Mother's Day
"Okay, so I'll bite. Who's Norma Spool?"
Caleb looked up as Dylan peeked at the piece of paper in front of him.
"Ah, no – see – it says, Norma's Pool. You see?"
Dylan blinked.
"This is a drawing of a pool?" he asked.
"Yeah," Caleb replied. "I saw that huge pit that asshole dug in her yard and I thought maybe I could design the actual pool she wanted."
"It needs an apostrophe," Dylan pointed out, "And I didn't know you knew how to design pools."
Caleb shrugged.
"I don't," he replied, "I didn't get very far. But, you know, it's Mother's Day. So I figure…"
Dylan raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know, man. Chocolate would be a lot more… normal," he pointed out. Caleb snapped his fingers.
"Chocolate. Got it. What about you, what are you getting her?"
Dylan shrugged.
"I don't know. I don't… really usually get her anything, but now we're closer, so I guess… I guess I had better get her something."
"Something from the heart." Caleb pounded his chest. "Right from the heart."
Norma was busy washing dishes when Dylan walked through the door.
"Oh, hey Dylan. Did you want dinner?"
Dylan shook his head and lifted up a large item, wrapped in red wrapping paper.
"Happy Mother's Day," he said, shuffling a bit awkwardly. "This one is from me." He lifted up a bag. "And, um, this one is from Caleb."
Norma began to open both of those, letting out a gasp when Dylan's revealed a large, intricately-put-together collage of pictures of Norma, Dylan, (and a few of Norman) from when Dylan had been a little kid.
"Dylan!" Norma exclaimed. "It's beautiful. Thank you." She opened her arms and held him tight, then began to reveal Caleb's gift a little more reluctantly. The bag turned out to contain another bouquet of lupins and a five-pound chocolate bar with the name "Norma Louise" personally carved into it.
"Well… and… tell Caleb… thank you," she offered.
At this point Norman, who had been quietly watching the proceedings from the table while he did homeschool work, launched out of his chair.
"I got you something too, Mother," he declared. "I was going to make you a sheep, but I didn't think you would appreciate it." He glared at her, then at Dylan for good measure. "So I got you this." He reached down and scooped up a blank CD case, handing it over. "It's a mix CD. Of all your favorite songs."
Norma grinned, then reached out her hands and hugged Norman, too.
"Thank you, baby. And I'm really… relieved you decided not to go with the sheep idea." She looked down at the enormous chocolate bar. "Okay, you know what, Norman, Dylan – call Emma and that Gunner kid, too. There's no way I'm going to be able to eat this all by myself."
As her two sons walked off to make the phone calls, she shook her head. It was a very good Mother's Day, indeed.
