​     And now Katy had to grip real tight​ to her inner self to ward off a full blown panic attack. Stay away from the deep, black hole, Katy, she screamed at herself. There's nothing there but terror and depression and emptiness. But I need to talk to somebody. Who can I call to keep from going completely crazy?

     No choice, really. 

​     Ring. Ring. 

     "Yeah? Katy, is that you?" her mother all but barked into the phone. Katy felt instantly intimidated, as she had almost all of her life when it came to her mother. 

     "Uh...yes. Yes, it is."

​     Katy's mother, whose name was Rosalee, didn't then bark, "and what in the hell are you calling me for?", although she may as well have. That's what her attitude said. Instead, what came out was, "I'm halfway through polishing up the bathroom."

     And also halfway through your third beer, Katy thought. She asked, "Mom, what are you doing?"

​     "I just got through telling you, I'm..."

     "I mean...I mean...Do you think I could come over?  

​     "Come over? What do you mean, come over? You mean now? Right now?"

     "Okay. Okay, I..."

     "What, you get in a fight with Dwayne?"

     "No, mother, Dwayne and I are not fighting."

​     "That's right. Dwayne's always too high to get in a fight with anybody!" Rosalee cracked up over that one. "Why aren't you at work? What'd you do, get fired?"

​     "Mother! No, I...well, as a matter of fact, I..."

     "You got fired?" Rosalee almost screamed that out. 

​     Oh man, I'm sorry I did this, Kathy thought. I should never, never have called my mother. What was I thinking?

     "And how in the hell did you manage to do that?" Rosalee asked. "Katy, I swear I don't know what I'm going to do with you. You seem to go out of your way to...well, now what are you going to do? Jobs don't grow on trees, you know. Not these days. And how much do you still owe, exactly? How much do you still owe on that student loan I begged you not to take?" 

     "I'm hanging up, mother."

     "Have you talked to your sister about this? Now there's a woman with a head on her shoulders. When I think that the two of you were raised in the..."

​     "Mother, if you..."

     "And if you think you can move in here with me you've got another think..."

​     "Bye mother." For the third time, Katy broke the connection with the person she talked to.

CONTINUE​