“We Gave Your Ticket to My Mom – The Grandkids Love Her More.” Just Moments Later…

Panic in the Lobby

And now let’s transport 6,000 miles south. Sterling stood in the hotel lobby trying to catch a weak signal from the local Wi-Fi. Chaos reigned around him.

Valencia was screaming at Rashid demanding to speak to upper management. Odessa sat on a suitcase fanning herself with a brochure loudly proclaiming that such a mess never happens in Jamaica.

The children, tired and hungry, were tugging at their father’s pant leg. “Daddy we want to eat. Daddy when are we going to the pool?”

Sterling swatted them away like annoying flies. His phone beeped. He opened the message, read it, and his face already pale from stress turned gray earthy.

Valencia, noticing the change in his face, stopped mid-sentence. “What is it? She transferred the money?”

Sterling looked up at her. In his eyes was not just fear; there was the panic of a man who suddenly realized he is standing on the edge of a precipice with no parachute on his back.

He wheezed, “The office. She’s selling the office.”

Valencia didn’t understand. “What office?”

Sterling suddenly screamed, breaking into a squeal, “Your office! It’s not mine, Valencia! It never was mine. She put everything in her name. And the car too. She writes that she is selling it all to realtors right now!”

Valencia snatched the phone from him. “Are you an idiot? How could you let her put everything in her name? You said you were the owner!”

Sterling replied, “I thought it was a formality! She’s my mother!”

Valencia threw the phone at his chest. “Mother? Your mother is a monster! She is destroying us! Do you realize that without the office they won’t give you that loan for expansion? You have the office as collateral for the new project!”

Sterling grabbed his head and slid down the wall to the floor right onto the marble tiles of the lobby.

He gulped. “If she sells the office the bank will demand early repayment of the loan and I have… I have a cash gap there. They’ll declare me bankrupt.”

Odessa hearing the word bankrupt stopped fanning herself. Her voice suddenly became hard and business-like without any baby talk. “So, that means there is no money and there won’t be any.”

Valencia rushed to her husband. “Mama wait! Call her! Call and beg! Say anything! Get on your knees! Record a video! Let her stop the sale!”

A Lesson in Reality

Sterling pressed the call button with trembling fingers. The rings were long drawn out. I looked at the screen of my phone lying on the kitchen table.

The name “Son” blinked on the display. I sipped my tea. It was delicious Earl Grey. I didn’t answer.

Let him suffer. Let him realize the lesson had only just begun. The phone fell silent but only for a second to explode with a new trill.

I looked at the screen feeling something inside me finally turned to stone. Valencia called, then Sterling again, then an unknown number, evidently Odessa.

I turned off the sound, flipped the phone screen down and returned to repotting the ficus. Hands in the earth, the smell of dampness and peat—this was soothing.

It was creative work unlike what I’d been doing for the past 20 years: raising parasites. Meanwhile on the other side of the world paradise was finally turning into hell.

They had been sitting in the lobby for 3 hours. The air conditioners were working at full power but it didn’t cool the atmosphere. Sterling sat on the floor, head in his hands.

Valencia paced the space from the check-in counter to the exit furiously clicking her heels. She yelled, stopping abruptly in front of her husband. “We can’t sit here forever! Do something! Are you a man or a rag?”

Sterling looked up at her with red inflamed eyes. “What am I supposed to do, Valencia? My card is in the negative. The office is being sold. Mama isn’t picking up.”

At that moment Rashid approached them. His patience seemed to have run out along with the workday. His voice was icy. “Ladies and gentlemen, the lobby is closing for nightly cleaning. You will have to leave the premises.”

Odessa shrieked, “Where will we go? Into the street at night with children? You are animals!”

Rashid replied calmly, “I can call the police if you refuse to leave voluntarily. Or you can pay for the rooms.”

Sterling barked, “We don’t have money!”

Then Rashid pointed to the exit. “The public beach. There are benches there.”

The Real Bottom

This was the end. The end of the illusion. The end of the beautiful life. They walked out into the stifling tropical night.

The humidity immediately clung to them like wet cotton. Mosquitoes usually poisoned on the hotel grounds felt like masters here beyond the perimeter.

Odessa, that beloved grandmother, suddenly stopped and threw her handbag onto the sand. She poked a finger at her daughter.

“This is all your fault! ‘Let’s take mama. Let’s save on the ticket. It’s bad for the old lady to fly anyway.’ You saved money. Now we are bums in the Maldives!”

Valencia choked with indignation. “Me? You whined for a week yourself! ‘Oh I want to go to the ocean! Oh warm my bones!’ You yourself suggested taking her ticket! She’s old, she won’t understand!”

Odessa stepped toward her daughter. “I suggested it? You snake! You are always greedy, just like your father! I warned you, don’t anger the mother-in-law until she rewrites the will! And you… she’s a sucker, she’ll swallow everything!”

“She swallowed it all right,” Valencia laughed and that laugh was scary.

The children, Cairo and Zuri, sat on the suitcases and cried quietly. They wanted to eat, sleep, and go home. They didn’t understand why the adults were screaming and why Grandma Odessa now looked like the evil witch from a fairy tale.

Sterling yelled, “Shut up both of you!”

He raised his voice at his mother-in-law for the first time in his life. “You both drove me to this! You made it all up!”

I said, “Don’t touch mama’s ticket.”

Valencia laughed. “You said? You stood there and mooed like a calf! ‘Yes mommy it’ll be better this way.’ You’re a coward Sterling! You’re just a zero without mommy’s money!”

She hit the mark and he knew it. Sterling snatched his phone. He dialed my number again but this time he didn’t wait for the rings.

He recorded a voice message. I listened to it 10 minutes later when I finished with the flower and washed my hands.

His voice trembled breaking into sobs. In the background the sound of the surf and Valencia’s hysterical screams were audible.

“Ulalia, mama, mommy please forgive us! We are idiots! We understood everything! We have nowhere to sleep! The kids are hungry! Odessa, she just lost her mind! She’s screaming at Valencia! Mama I beg you unblock the cards! At least for food! At least for return tickets! We’ll come back and I’ll work it all off I swear! Cancel the sale of the office! I’ll perish without it! Mama we are family!”

The Phone Call

I sat in the kitchen looking at the dark window. Family. A beautiful word. I pressed the call button.

He answered instantly as if he was holding the phone to his ear. “Mama! Mama thank God! Did you hear? Did you forgive us?”

I answered, “Hello, Sterling.” My voice sounded cheerful, even merry. “Why are you whispering?”

He whispered, “I walked away so they wouldn’t hear. Mama it’s hell here! Put everything back please! Put back!”

I pretended to think. “But son, you said yourself at the airport: the grandkids love Odessa more. Doesn’t grandma’s love keep you warm? Won’t she feed you?”

Sterling begged, “Mama don’t mock me! Odessa, she’s a monster! She only thinks about herself!”

I was sincerely surprised. “Really? And it seemed to me she was the ideal grandmother. Energetic, fun. Not like me, old and sick. By the way, Sterling, I can’t talk long right now.”

“Why are you busy? What can you be busy with at 2:00 a.m.?” He asked.

“I’m meeting with a realtor.” I lied. Although the meeting was scheduled for the morning, for him it sounded scarier than any truth.

“We have an urgent deal. A buyer for your… sorry, for my office was found very quickly. He offers a good price for urgency.”

“No mama no! Don’t sell! This is the end!” He cried.

“This isn’t the end Sterling. This is the beginning of your independent life. You always wanted to be independent. Here is your chance.”

“Mama how will we get back? We don’t have return tickets! You cancelled them!”

“Well Odessa is an inventive woman. Let her come up with something. Maybe she can sell her gold trinkets. They are heavy surely. Mama good night son, or good morning. I got confused with the time zones. Oh yes, say hello to Valencia. Tell her I appreciated her concern for my blood pressure. It is perfect right now.”