Stubby remained distant and didn’t call or even send a text all day Saturday. Not that I really noticed, because my hands were full with Ma. She had a really bad day looking online, trying to find a job, when there didn’t seem to be anything good available. Then I caught her on the phone with Donny, asking him if I could just do a few readings a month, and he’d blown a gasket. I could hear him yell at her all the way across the room. After a few minutes, she slammed the phone down and headed straight for her stash. “Ma!” I snapped, once I saw her filling the big plastic cup. I couldn’t take it anymore. “If you’re going to get a job, don’t you think you should try and cut back a little?” She glared hard at me, and before I knew it we were yelling at each other. Getting angry had never gotten Ma off the bottle, but I couldn’t help it. I yelled and yelled at her, and then I threw my hands up and headed upstairs. When I came back down a few hours later I realized she’d left.
