#7
The last time Jax saw his mother, it was the middle of the night. Well, to say he “saw” her isn’t exactly true. It was very dark and she didn’t turn on the light.
It would be more accurate to say Jax felt her. He felt her weight on the mattress. He felt her hand on his cheek. He felt her lips on his forehead and her tears on his face. Jax’s mother had come to say goodbye.
It felt a dream. Of course it was a dream. He got up the next morning expecting to find her in her rocking chair by the front door. He went to tell her about the dream he had, as he often did. But she was gone, and the night time visit came rushing back all at once, threatening to overwhelm him.
Jax sat at the foot of his mother’s chair and held his head. It was his twelfth birthday.
After a while, Jax noticed the muffled sounds of conversation coming from his father’s office. Normally, both Father and his office were to be avoided, especially if he had a visitor, but today was different. Today was the day his mother had gone and he needed to find out why.
So Jax crept down the hall and put his ear against his father’s office door. He heard voices, all right – Father’s loud bellows, plus a second, smaller voice. Perhaps it was coming from the telephone.
“But why did you do it?” the smaller voice asked.
“By Jove, I already told you! She was corrupting the children. She was making them soft.”
“But did you tell her…”
“Of course I told her! I explained over and over that her interference was affecting our results. But she continued to defy me. I had no choice but to send her away.”
Jax pressed his back against the door, his eyes filling with fresh tears. She was really gone!
“And now?” the small voice said. “Are you sure her interference is at an end?”
“There’s no coming back from where I sent her. I strapped her in myself and didn’t leave until I saw the rocket blast off with my own eyes.”
A rocket! Jax’s eyes grew wide.
Without warning, the office door opened and Jax spilled inside, landing on his back. His father’s red face looked down on him. “My boy, you shouldn’t have heard that.”
Before his father could lay hands on him, Jax scrambled to his feet.
“I did hear. I heard it all. You can’t send mother away!” he shouted.
Father looked at Jax gravely. “It’s too late, son. I already did.”
“Then I will get her back!”
Jax turned and ran. He ran down the hall and through the great room and out the front door and he didn’t look back once.
About Prompt-A-Day: The rules are simple. Every day, I generate a prompt using Story Shack’s awesome writing prompt generator. Then I set a timer for one hour. At the end of the hour, I post what I’ve got. Sometimes it’s decent. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes I fail at the prompt. Sometimes I do okay. I do not edit, unless I find a typo, because I can’t help fixing those. Feel free to join in and post a link to your writing in the comments.
