From Writer's Block... The last time I saw my mother was fifteen years ago...
"The last time I saw my mother was fifteen years ago." Tiff leaned into the Zoom with her goblet of wine. We saw mostly her hand. And her nose. She peered into the camera and laughed. "What am I even going to say to her?"
Felix picked up his phone. We had been privy to his ceiling the whole night. "Look. You need to tell her everything. Like everything." We were still looking at the ceiling but a stream of smoke floated across the screen. It really was like a movie.
"She can't do anything about it. Neither of them. They can't make amends. It's been fifteen years." Gwen was an influencer so her camera was the exact distance from her face to make her look even more stunning than she was in real life. And she was stunning.
"You have to. You have to make amends Tiff. She might not make it." I chimed in. I scratched the stubble on my chin. It was that annoying length. "She's not going to make it Tiff. This isn't about her or you or your relationship. It's only about you."
You could hear her breathing. She was terrible at muting her phone. You often heard her burb or slurp or snore. You'd mute her. She'd chime in. Then she'd belch or laugh or yell at the cat. She was always yelling at the cat.
Tiffany leaned in, "What do I even say?"
"You know what to say." This time you saw Felix's face which was almost as white as the ceiling. "Tiffany Torres. You know better."
"Don't be a dick." We weren't even sure Gwen's mouth moved.
"Exactly."
"I think she was talking about you, Felix." I put my head in my hand and sighed. Loudly.
"Tiffany. Your mom is dying. It doesn't matter why. I mean yes, it does. It matters that she's become a FOX-news-loving nutjob. That's not insignificant. But at the end of the day. At the end of the day. You have to say all the things that you need to say, Tiff. You need to tell her that you love her. You need to tell her that you never stopped loving her and that she was always your mamma. That you're sorry we're in this position now but she needs to know that." Felix took a long drag of his cigarette. He started smoking to be different. To stick out. And he's literally the only person in our friend group and beyond who smokes. It's so very 1960s gay, which is probably why he won't quit. Felix is about aesthetics. "This is about you Tiff. And don't expect an I love you back. Carmen might not do that. She might not go there. And you have to be ok with that Tiff."
The quiet stretched into forever. Into the white noise that isn't there, that's part of Zoom conversations. That Gwen sets up because her marketing company pays for it. She makes three times as much with her YouTube Channel but we use Cloud Communications Zoom meetings.
"Ok." Tiffany could be heard walking into the kitchen grabbing more wine. "Ok." she shouts at her computer in the living room.
"Ok?" I question.
"Yes. Ok. It's ok. I can do this. I can tell Carmen that I love her. I can do this."
"It might be tough. She might be struggling to breathe. You're going to need to write out a script." Gwen said calmly.
"She got fucking COVID from her fucking husband who decided to die before her." Felix didn't mince words.
"I know. I know all of this. I know all of this." Tiffany's face was taking up the whole screen. "I got this friends."
I looked at the screens. I could only see Gwen. And Felix's smoke. Tiff was off the screen again.
And then we all heard it. Clap. A glass shattered. Silence.
"Tiffany! Tiffany!" Gwen was grabbing the edge of her scene. I could only see her mouth screaming, "Tiffany." Felix's face appeared.
"Oh no." I dropped my phone into my pocket and ran to the door. "Tiffany. We loved you. We loved you."
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