Christopher came home three days later.
I wasn’t there. But Mr. Petrakis from across the street told me about it afterward. He was out raking leaves.
Christopher’s Uber pulled up at around six in the evening. He climbed out with a tan he didn’t have when he left, carrying his rolling suitcase and a bag from the duty-free shop.
He walked up to the front door. He tried his key.
It worked. I hadn’t changed the locks. It was his house too.
He walked inside.
Mr. Petrakis said it was quiet for about five minutes.
Then he heard Christopher yell. One word.
“MOM?”
He’d seen the urn.
And next to it, on the dining room table, the divorce papers. And my wedding ring. And the envelope with the date of his mother’s memorial service.
The memorial service had been that morning.
At St. Mary’s. Ten a.m. Sixty-one people came. Dottie flew up from Florida. Doris from the bank came. The Haddonfield Garden Club came in a group, all wearing the green corsages they wear to everything.
I gave the eulogy.
Christopher’s chair, in the front row, was empty.
That night, my phone rang forty-one times.
I didn’t answer any of them.
Then, at eleven o’clock, he texted.
Where are you? Why didn’t you tell me? How could you not tell me my own mother died?
I looked at that text for a long time.
Then I took a screenshot of my call log from the night Gertrude died.
Thirty outgoing calls. All to Christopher. From 7:52 p.m. to 11:41 p.m.
I sent it to him without a word.
He didn’t text again that night.
The next morning, Harold Abernathy called Christopher and asked him to come to his office on Kings Highway that Friday. For the reading of his mother’s will.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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