“Mom, are you okay?” Zach ran over and stopped his mother from picking up the broken glass by hand. As he held her arm, he could feel her body trembling.

“Zach?” Her voice shook. “Is Crystal pregnant?” She grabbed his arm in desperation. She knew what it was like to be a teenage parent. She did not want that life for her son.

Pregnant? Where had his mother’s mind gone? He couldn’t understand how parents’ minds worked.

How did she come to that conclusion? He’d assured her that he wasn’t stressed about school or on drugs, so the next logical step was that his girlfriend was pregnant?

“Mom, Crystal, and I already broke up!” He’d rather chop off his dick than get Crystal pregnant.

Lisa patted her chest in relief. “Oh. Oh, it is just a broken heart.”

Pinching his nose bridge, he watched in stunned silence as his mother sagely nodded her head. “Mom…,”

“These things happen, Zach.” Lisa looked at her son. She was sorry he was hurt by this, but she didn’t like Crystal. She thought it was for the better that their relationship ended. “I know it hurts, but it will get better.”

He didn’t expect the conversation to run in this direction. He wasn’t broken-hearted about Crystal, okay!

If he let this continue, he was sure they would end up having two different conversations. “ Mom, we’ve been over for a while. She is not the reason I have been anxious lately.” He saw his mother start to speak but decided it was best to cut her off. “No, I am not taking drugs. No, school is not too stressful.”

His mother reached over to pat his knee. She wouldn’t believe that he wasn’t upset about Crystal even if he told her he was anxious about the lottery. When he looked at his behavior during that relationship, he wanted to slap himself for being stupid.

Zach would have to let it go. Taking out a copy of the lottery ticket and the check, he handed both to his mother. “This is what has been affecting my mood for the last couple of weeks.”

Lisa looked at the ticket and the check before sending a questioning look her son’s way.

He knew she would be confused. After all, his name wasn’t on the check. “I won the lottery. The last couple of weeks, I have been waiting on the check to come.”

Blinking slowly, the information her son was telling her didn’t seem to register. Looking down at the papers again. “Zach?” Her voice was trembling for a different reason. Zeros. There were so many zeros.

“Zach, you shouldn’t mess around like this?” Lisa crumpled the papers and looked wide-eyed at her son. Next, her mind kicked in, and she started smoothing the documents back out. Weren’t these important.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he saw his mother acting this way. He remembered her accepting it calmly. He expected this to progress in a similar manner.

He wasn’t even the first person to tell her during his last go at things. A co-worker had broken the news to her before he could.

“It’s real,” he said, trying not to laugh at her doe-eyed look. His mother looked so young. His mother had him at eighteen, which meant she wasn’t even forty yet. A new wave of guilt threatened to pull him under. He wanted to apologize, but nothing had happened yet.

His mother never remarried, and he couldn’t remember her dating.

“This is too much…,” a hand covered her mouth.

It was a sizable amount of money, but he’d learned that you could never have too much. It all came down to how you spent it. In seven years, the money that could have supported him and his mother for a lifetime vanished.

Chuckling, he pulled his mother into a hug. “Mom.” Her reaction was so fresh. It was as if she wanted to unsee what was in front of her.

“You can’t tell anyone about this. Promise me, Zach. You can’t.” The shock she felt quickly morphed into anxiety. Lisa knew the hearts of men. Everyone was friends when they existed on the same level or in their defined roles. When things changed, greed and jealousy would quickly appear.

“Zach, I don’t usually interfere in your choices, but I have some advice for you. The same people that boosted you up and clung to you when you were on the rise. Are the same people who will push and kick you when you are down.” Lisa avoided being negative or judgemental, but her experiences made her jaded when it involved certain matters.

“I am not saying you can’t make true friends that will stick with you no matter what. It is just that those people might be few and far between. Hard to find.” Lisa knew something had changed her son. It was in the way he spoke and handled situations.

Zach had his head bent. She couldn’t tell if he was crying or not, but she could see the tension in his shoulders. The conflicting emotions whirling around inside him were almost tangible.

Petting his head, Lisa waited for the moment to pass.

“I won’t tell anyone, mom.” He could have used this advice in his past life. Yet, he realized that even if she had said something, he might not have listened.

He and Crystal fought a lot, but he was in love with her. He wasn’t savvy enough to see through Ryan, so he thought they were best friends. The leaches and hanger on’s were good friends even though he forgot their names as the years passed.

“Mom, I want to move.” He didn’t lift his head. He didn’t have the confidence to see the look on her face.

Lisa’s hand paused. Move, but she had lived here for so long? She looked at the old apartment that she kept clean but still showed signs of age and wear and tear.

There were both good and bad memories associated with this apartment. With this city. She was eighteen, scared and pregnant when she came here. Mr. Shull, the landlord at the time, took pity on her and didn’t charge her rent for five months until the baby was born and she was working. He never took money for those months.

Tears formed in her eyes. She’d wanted to leave. For year’s she’d felt tied down by life and this apartment, even her son. Although she never regretted having him despite the struggle, she knew what kind of life she could have if she’d chosen to abort him.

Patting his leg, she didn’t bother to wipe away the tears streaming down her face. “Alright.” Her words were for both of them. “It’s time to go. We’ve outgrown this place.”

She didn’t ask about college. She didn’t ask about his friends. She didn’t ask about his girlfriend.

Zach wanted to leave everything behind. She could respect that.

She knew he didn’t have to tell her about the money he had won. He could have left her behind.

Pulling her son into a hug, they sat there in silence.

Zach pulled himself together. He didn’t think this would be so difficult. His mother understood more than he wanted her to. That made him wonder about her life experiences. He didn’t know much about his mother’s life before she had him.

“I am looking into buying a house. Let me get the brochures.” Using this as an excuse to put some distance between them and get his emotions under control.

“I plan to buy properties in both Jell and Pe City. One will be a rental property, and the other will be where you and I live.” He placed the material in front of her. “Do you have a preference for either city?”

“I have never been to either city.” Lisa grew up in the capital of R country. She was relieved when Zach didn’t bring that up as an option. Looking between at the houses, she felt overwhelmed. What about her job? “Can I think about this?”

He didn’t think she would answer immediately. Hell, he didn’t even think she would agree that quickly. He had a speech about the pros and cons of moving lined up.

They had time before they needed to make a decision. His mother should have had more time, but it took longer than he expected for the check to come. “Take all the time you need.”

It would be a while before the team he wanted was in place. He had a lawyer and accountant but couldn’t decide on a financial advisor. He knew people who were robbed blind by the people they hired. It was best to be careful.

***

A week later, they sat down for another talk.

During that week, they had various arguments.

Zach didn’t think she needed to work. If she did work, it should be something she wanted to do instead of something she needed to do to make ends meet.

Lisa didn’t think Zach should drop out of college. He was throwing away an opportunity. Having money didn’t guarantee a stable life. She wanted him to switch colleges instead of stopping altogether.

After clashing multiple times, they found compromises that worked for both of them.

“I would like to go to Pe City to live, and I think you should go to Jell City.” She’d thought about what she would like to do now. It was her biggest regret that she didn’t get to finish college. There was an art college she wanted to attend.

Lisa gathered that it didn’t matter where Zach lived. He had plans. He didn’t fill her in on what they were, but she got the picture that he had a definite goal. With this in mind, she thought it best they separate.

They didn’t have the money, so Zach stayed close to home for college. He didn’t live in a dorm, and his actions had to be run by his mother. While this wasn’t a bad thing, both of them could do with some separation. They could become dependent on each other. That wasn’t healthy.

Zach didn’t expect that answer from his mother. He’d been toying with the idea of buying a house for his mother and an apartment for himself. He needed independence to carry out his goals. His mother was too observant. He didn’t think they needed to be in separate cities.

“I don’t know how to be on my own.” Lisa looked out the window. Memories danced through her mind, but she didn’t focus on them. “Taking care of you has been my whole world. I didn’t have time to think about what I wanted to do after you were grown. Now you don’t need me, and I don’t need to work, and I find myself lost.”

Lisa didn’t want to live off her son. She’d put away some money to retire on. There was money in case of an emergency. Not to mention that Zach would take care of her. “She had time to relearn herself. What was she passionate about?”

“I could get an apartment. We don’t have to live together.” Zach didn’t know if he wanted to be a three-hour plane ride away from his mother. What if there was an emergency?

Lisa laughed. “You don’t understand how a mother’s mind works. I would be at your house every day cooking and cleaning, doing your laundry. I would want to take care of you.”

“Doesn’t that mean you are going to be constantly worried about me when I am living far away from you?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding her head. “That is why you have to answer all of my phone calls.”

He wanted to argue. He even had a few good arguments, but something in his mother’s eyes stopped him.

It was the same stubborn look he saw when he looked in the mirror. Why did he forget that he got his stubbornness from his mother?

Now that she’d made up her mind, he wouldn’t be able to change it.

“You can’t turn me away when I want to come over for a visit,” Zach said, forcing a laugh.

“Call before. I might have company.” Lisa flounced out of the room feeling lighter than she had in years.