Mom.

Daniel stood on the steps that led up to the door of his mother's house. The house he grew up in. He didn't want to be there but he was there. When he moved out and got his own place he swore he'd never come back, but throughout the years he had returned several times. Too many times to count. He never wanted to but something always told him he should. Maybe it was guilt. Maybe he just felt bad for the old woman. She needed some company sometimes. Everyone did. She didn't have any friends as far as he knew. She just had Daniel and his brother and cats. He brother had moved far away though.

Daniel breathed in a deep breath and stepped up the steps to the door and knocked on the door. It was cold out. Cold as hell. His knuckles hurt as they hit the wood.

Knock, knock, knock.

He waited and then heard his mother speak from inside.

"Hello? Who is it?" She said.

"It's Daniel. Let me in Mom. It's freezing out here."

"Oh! Daniel! I'll be right there!"

A few seconds later he hear the door unlock and then it opened and his mother was standing there. She was wearing a nightgown. It was three o'clock in the afternoon.

She smiled real big

"Come in son. Give your mother a big hug."

Daniel stepped inside and closed the door behind him and hugged his mother for a long time. His chin rested on the top of her head and she squeezed him real hard. Then she let go and looked at him

"It's so good to see you."

Daniel smiled but didn't say anything.

"Come. Sit down. I'll get you some coffee," said his mother.

They walked to a table in the dining room of the house and Daniel pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Just a minute," his mother said and she walked off to the kitchen.

Daniel looked around. The house was a mess. Things were in places that they shouldn't have been. Trash was strewn about everywhere. There was a smell of cat piss and rotting food that permeated the air. This was how it had always been. This was how Daniel had grown up. The mess, the smell - it was all familiar. Nostalgic. Daniel could hear coffee brewing and then caught a whiff of the scent. Hazelnut. Normally it would have been a good smell but mixed with the cat piss and rotting good it didn't smell so nice. He just sat there and thought about everything and after a few minutes his mother came and sat down across from his and carefully handed him a cup of coffee.

"Careful. It's hot."

Daniel smiled. "Thanks."

"Two teaspoons of sugar. Just how you like it."

He sipped his coffee slowly and it tasted good. His mother had always been one to buy good coffee and that hadn't changed either. He put his coffee down in front of him and looked across the table at his mother. His mother smiled a fake smile and spoke.

"So. How are things?"

"Alright, I guess. Just the same, really. Still working, trying to pay the rent, you know?"

"Ah. That's nice. How is Angela?"

"She's good. She got a job teaching little kids art. She's happy. She sends her regards."

She didn't really though.

"Aw, that's sweet. Have you heard from your brother recently?"

"Not much. A few weeks ago. I'm not really sure what he's doing nowadays."

Daniel took another sip of his coffee.

"I wish he'd come see me sometime. At least call me, ya know?" his mother said.

"Well. That's how he is. Always has been."

Daniel thought of what he had said. It was true. His brother had always been like that. Even when he was a kid. He wouldn't speak to anyone unless spoken to. Even then he wouldn't say much. Daniel felt as if his brother hated everyone. Just then he felt something brush up against his leg. He looked down and saw that it was one of his mother's many cats. It meowed and he reached down and scratched it between the ears. It looked underfed, malnourished. Daniel wasn't sure how if at all his mother managed to keep all her cats fed - she didn't work. She hadn't worked for years. She quit working before she could retire and after that tried to maintain a few steady jobs but couldn't. She would always quit and say that the work environment was unhealthy but the truth was that she was just lazy. Daniel knew this and always knew it even growing up. It was something that he always hated about his mother, her laziness. There were a lot of other things too but he tried not to think about those. The cat walked away and then Daniel sat back up and had another sip of coffee. His mother just sat there. She looked off towards the ceiling at nothing in particular. Completely zoned out.

"Mom?"

His mother shook herself awake from her daydreaming.

"Oh. Sorry son. I just spaced out a little. How are you?"

Daniel sighed.

"I'm good, Mom."

His mother nodded. "Hmmm. That's good to hear son. Yes."

How long had Daniel been sitting there? His coffee was only half gone and yet he felt as if he'd been there forever. He supposed that if he added up all the time he'd spent sitting there like that though, throughout his life, it really would have been close to forever. Or maybe just a very long time. He took another sip and then put his cup on the table and then looked at his mother in the eyes for a very long time. She stared back and he knew that she saw him but she wasn't paying him any mind. She had dazed off again. Her mind was somewhere else. Daniel finished his coffee quickly and then got up and went to the kitchen leaving his mother sitting alone at the table. She hardly seemed to notice.

The kitchen was a mess of dirty dishes and a sink full of garbage. Daniel had considered washing his cup but decided it was useless really so he just set it down next to the sink. He started walking out of the kitchen but as he did he saw an old photo on the refrigerator, stuck there with an old magnet that said "WORLD'S NUMBER ONE MOM!". It was a photo of him as a child. And his brother. And his mother. His brother and he sat on their mother's lap, one on each leg, beneath an oak tree. He and his brother were both very young, too young to really remember the picture being taken. But they were smiling. Daniel and his brother and his mother. They were all smiling and the smiles were all genuine, real smiles. Here was the only family he had ever really known, together and happy. Daniel took the picture off of the fridge and slipped it into his jacket pocket.

He went back out into the dining room and his mother hadn't moved.

"Mom," he said.

She came back to her senses.

"Yes, Daniel. Yes, son."

"I gotta go."

"Oh, I guess you can't stay forever, can you? Alright. I'll walk you to the door."

Daniel helped his mother up and put his arm around her and then walked to the front door with her. He hugged her like he had done when he first got there and then he bent down and his mother gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you, son." she said.

Daniel smiled and nodded.

"Bye Mom."

He opened the door and walked down the steps and didn't turn to look back. He walked to his car and got in and sat down in the driver's seat. He just sat there for a while, thinking about his short visit. He thought he could see his mother looking out from her bedroom window but he wasn't sure. He pulled out the picture from his jacket pocket and looked at it for a minute then put it back. Then he put the keys in the ignition, turned the car on and felt a tear roll down one of his cheeks. He wiped it away with his sleeve and drove away.