Agent Washington (completelysane) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-07-11 17:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | agent washington |
Who: Agent Washington and NPC Nora Jenkins (Wash's mother)
What: A surprise family reunion
When: This afternoon
Where: A ride from LAX to Orange county
Rating/Warnings Fairly low; a little manipulation
Status: Complete narrative
Wash should not have answered the phone.
“David. It’s Mom. I’m stuck at LAX.”
When he saw the Washington State prefix on his display, he should have let it go to voicemail.
“I can’t get a taxi! I’m trapped here!”
And then deleted the voicemail without listening.
“You need to come get me. I’ve never been to California before! I’m all by myself and I don’t know what to do!”
Several hours after leaving the building the Agency was housed in, Wash was making his way back home, his mother seated in his passenger seat and her alarmingly heavy suitcase in the back of his van.
The last time Wash had seen his mother, he’d been leaving the house the night before he was supposed to report to the transport to boot camp. She had yelled and thrown a glass ashtray at him. Ralph had told him to get out and not to come back. He’d spoken to his mother once since then: last year in March, when Carolina had reappeared with the bombshell that Wash was her long lost half brother. Nora had confirmed the fact with as much enthusiasm as one would confirm they had mildew in their shower. She had not once reached out to him while he’d been in the marines and she had not so much as called to check on him when he’d suffered the injury that ultimately ended his career.
But here she was now. Out of the blue like a tornado on a cloudless day. She looked different. Her long curly honey blonde hair was cut into a bob that licked at her jaw line and she was sporting a tan that Wash was about 95% sure came either out of a bottle or a booth. Her usual plunging necklines and high hemmed skirts had been traded in for something that appeared to be a little more business casual, but she still sported her signature high heels. Despite her appearances though, Nora Jenkins hadn’t changed a whole lot in the last ten years.
When Wash had arrived at the terminal she said she was waiting at, she looked at his cherished van as though it might contain some kind of biohazard and she could not believe he expected her to ride in that.
Once inside, though, she bathed herself in the air conditioning, making a show as though she had been withering to the point of heat exhaustion as she waited for him at the curb. Never mind the fact that she had done most of the waiting inside the airport until he’d arrived.
“How can you survive in this heat?” Was the first thing she said when she got in the van. No hello. No how are you? No thank you for coming to get me. “But I suppose this is normal for you now, isn’t it? After all, you spent a decade in a sweltering desert.”
“I wasn’t in Iraq for a decade,” Wash responded, but he may as well have not said anything at all.
“I understand why you didn’t come back to Spokane,” Nora went on, fanning herself while the air conditioner hit her full blast. “There’s no ocean there. Not that you couldn’t have just lived in Seattle. But, you were never a strong swimmer, David.” How Nora would have known that when she had never once enrolled Wash into swimming lessons at the YMCA or anything was a mystery.
“Ugh, look at this traffic! It’s so crowded here! How can you stand it? Aren’t soldiers supposed to be like really afraid of crowded areas?”
“Not all of them. And I don’t live in L.A.,” Wash answered, but again, he may as well have been talking to the steering wheel.
Their “conversation” went on like this for the entirety of the ride back to Orange County. She made mostly backhanded compliments about his van, the way he looked (she made it clear she did not like him unshaven) and his choice for remaining in Southern California.
When they were about fifteen minutes away from leaving L.A. County, Wash pulled into a parking lot and killed the engine. Then he turned and gave his mother his full attention. “What are you doing here?” He asked her point blank.
Nora stared back at him a moment blinking. “I came to see you,” she tried to start.
“You could have seen me any time you wanted the last three years,” he countered. “I know the Marines told you what happened and where I was. Why didn’t you come see me then?”
“You know I hate hospitals,” Nora wrinkled her nose up in distaste. Yes, Wash did know that. He remembered when he was ten and sitting by Grandma’s deathbed alone because Mom “couldn’t bring herself to go to that place.”
“Why are you really here?” He asked her again.
Nora pursed her lips together tightly and Wash could see something going on behind her eyes. “Your stepfather and I had a little fight,” she finally admitted with a dismissive gesture and a shrug. “It’s no big deal, but I just needed to get a way for a few days.”
“He kicked you out.”
“No,” Nora bit back angrily. “I left.” She squared her shoulders and shook her short hair out of her face. “I needed a break. That’s all. In a week I’ll go back.”
“A week,” Wash repeated. He glanced towards the back of his van where Nora’s suitcase was.
“You aren’t happy you’re own mother is here to see you?” Nora asked offended. “I didn’t have to come to California, you know. I could have gone anywhere, but I chose to come here. To see you. Even after you didn’t come see us for Thanksgiving last year.”
Wash wasn’t sure about that, but he had nothing to back his suspicions up. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Where are you staying?”
“Well, this was a spur of the moment decision,” Nora explained. “Last minute hotel reservations are really expensive. Especially in Los Angeles. You’ve probably never had the chance to stay in one, have you? The only ones that were available were for these awful places, David. Where they charge by the hour. I can’t stay in one of those!”
Wash didn’t answer.
“I mean, I suppose I could if I had to. But all by myself? What if something happened?” Nora went on. Her voice was raising in pitch and her breaths were becoming shorter. “I read an article about a woman who was murdered in a cheap motel and no one found her body for days because someone had stuffed her under the mattress. It was awful!”
Wash felt as though a knife was being slid into the center of his chest. “Ma, that wouldn’t-”
“I couldn’t sleep for days after reading that,” Nora went on. “And the thought of staying in a place where that could happen to me? I can’t even stand it!” She wrung her hands anxiously and her eyes were welling up. “The killer could be anyone! Those hotels are right off the highway. It could be some trucker or transient. And you would feel just awful, wouldn’t you? Of course you would, knowing your mother was killed in such a dirty filthy place.”
“Alright, alright,” Wash held up both hands to stop her from shoving that metaphorical knife any further. “Look, you can stay with me. Tonight. I’ll call around and find you somewhere where you can stay. Alright?”
Nora’s face broke into an easy smile and she reached across to pat his face. “There’s my boy. Of course I’ll stay with you.”
Wash let out a breath and turned back around in his seat and out of his mother’s grasp. He started the van up again and made his way towards the apartment.
He hoped Carolina wasn’t home yet.