And Then in Swooped the Madness

            Startled, I quickly pushed myself off the bed. I stood with a stiff back and listened for whatever it was I thought I’d heard. There was only the bed groaning as Kyle got up as well. “It’s nothing,” I muttered to myself, although I was positive there had been a voice. It felt as if it had come from within my head. How ridiculous.

            “Uh, Babe, are you okay?” Kyle questioned. “I know we, uh, moved kinda fast there.”

“I’m fine,” I answered shortly.

“I must say, I’m impressed. I thought it’d be dull to watch your life.”

            The voice was my Mother’s. Despite it being impossible, I knew it was her. I wanted to scream or pull my hair out or do something unproductive and reckless, but I was able to collect myself long enough to get dressed and escort Kyle out. As I was thanking him for visiting, he rushed me with a kiss, much more passionate than the ones we usually shared. It would have been enjoyable, had Mother not somehow been nagging in my head the entire time.

“This would be a lot more interesting if you weren’t gambling with my fate! How could you choose this loser? Look at him! If you have any children with him, they’ll come out looking like beanbag chairs. Or walruses. Tell me, how will I ever break the curse with a beanbag or walrus?”

            Kyle pulled back and said something that I am sure was quite romantic and sweet. I could not grasp it, my attention being pulled both by the voice in my head and Odie glaring at me.

            Once Kyle drove away, I went outside, not minding the rain. There, with no one watching, I allowed myself a chance to be melodramatic. I threw my arms up and asked the sky, “What is wrong with me?”

“I told you and your sister a hundred times about the curse. Weren’t you paying any attention?”

“Leave me alone, Mother.”

“Some people would kill for—”

“No, nobody would kill to have a conceited wretch like you in their head!”

“Well, there’s no need to be rude.”

            I went back in and started preparing dinner, wishing to do something completely normal. While I chopped whatever ingredients we happened to have in the fridge, I tried to analyze whatever was happening.

            Guilt. It could have been my subconscious trying to punish me for seeing two men at once. Things had changed, even if I didn’t know exactly how, since I became an official girlfriend.

            That wasn’t it though. No, there was a more sinister explanation. I did not want to face it, but what else could it have been? Mother and her delusions. Odie and her breaks from reality. Our genes must have been riddled with mental disease. I thought I’d escaped insanity, but it was apparently catching up to me.

            I couldn’t take the thought, and broke down, tears spilling into the stew. It wasn’t fair! I was so close to achieving my lifetime wish, so close to ultimate career success. Couldn’t the madness have waited a while longer before appearing?

            Again, I forced a straight face and called my sister for dinner.

            Maybe Odie knew something about what I was going through. It might not have been as bad if I wasn’t alone. “Odie?” I asked after clearing my throat. “Does Mother ever talk to you still?”

            She gave me the worst look. “What kind of joke is that? Mom’s dead.”

            I apologized and then excused myself to the bathroom, where I berated my and my mother’s insanity as quietly as possible.

“It’s the curse. Stop behaving like a simpleton and listen to me!”

“Be quiet Mother; this is entirely your fault,” I growled back.

“You know, Aspen, you are right about that.”