Stressed

"He hugged me. I feel violated."  my message to my cousin around noon.

Walsh-:"What? Who?"  which he didn't message back until just after 3pm.

Me-:"Cousin R. He and his mom were over this morning for a bit."  referring to the 60 year old male version of an old maid. "Grabbed me and hugged me."

Walsh-:"Crap!...you still at auntie's?"

Me-:"Till tomorrow. Why?"

Walsh-:"parking lot two minutes."

Stood freezing in the parking lot for closer to ten before his truck pulled up. One of the lady's from the next building was outside filling a bird feeder, and started asking me about mom's surgery. Told her twice in the ten minutes that it's next week she goes to have it done. Walsh had the kids in the back seat, I guess he'd been picking them up from school when he messaged me back.

Walsh-:"My older sister said she bumped into them last week at the mall, he grabbed her and hugged her too, asked her where she works now.When she said where, he said he might be by on Friday. She said it was really uncomfortable."  he lit a cigarette trying to hide so the kids didn't see him smoking.

Me-:"I'm glad it's not just me. He keeps asking me to come to church with him. Then he saw one of my books on the table the other week, started going on about how good christian people don't read Twilight."

Walsh-:"Twilight? Really?"

Me-:"It had a vampire on the cover. If he thinks Twilight is bad, good god man, if he'd actually of picked up the book he would have had a heart attack."   I started shaking a clump of mysterious dog fur off my pant leg. It had somehow attached itself between me leaving mom's apartment and coming outside. Must have happened walking through the lobby.  Walsh shook his head at me laughing.

Walsh-:"Twilight." he hooked his thumb towards the kids. "She's discovered that other one, that academy one."  I nodded, peeking in at the kids.

Me-:"Right. Saw the commercial for the movie for that. Vampire Academy. Never heard of them till last month. Suppose to be like a step up from Twilight. Can we talk about my being hugged against my will?"

He laughed again at me shrugging. "He's doing it a lot lately. Mom said he hugged her too there one day when she bumped into them once at the movies. Scared the hell out of her."

Me-:"Weird. I don't like being in the same room as him anymore, well never have actually."

Walsh-:"My dad was saying his dad, uncle E. was back in the hospital."

Me-:"That was few months ago. He's got like a home care nurse comes in like every day. They don't have much hope he'll see the year's end. Aunt T. isn't looking the best either. When E. dies, I am guessing she won't be far after."

Walsh tossed the cigarette butt into the snow, burying it. "You look like crap. How's everything else?"

Me-:"I feel like crap. You know, there at christmas, I lost 10 pounds without even trying. That couple of weeks mom was staying at her sister's. I slept better, not as many headaches, less body aches, ate better, stressed less. The second things got back to routine, I gained all the weight back, not sleeping, totally stressed out, my body is killing me, and I've had a permanent headache. My mom makes me sick."

My cousin sighed. "You loose your man, sorry your muse." he grinned like a little kid. "Get grabbed by a dirty old man."

Me-:"You're not helping. Okay shhsshh about Mad Hatter. Done, finished talking about that. Over forever."

He shook his head as he turned to get back into the truck. "Mad Hatter is never going to be over. He's Mr. Scratchy and you know it."

Me-:"I know no such thing. I know that I'm tired and just want to find the real Mr. Scratchy."

Walsh-:"He is the real Mr. Scratchy. And you'll never be done with him."

Me-:"Well, maybe I should be done with you then. Get a new theory. New one. New moon, new theory."

The kids started to get restless in the truck, asking if they could go to the indoor pool, and ice cream and to their friends. Walsh was saying something to them when he closed the door and took off.