The day after my birthday, I pulled up to my mom's house. She was sitting inside, acting weird. I saw a check made out for two hundred dollars to a person I had never heard of. I thought I had taken all of her checks away.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Oh it's for this guy that is fixing a door at Holly's house." she answered.
What the fuck? No one is fixing a door at my sister's house and my mom wouldn't be the one paying him. More weird stories and lies. I found myself getting irritated already and slid the check into my purse. And the rest of the checkbook. Oddly, she had packed a bag for rehab, though I had already packed her one. I grabbed them both and put them in the trunk, then loaded her up. We were snapping at each other the whole time. As I started to drive, I looked up in rearview mirror and realized she wasn't wearing her hearing aids.
"Mom, you are going to rehab. You are supposed to participate in therapy and you don't have your hearing aids?!!" I asked, incredulous.
She kind of shrugged, clearly not giving a shit.
I turned around and roared back to her house. When I pulled up, a large white pickup truck was in the driveway. A man sat inside the truck and a woman was on the front porch. They had a rather meth look to them. I walked up to the porch.
"Yes?" I said to the woman, mentally daring her to come at me. She might be some methed out cracker, but I was angry enough to beat anyone's ass.
"So Janet, she uh, you know, I pick her up when she can't get up. And uh, she said she'd give me some money...."
"Well, she's right there in the backseat of my car. Go talk to her." I answered, then I went inside to look for her fucking hearing aids. Work it out with your buddies, mom. Work it out.
After finding one hearing aid, I walked back outside. The woman was talking to my mom through the window of the car.
"So, did you give her her money?" I asked my mom curtly.
"Yes..." my mom said, uncertainly.
I looked at the woman. She shook her head.
"Is that what this fucking check was for mom? The one made out to John?" I continued.
The meth people nodded their meth heads up and down.
I handed the woman the check, the woman that I assume was the mysterious Patty. They jumped in the truck and pulled away immediately.
"Jesus Christ, mom. Jesus Christ." I said, pulling out of the driveway.
We drove to Duluth in silence. When we got to the rehab, a nurse came out to begin the intake process. My mom was trying to be cute, just a charming little old lady. I was waiting for my mom to sabotage it, waiting for them to say they couldn't take her. The vibe between us was palpably tense.
"How many drinks do you have a day?" the nurse asked.
"I have two a day." my mom said brightly.
"Quit lying, mom." I interjected. She was about to kick up nearly twenty thousand dollars, but still lying.
"She goes through one of those big giant rum bottles with the handle on it every few days and even throws wine into the mix on top of it."
"I'm a drunk." my mom said dramatically.
I could tell that she thought that would shock them, an old lady saying she was a drunk.
"I tried pot once." she continued, giggling.
No one else was laughing.
"Her meds are a mess." the intake nurse announced.
"This stuff does not make any sense together."
"Yeah, I've been trying to get her to a new doctor to get everything straightened out...." I answered, getting nervous.
I was surprised when they indicated they would take her. They would start her on medical detox and then move her over to the therapy side in a couple of days. It was time to pay. I had checked her account that morning and was surprised that she had moved the money into her checking account so that I could pay for her rehab. Something weird was going on with the payment. I ended up calling them, telling them they had to let this payment through. My mom kept putting her phone on speaker, some crazy bullshit was caterwauling through the reception area. I was ready to explode. Finally, she transferred the money to my account and I paid with my card.
"Um, can I leave now?" I asked the man at the desk, quietly.
"Uh, people usually wait until they take them in the back, but uh, you can leave it you want....." he said hesitantly.
I waited. Finally a man came up, grabbed my mom's bags and told her to come back. She sort of sat there like she expected him to carry her, too. Then, she got up and walked with her walker through the door to treatment area.
She didn't even look over her shoulder at me. She didn't even say goodbye.
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