Chapter 7

“This is why I hate the holidays,” Danni mumbled under her breath. She sat on the corner of one of the two beds in the room and listened to her mother rattle on. The woman was inside the small bathroom, with the door shut, and still she did not stop talking. Danni just kept saying in the direction of the door, “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” and was not even sure her Mom heard her or cared.

Finally when the door came open, Tammy Patrelli came walking out with a huge smile on her face. She stopped, raised her hands up, and said, “well, what do you think?”

Her mother had changed clothes. That much was obvious but, then again, she had done that before she went in there. Her hair looked more or less the same so that was not it. Danni just shrugged, “um, looks great.”

Tammy deflated and looked disappointed, “you never were a very good liar Daniealla.” The woman walked over to her bags on the little hotel room dresser and she was shaking her fingers at her daughter the entire way, “This is just like that time you pushed that boy down and split his lip wide open. How you ever expected me to believe that…”

“MOM!” When the woman stopped talking, something that Danni could not even believe, she went on by saying, “I was six years old back then!”

Tammy sighed as she slid her makeup kit back into her bag. She dropped her head and then said, “one day maybe you’ll understand Danni. You being six was just yesterday for me.” Then Tammy became much more resolute when she turned to Danni and told her, “and to just clarify what you said earlier.”

Danni was shocked, “you were actually listening?”

Her mother went off as if she were not listening now, “I did not come back here because of this Family Day thing. I didn’t even remember what day it was here. I’m not sure I even remembered that day when I actually lived here.”

Danni dropped her head, “Mom, that wasn’t me that said that. That was the reporter woman back at the airport.”

“Oh,” Tammy looked a bit confused. “Well it doesn’t matter anyway because she was right about you dressing like a hoodlum. Think you could fit into some of my clothes? You’ve put on a little weight since I was here but they might….”

“MOM!” The room went silent for a minute as Danni tried to collect herself. Then she carefully picked her words and said them very slowly, “why did you come back?”

The strangest part about it, at least to Danni, was that her mother looked pretty embarrassed. Danni could not ever remember seeing this woman like that. Danni had always thought it so funny how Asian women had the reputation of blabbering non stop. While, she had to admit that there might be a little truth to that the real fact was, that her mother, Tammy, never had a problem out talking any of the Nguyen women on Danni’s paternal side of the family. In fact, Tammy pretty much squashed them and then took over the pack.

Why was it that Danni was getting the sinking feeling that her mother was turning some of those skills on her? Tammy put her hands on her hips and looked very rightfully indignant, “why do you think, Daniealla? I get a letter, and not even from my own daughter, that tells me you’ve been shot. I find out that you almost died and had major surgery.”

Now Danni was angry and she stood up off the bed and squared off with her mother, “how did you find out about that? Who sent you the letter?”

Tammy crossed her arms and had her nose high and away when she just simply said, “who do you think?”

Danni turned away in furry and began stomping about the floor. Then she figured out exactly what she wanted to do about it. Of course her plan was not so much what she had thought of but, just something she felt. She took her phone out of her pocket and turned it back on. She hit dial button for one particular person and he picked up almost instantly.

He might have gotten two words out of his mouth before Danni lit into him, “Norm! You ass hole!” Danni turned her phone back off and then slung it down on the bed so hard that it actually bounced a few times.

Danni was still stomping around and steaming when her mother calmly asked, “why did you think I wouldn’t want to know?”

Danni could not force herself to look at her mother. It was not because of anything to do with Tammy. It was just because Danni could not stop moving long enough to actually do it. Danni was even slinging her arms around when she said, “because!” When that answer did not seem satisfactory, even to Danni, she then said to her mother, “you were on another world Mom. What could you do? There wasn’t any reason to worry you about it. I’m fine. It’s over with.”

Tammy crossed her arms and told her daughter, “doesn’t look like that to me now.”

Now Danni stopped frantically pacing about. She looked at her mother and with a scowl she said, “oh that’s really deep Mom. Why weren’t you thinking about that when you left me here? I was eighteen years old. I needed you!”

“Oh trust me,” Tammy said with her venom now, “if it hadn’t been for that damn war I would have been out of here a hell of lot sooner than that. I wouldn’t have wasted a second after your father got killed.”

Danni blew up, “you see! You would have abandoned me even younger.”

Tammy felt like slapping her child at this point but, she held back. Instead she remained firmly in the rational and said, “no, because if I’d been able to get out of here sooner then you would still have been a minor and then you wouldn’t have had any choice but come. Then I would have never had to go through the pain of knowing that my daughter loves some crappy little shit hole planet more than her own mother.”

Those words had turned extremely venomous towards the end but, that was not what Danni noticed. She was in complete astonishment, her face was pale, and her jaw was gaping when she meekly asked, “Mom? Did you really just say the word shit?”