“Oh, wherever could my two lovely sons be?” Mom called out again. Nishiki’s speech was more affected than hers, but he definitely got the fancy-talking gene from Mom. Or since I didn’t know our dad, it might’ve been from him, too. Either way, I didn’t want to credit our deadbeat dad for anything.
We couldn’t keep Mom waiting anymore. Nishiki and I steeled ourselves, then entered the cavern we’d grown to think of as home. Sort of. I mean, it was a cave in the wall of a canyon.
Mom smiled at us from the makeshift table. It was old and made of wood, definitely not from IKEA, which made me think she made it herself. The chairs, unfortunately, were large rocks.
I realized that Nishiki was right after all—Iwastechnically a caveman.
“Hungry?” Mom asked as we hesitantly took our seats. There was nothing on the table yet. Dread built in my stomach, which was rapidly shrivelling in fear. Worse than a regular Mom dinner was a surprise dinner.
“Yeah,” I lied.
“Mm!” Nishiki said vaguely.
Mom stood what could be passed as the ‘kitchen’—it was a nook in the corner where she kept dried herbs and jerky. She had a small ‘stove’ in the form of a firepit.
“I noticed you two avoiding my food lately,” Mom said, making both of us wince with guilt. “So I thought, why is that? Then I realized it’s because you’re both shifters now!” She laughed as if this made complete sense to any normal person. “That means you need species-appropriate food!”
Nishiki blanched beside me. “Oh, dear God,” he whispered.
All I could imagine wasJaws. I whispered back to my brother, “Seriously, if she tries to feed me humans, I’m out.”
Nishiki clenched his eyes shut like he was sending up a prayer. “If she brings out goldfish flakes, you must promise to kill me, Nero.”
“Done.”
We pinky-swore over it.
As Mom put the clay plate on the table, it was neither human remains or goldfish flakes. It was an array of grilled fish skewers that smelled shockingly good. My stomach un-shriveled and growled, and Nishiki’s brows raised in pleasant surprise.
“Whoa,” I said. “Where’d you find these?”
Mom took a seat opposite me. “You think your old Mom only eats cave carrots, don’t you?” she said with a knowing twinkle in her eyes.
“N-no…”
She laughed. “Oh, hush, Nero. I know you both hate those. It’s just a struggle for me to reach the water sources around here these days, let alone gather enough fish for a meal for two growing boys.”
I suddenly felt guilty for judging Mom’s dinners. Since Nishiki and I didn’t know the area well, neither of us felt comfortable hunting or foraging for our own food. We’d relied on Mom for all our meals, which was kind of embarrassing now that I thought about it. We were both able-bodied guys in our twenties. Surely, we could do better than making our fifty-year-old Mom do it all.
“We’re not exactly growing boys anymore,” I said sympathetically. “We’re adults, Mom.”
“Oh, I know that,” she said, handing us each a skewer. “But you’ll always be my boys.”
As I ate, I was left with a nagging remorseful feeling. Was this going to be my entire life from now on? Sitting around and waiting for my mom to feed me because I was too scared to go explore the wilderness on my own?
The rest of dinner passed in a daze. I was too lost in thought to pay attention to anything. It wasn’t until Mom put her hand on my shoulder that I jerked out of it.
“Huh?” I said.
“Nero, you’ve been staring at your brother for twenty minutes.”
“Yeah,” Nishiki mumbled. “It was getting creepy.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t staring at you. I was zoning out,” I explained.
“Why don’t you share what’s on your mind?” Mom asked.
“I…”
