* * *
Mother’s Day came and went. It wasn’t much of a success.
“Happy Mother’s Day Mum.” I’d forgotten to get a card, but knew I could do even better. “I’ll cut the grass for you today shall I?”
My mum turned to me, smiling as if I’d offered her the moon. “That would be lovely Lu, how nice!” Things got off to a good start when, with my brother Dean’s help, we managed to find the lawn mower and plug it in. Normally I would never have given up a Sunday morning like that, but then it was Mother’s Day. And even more important than that, Al wasn’t around, his family were taking his mum for lunch.
“Cheers Dean, I’ll take it from here.” I intended to do this one nice thing for my mum on my own.
Plus Dean hadn’t made the mistake of forgetting a card so he didn’t need to make it up to her, he’d been helped by my dad in that respect. I was now considered old enough to manage buying a card by myself, although this was obviously too much to expect.
I set off and immediately found it harder than I was prepared for, the heavy sun beating down as I pushed the lawn mower around the uneven garden, from one rut to the next. Eventually I was done though, and what a result. A vaguely neat and definitely very short lawn. I ran in, desperate to get the acknowledgement from my mum that I’d done good so I could go out before the sun was lost behind the ever increasing clouds.
“Oh Lu! What have you done to my flowers?!” was the response I got, on leading her out into the newly shaved garden. Fuck it, at least I’d learnt an important lesson. Never forget to buy her a card, and if I ever do forget a sorry will suffice. Most importantly never offer to do anything for anyone.
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