon, so all day my joints had been stiff enough without having to walk around campus all day then wait on tables for five hours. By the time I got home, I was beat.
My mother greeted me in her usual, perky way. Sometimes it was annoying, but really there was no-one better to lift your spirits when you were down.
"Rough day, hon?" she asked when I entered the den and slumped down on the sofa, her voice lilting like she was talking to a baby. Well, that's how she always saw me, I guess, even at nineteen and 'the man of the house' since dad left.
"Yeah, pretty rough," I answered listlessly, staring at the commercials on TV. I hadn't even taken off my coat yet, or my boots.
"Aaaw, that's too bad. How was class?"
"Fine."
"Work?"
"The usual."
"Bad?"
"You bet."
My mom smiled slightly. "Still sore after yesterday, then, are we?"
I had to smile too; my mom always could see right through me. "Yes, I'm still sore," I answered, tersely but joking.
"Well, you shouldn't play so rough you know..." she intoned in mock chastisement. Then she began waggling a finger at me, smirking.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," I said, grinning in spite of myself. Games like this always cheered me up, mom teasing me like I was a little kid. My eyes hadn't left the TV screen. By now the program was back; 'Ready, Set... Cook!' One of my all-time least favorite shows, one that my mother insisted on watching.
"I hate this show," I announced.
"Ooooooooh!" cooed my mom, like an extra from a British sex comedy. "Look who's Mr. Grumpy!" She affected a 'there-there' baby voice. "Awww, did those big boys hurt my widdle-biddy booby thaaahn?"
"Ma," I began, a little sternly, "I hate this show, period. Whether I'm feeling stiff, tired out, or on top of the god-damn world, I hate this show."
Mom laughed, a sweet chuckle that made me forget my irritation, and I laughed too.
"I know, hon, I know. Mommy's only teasing!"
"And quit that little kid voice, would you!"
We both laughed hard for a few moments, me throwing a cushion at Mom when she kept on teasing me.
"I surrender, I surrender!" she wailed as I flung another cushion at her. "And keep it quiet, or you'll waken Chrissy. She only went to bed about a half-hour ago."
We calmed down, wisely. Sis was a real bitch if she didn't get her 10-hours beauty sleep. There was quiet for a while.
"You know, though," Mom began brightly, "If you really are that sore, I could give you a back rub."
This was a little strange. May be she was still joking. "Umm, no, that's okay, Mom. Thanks anyway," I said, scoffing a little.
"No, I'm serious. I've been reading this book." She leaned down to the floor beside her armchair, and picked up a medium-sized hardback book. "It's all about aromatherapy and massage. It's good."
I rolled my eyes. That explained it. Mom doesn't have a career as such. Dad was always the bread winner, and after he ran off with his secretary, Mom struggled to find a job. There weren't many positions where 'experience as a home-maker' was a principal requirement. So she tried her hand at a few things, but never found the perfect job for her. Four years on, she's still looking, and it seemed this was her latest fad.
"Here we go," I said cynically, "Starting a massage parlour, are we? Where, in the cellar?"
"Don't mock! Honestly, I'm really into it. I've read up on all the techniques. I need some hands-on practice."
I waved my hands in the air. "No way! I'm not being your guinea pig for some new-fangled hocus-pocus, airy-fairy, arty-farty..." I'd ran out of proper rhyming couplets, so I settled for "... crappy-wappy stuff!"
"It's not new-fangled!" Mom insisted. "The Chinese have been doing it for years!"
"No wonder. You know the indigestion you can get from eating their food."
"I'm serious!" Then she paused, and eventually she threw up her hands, shrugging. "But, okay, if you want to walk around another day feeling like the tin-man, then that's fine by me..."
Damn. Reverse-psychology. Never fails. Bill Cosby, you have a lot to answer for...
I relented. "Yeah, okay, you can try out your damned massage on me. But don't use any of those funky oils! If I turn up for practice tomorrow smelling like apricots or lavender, I'll get kicked off the team."
"It's okay, I don't have any essential oils yet. I'll just use warmed baby oil."
"And quit calling me a baby!"
***
At Mom's instruction, I stripped off. I wasn't crazy about this, but she left the room while I did it, and gave me a towel to drape over myself for when she came back in. We were working in her bedroom, Sis being asleep through in the bedroom we shared. Jesus, and that was another joke. Two teenagers of opposite sex sharing a room, Christ! Still, it was all we could afford, so we had to make the best of it, I guess.
I lay face-down on the bed, struggling but eventually managing to lay the towel over my bare ass. After a moment Mom came in. "Ready, hon?" she asked.
"As I'll ever be,"