Doorstep

Barry brought a girl home, once. He was going out more and more, at this point of their roommate situation, and he even talked about some nice friends. Eugenie was continually mesmerized about how little he seemed to miss his mutant team, or even his job as a superhero. Had he ever got the chance to live a normal life? Guilt filled her heart, for looking at him with pure satisfaction in her heart during those moments, as if she had created a work of art out of him, a rehabilitated individual into a society he had not seemed to easily fit into. She really couldn’t accept this overzealous credit, she scolded herself. It was his doing, his resilience.

It was the middle of the night when she heard a crash at her entrance door, followed by some alarmed shushing and the shuffling of coats, the dull thuds of shoes dropped on the welcoming mat. Eugenie slid in a panic into the blanket of her bed, pushed her hand as strongly as she could against her mouth. A little wheeze of a laugh whistled from between her fingers so she closed her eyes and added her other hand on the push.

You little fennec, you little motherfucker, YOU DID NOT. He did, and she became horrified, when she understood that the girl had not just walked Barry back to the door but that she was entering inside the flat. Some muffled laughs clashed with the total silence of the living room and she heard the panicked gallop of Terence the cat to flee the scene and retreat into the bedroom.

As if she was competing in the olympic games of bed jumping, she lept desperately to the other side of the pillow next to the one where she was trying to sleep and shoved her hand inside the top drawer of her night table. The tip of her fingers brushed against the tangled lines of her earphones, and she pulled on them madly, holding her breath, plugged them into her phone and inserted the buds into her ears. Started the first thing on her last playlist, not that, not that, when she heard the opening notes of My heart will go on. Next! Daring a trembling leg out of her comforter and still in apnea, she pushed as hard as she could against her bedroom door. It slammed shut and she heard some giggles in the distance, before another song released her from this nightmare. It was Thunderstruck.

“Perfect” she whispered to herself, put it on repeat and grabbed her cat, tucked him under her arm. She closed her eyes inside her sleeping eyemask.

In the late hours of the morning, she waited until she was starving to even move a muscle, however her mission of patience became tortuous when a irresistible smell of eggs and bacon started to emanate from the kitchen. A concert of drums was beating inside Eugenie’s chest. Reluctantly, covering herself with a sweater, a cardigan and her thick robe, she got to exiting her bedroom and following the divine smell.

The girl was there with a spatula in her hand, her huge blue eyes devouring the rest of her face in anticipation. She was wearing Barry’s oversize tee-shirt on top of skinny jeans and she seemed to be shitting those pants. Her untidy hair was flowing, dark, on her shoulders. She was very beautiful, delicate and slender, with very small hands.

“Good morning Ms uh… Black?” she said, unsure.

“Ms White” Eugenie said, “please, don’t call me Ms White” Please don’t look at me, I’m just super hungry, “Ms White, I mean, Mrs White, is my mother, I mean my aunt, I mean” I just want one egg, and possibly, one glass of water.

“We made breakfast for you” the girl said with a quivering voice.

“We??” Finally, Eugenie’s eyes fell on Barry. He didn’t look like he had made any breakfast, yawning on top of his empty plate, scratching his chin. What the fuck she sent him the telepathic message but he avoided her stare.

“I showed Anatolia where all the pans were” he said, “I made the coffee and… ah shit, I forgot to push the button” He got up and they all stumbled around in the constricted space of the little kitchen. Freaking out at the forceful and disorderly intrusion into her space bubble, Eugenie slid on the side, grabbed the back of a chair.

“Anatolia, what a lovely name” she spoke to the girl, “I’m Eugenie”

“I told you it would be okay” Barry bragged, crossing his arms on his chest in front of the coffee machine.

“Barry, put a shirt on please” WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK she mouthed at him while Anatolia had her back to her, “it’s breakfast, not a frat house”

The boy obeyed in a grunt, hurried to fetch a jumper and joined them in the kitchen with more appropriate garments. “You slept well?” Eugenie asked pouring the coffee in the mugs; Anatolia was sitting very demurely on her chair in front of her, her wrists touching, as if she was trying to make herself as small as she could, and Anatolia kept saying yes with her head. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite, sweetie pie. I’m just going to have an egg and go for a jog, because you made delicious food, thank you”

“I told you my mom is cool with that” Barry said sitting down, enthusiastically grabbing his fork and his knife, “Jesus, I am starving” Eugenie chocked on her coffee and snatched a paper towel from the kitchen stand, pretending to blow her nose. The beverage was so hot it twisted in her esophagus, where it wasn’t meant to stay and linger, and burned her entire neck. She blinked away some tears.

MOM? Eugenie’s knee bumped forcefully against Barry’s under the table, “yes, thank you for the hospitality, madam, it is very kind of you” Anatolia added, her elbows off the tablecloth, softly picking eggs from her plate and sticking tiny bites into her tiny mouth. MOM?

Anatolia cleared her throat and said: “that is a very nice place you have here, in the center of the city”

“Yes” approved Eugenie-Mom, “I like it very much, it is so lively and convenient. You can really walk anywhere you need around here, no need to use a car or a bus” There was something that was not so unpleasant between their three chairs, something charming and warm and hygge in the smell of the food and hot drinks, “milk? Sugar?” she offered.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Barry was fighting the awkwardness of the moment by being his own self, Eugenie saw, gulping big spoons of yogurt and jam to avoid making conversation as his discomfort was palpable, and Anatolia kept tilting her head towards him, checking if he was going to come to her rescue, but he continued eating without saying anything, “it is uh” Anatolia said, “very nice of you to provide housing to Barry while he’s finishing his internship” Barry smiled horribly at Eugenie, his cheeks swollen by the food like he was a Guinea Pig.

“Hm” Eugenie coughed, still processing the burn inside her throat, “internship, of course. Well, what can I say? My son’s well-being is the most important to me. I am just so happy that he is on this uh, internship, you know, that he has found his way”

“Thanks mom” Barry said, trying to hide behind a glass of water that he couldn’t sip from because his mouth was too full, “you’re the best”

“I will tell you one thing, dear. For a while” Eugenie went on, “I was soo worried my son was a bit lost. He didn’t seem to have any direction in his life. So this, this opportunity, I’m ready to sleep on the bathroom floor if necessary”

“Ah, yes no well, mommy, I was just taking my time. You know me, I always have a plan”

Mommy… Eugenie gagged between her teeth, promised herself she would soon go jogging in the park and hide behind a tree and cry. For some reason mommy was even worse than mom. Her eye fell on the knife next to her untouched breakfast plate and she remembered Barry’s old classmate, Stan, fantasizing to use his plastic spoon to stab Barry in the neck at the canteen.

“I guess you needed time to fall back on your feet after this horrible accident” Anatolia wiped her mouth and pointed at Barry’s stomach, where she had must have noticed the presence of things that had undoubtedly raised many questions. Who knew what answers Barry had provided to those, “you must have been so scared, Ms White” she said, “Barry told me he almost died.”

Fucking hell, Eugenie’s mind was racing, glancing desperately at Barry who was emptying his second glass of water. Without a doubt, her had probably drunkenly narrated a heroic tale to her the evening before, and there was no way to guess what it had been. Knowing Barry, it could have occurred in the real world or in Wakanda, or on the Starship Entreprise.

“Oh my God, Anatolia, you don’t say!” she hoped that answer would be enough, kicked Barry once more under the table, but he seemed equally at a loss.

Anatolia’s face was open, curious, ready to be all ears, so at last, he jumped in clumsily, “you know uh… speeding, is… uh, bad” he said.

“That is a lesson for you children” Eugenie spoke carefully, unable to eat another bite, “this car accident”

“Car? Barry told me it was a kayak accident”

Kayak? Barry’s nose was touching the water deep into his third glass and he closed his eyes in despair, “hahaha” Eugenie laughed horrendously, a kayak accident? “We uh… you know, Barry’s father and I, his mom, used to uh… nickname, hm, Barry’s kayak a car, isn’t that adorable, honey? Do you remember, honey?” she asked Barry with insistence. He nodded helplessly, “because when he was a little boy, he couldn’t say ‘kayak’, that idio— I mean, cutie pie, he just uh… kept pointing at it and yell : ‘Car! Car! Car’”

“That was good” Barry blew some air inside his glass, impressed, “I mean, the food. I mean, this water also, water is very good” and Eugenie stomped his bare foot with her slipper under the table, pushed on all his toes.

“What a scary story” Anatolia commented, “I never thought whether I would try kayaking before, but now I know I won’t ever go near it!” She was completely at ease now, bringing one of her knees to her chin on her seat, just taking her time enjoying the horrific tale of kayaking she was being fed.

“Well” Eugenie said, “not everyone goes into kayaking like a cowboy, sweetie. If you are, you know, a normal person, reasonable, like, cautious, you can do all the kayaking you want, and such an accident will probably not happen to you”

“Well” Barry embarked on her second-degree wagon, “I would say, still, that kayaking is a dangerous sport anyway”

“Tons of people go kayaking and don’t get hurt, my little baby bear”

“I guess we should ask this question to an expert on kayaking, instead of just brainstorming about it, don’t you?”

“I think the experts would—”

“I’m uh… Please, can I use your bathroom Ms White? I mean Eugenie” Anatolia interrupted. Both Eugenie and Barry nodded madly, supportive of the idea, so she went, moving gracefully between the furniture.

“Are you out of your mind?” Eugenie whispered-exploded once the girl was gone, “what the fuck is this?”

“I’m so sorry Ms White” Barry whined like a little kid, “we went out, there was a lot of drinking and one thing led to ano--”

“I’m not talking about that! How… why MOM?”

“Shhhh”

“Mom” she quietly sobbed into her napkin to add to her theater

“I couldn’t think of anything else I’m sor—”

“You will pay for this mom thing, I swear”

“It just popped out in my brain and I—”

“I’m trying to save your date, you silly goose, and you’re not giving me any information!”

“Ms White! I’m trying to recollect the specific details myself, I have a total blank”

“A kayak accident? Are you serious? Where the hell do you find those things?”

They looked at each other, both pondering the question with huge eyes, then they burst out laughing, which prompted Anatolia to deem the space safe enough to re-enter it. Soon, the flush of the bathroom was heard, followed by the sound of the faucet, and Eugenie and Barry were still giggling when she came back with a smile of relief on her traits. She sat down again and added one cube of sugar into her coffee, not daring to ask what all the fun was about.

“Sorry Anatolia” Barry said, “Ms W— My mom and I were remembering something very funny she said to me when I woke up at the hospital”

“You guys are so cute! I wish I laughed like that with my parents”

“You don’t get along with your family, dear?” Eugenie asked as a diversion from what she sensed was becoming too fun for Barry.

“It’s not that” Anatolia sighed, “it’s all going great with my mom, but she works a lot, and since I have left home, we don’t talk as much as before. My step dad is nice too but he is a bit of an introvert” Eugenie offered the mastered-over-time nod and sympathetic frown she usually gave to students when she wasn’t listening to their bullshit reasons for not turning homework, simply because she was bracing for what she knew was next “So” Anatolia asked, “what was this funny thing?”

“It was uh… You tell her Barry”

“No you tell her. You came up with it”

“Sometimes it’s so strange it feels like you came up with it, go ahead”

“You’re a way better storyteller than I am, please”

“Stop with the nonsense” Eugenie was aware of Anatolia’s confusion restored on the other side of the table, so she forced a big spoon of yogurt into her mouth.

Barry exhaled heavily, half-smiling, silently admitting defeat, “she told me uh… she said: ‘If you ever die, I will kill you with my bare hands’”

Silence.

“Hilarious” Eugenie said dryly.

Anatolia scoffed with politeness, “wow, that’s… uh… intense”

“But then mom also told me the sweetest thing” Barry continued, unperturbed, “the sweetest thing in the world” he looked eagerly at Eugenie.

“Yes? Oh my god, what was it?”