Page 32 of Requiem

Now, she’s dividing her glare between me and a dumbfounded Julia.

“What?” What’re you talking about, Mom?”

“You cannot, for a single second, have thought that I wouldn’t recognize that little boy as a Corrigan.”

Holy shit. Now I get it, and before I can help myself, I start to laugh. Not a short burst of laughter, either. This is that irrational, near hysterical laughter that consumes you when you realize you have stepped into a cluster fuck of epic proportions.

“You think this is funny?” she spits at me.

I nod, tears streaming down my face, even as her face grows redder with rage.

“Brett! That is quite enough!”

Behind her, Elise and Dianne are wide-eyed. I guess they’re getting more of a show than they bargained for. The thought of it sets me off again. I try to catch my breath and swipe at my wet face with the back of my sleeve.

“Oh, oh my God!” I gasp, trying to get myself under control.

Finally, I manage to quash the unruly cackling and I will myself to look my mother square in the eye.

“He’s not my son, Mom,” I insist with as straight a face as I can muster.

She’s just about to lay into me, raising her index finger to poke me, the way she does when she’s furious. Exactly the same way that Grandma Ruth did. But then she stops. She realizes what it is that I’m trying to tell her, and now it’s her turn to look stunned. Finally, she turns her attention to Julia, who looks as if she’d give anything to be crushed by a rogue asteroid at this very moment.

My mother’s tone softens considerably. “He’s yours and …Jeremy’s?”

Tears have started to slip down Julia’s face, too, but hers are definitely not tears of laughter. My mother pushes me aside gently and moves to stand in front of Julia. It’s quite an extraordinary sight as Trudy uses her thumbs to wipe the tears from Julia’s freckled face, the way that she did for me when I was a child. Then she opens her arms and pulls Julia into her.

“Shhhh. It’s alright,” I hear my mother murmur in her ear as Julia heaves with silent sobs. “It’s alright, Dear. It’s all going to be just fine.”