“I got a job Mom. And it's going to pay me enough to pay you and Dad back for all the money that you have given to me the last few years, not that you treated it as a loan, but that was how I looked at it, even though I though there was no way that I would be able to pay it back.” I said on the phone, saying the words that she had waited to hear for months. Words that I never thought that I would be able to say.
“You got a job Perry? That's great! I'm so relieved. What is it and when does it start?” She said, sounding like it was answer to her prayers which it surely was because i hadn't worked for years by that time so of course it was.
“It doesn't start until the new year but that's okay because they've advanced me my first year's salary so I can take care of all the things that I need to take care of, which is a lot because I'm moving to Earth E where I will be the star of a reality show about a writer who has no business writing or drawing because he sucks. And can't get laid but tries anyway. I'll admit, it took me a little while to accept the offer, but with the guaranteed t-shirt sales that I'll make I'll be making the kind of money doing what I love to do that I'd never make here so it was a no-brainer.”
“You're going to Earth E? But travel there is only possible every two years for a two week period. You're choosing work over seeing any of for that long?” She said, hurt and angry at the same time that I had made the right decision for myself.
I didn't have the heart then and there to tell her it that it was actually every five years and the window was only open for three days. “I know Mom, but it's the right thing to do because let's face it, I was never going to find it here. And the same can be said about finding a woman because I could only draw to me those who didn't live in my own city.” I said, knowing that made me sound like an asshole when my Mom and Dad had helped support me these last few years when that was the last thing they should have had to think of doing because I was a man who should have been standing on my own two feet for the last 25 years when I hadn't. At least not all of them And by not all of them, I meant12, I'd only stood on my own two feet in less than half the past two and a half decades which made me one sad sack of a man.
“I see, your mind is made up then is it?”
“Yes it is Mom. There are costs to everything and this cost is me being away from everything I've ever known which means I'm going to have to get by on my own for the next five years, which I've never done because you and Dad were always an hour away.” I said, accepting that she had the absolute right to be pissed at me.
“Well, You have a job and that's what I've wanted for the last three years, I just wish that you had found a job on this Earth and hadn't seen fit to go to one where you couldn't return for five whole years? Were there no jobs to be had on the other Lettered Earths? Really? I find that hard to believe Perry. But you've made your decision and I'm glad that you finally have a job again and that you're happy because that's all your father and I ever wanted for you.” She said, able to say those words without sounding like she was broken by my choice. “But I have to go because I have a lot of things to do before lunch and you know how I hate to leave things undone.” Which was the opposite of me, I thought ruefully.
“Okay, I don't want to take up any more of your time than I already have. Have a good day Mom.”
“You too Perry.” She said, sounding sadder now than she had when I answered the call as her unemployed loser son.