Two Ships

Things Get Complicated

"You're not mom."

Keanu finished his drink, "No, no I am not. She's in the shower."

"Well, this is awkward." The young man stood there and rocked back and forth on his feet. "So um, you're Keanu Reeves?"

Keanu nodded yes.

"I guess that was obvious. I'm Caelan."

"It's nice to meet you Caelan." Keanu wasn't sure what the appropriate response was here.

"Soo, you're just hanging out at mom's table then?"

"Yes, it seems I am."

"This is so weird." Caelan sat at the table across from Keanu. "I have to say, not the weirdest thing I've walked into here, but definitely ranking top ten."

"Top ten?" Keanu was now very curious about what ranked higher as weird.

"Well, it's mom. You can't expect normal with mom. You're new to this then?" Caelan asked.

"Yeah." Keanu said cautiously.

"That explains it. I gotta say you're doing better than Hugh Jackman did." Caelan nodded with what he hoped was assurance.

"Wait, what?" Keanu didn't think he heard that right.

"Yeah, he was a little shocked to learn she had kids. One of the funniest things I've walked in on to date."

"Really?" Keanu paused. "So what exactly was Hugh doing here if you don't mind my asking?"

"You'd have to ask mom, I don't ask questions I don't want answers too. Like with you, you could just be here for a project she's working on, I don't need to know." Caelan just smiled and winked.

"Cae?" Abigale's voice came from the bedroom.

Caelan replied, "It's me mom."

"I'll be right out." Abigale came out in her robe, hair still wet. She looked beautiful like that.

Keanu had some questions for her. But he would wait.

"Hey baby, what's up? I didn't expect you today, it's a nice surprise." Abigale went to grab a cup of coffee.

"Well, I came to talk to you about dad."

"What's wrong with dad?" Abigale asked Caelan.

"He's acting weird, went out to the old homestead. He just seems to be having a hard time. Did something happen?" Caelan asked.

"Well yes and no, the same old thing, the same old conversation. Maybe he is finally ready to sell that place. Or he could be out there camping, you know your dad."

"Maybe, but mom I don't think so." Caelan frowned, "I know he's not on his meds again."

"Well baby you know your dad, that's just part of who he is. You have to let him figure it out. I want to hear about you, how's school?"

"School is good, I'm almost done with my undergrad work. I think I'm going to take a break in the fall."

"That would be fun Cae! Maybe we could go on a trip? We haven't done that in a while."

Keanu listened to this exchange like he wasn't there. Keanu cleared his throat.

"Caelan this is Keanu, Keanu, Caelan." Abigale offered an introduction.

"Yeah, mom we met. I don't think anyone needs an introduction to John Wick." Caelan laughed.

"Yes, that is a bit funny. Sorry boys." Abigale grimaced at her attempt at normalcy.

"At least he wasn't tied up when I came in." Caelan shrugged his shoulders.

Keane's eyebrows are noticeably raised.

"Cae!!" Abigale gasped.

"What mom? It's like you think we don't know you or something. I come here expecting the absurd. We grew up with you remember? If you aren't plotting murder, doing something freaky, or doing something weird we worry. This is actually normal for you." Caelan went over to the fridge, "So what you got to eat?"

Abigale just shook her head and mouthed the words "sorry" to Keanu.

Abigale could see Keanu was processing this, she knew there would be questions later.

"Feel free to look and fix whatever. I'm going to go get dressed." Abigale walked back into the bedroom. She left them alone in the kitchen, maybe that wasn't the smartest idea.

Abigale brushed her teeth, did her hair routine, and picked out jeans and a t-shirt. Today was going to be interesting but there's no putting the worms back into the can. At least she could look good while explaining the crazy. There were going to be some interesting conversations later she predicted.

Caelan started grabbing stuff from the fridge, "Breakfast?" he asked Keanu.

"We ordered out, but thanks." Keanu was attempting to act normal and was very involved with his coffee.

"Not a problem." Caelan nodded and went back to the shelves and started heating his breakfast on the stove.

"So you cook?" Keanu asked him.

"Yeah, mom has weird idea's about men needing to be independent, do their own laundry, cook and clean. Bizarre right?" Cealan continued, "So she made sure all of us could cook. I think it was just a requirement. We didn't get to safeword out of that."

Keanu was puzzled, "Safeword?"

"You know when you have a hard limit about something," Caelan kept cooking and explained further, "like when you won't eat broccoli or don't want to go on a family trip. It's just how we say "no thank you", but she wouldn't let us with cooking and cleaning."

"That's an interesting way to put it." Keanu listened.

"Mom always said to be of value in a relationship you had to be a good partner so she domesticated us." Caelan shrugged as if every child had that same experience.

"How many of you are there?" Keanu asked.

"Well there's eight of us boys and one girl. We are an Irish family."

"You're joking." Keanu knew this kid was not normal.

"Not at all. Mom had two with one husband, two with her second husband and adopted his four boys, and one with husband three.

We are just a large family. I'm second to the youngest so we are all grown now."

"I don't even think there's a way to respond to that." Keanu was still not sure he was being told truthful information. Caelan had a way of speaking that made you unsure whether he was joking or not.

"It was an interesting childhood but it was never dull." Caelan laughed as he finished his meal and moved his food onto the plate.

"Between you and I, my mom didn't have it easy raising us. She wasn't home often, lots of bills, plenty of mouths to feed. We never starved. It wasn't the worst but don't tell her I said that." Caelan moved to the table. "She's a workaholic and she did her best. Couldn't have been easy being married at sixteen or raising two kids at nineteen. Mom always made it work but we also had to learn to do things for ourselves too. She made sure we knew how to feed ourselves. Can't go wrong there." Caelan winked at him and dug into his breakfast.

Abigale came out of the bedroom dressed and ready to face the day. "What are your plans for the day Cae?" Abigale asked.

"I was going to take Caleb and Serena to the park then I think we are gaming at Serena's tonight."

"Well tell them hi, and ya'll have fun." Abigale was smiling.

Caelan finished his breakfast. "Thank for breakfast mom. Let me know when you aren't busy, we want to come have a game night here." Caelan was out the door before Abigale could say bye.

"Kids, what can I say?" She giggled a bit at that. "Hopefully the next intrusion will be our breakfast or lunch or whatever it is now."

Keanu was tight-lipped, she didn't know what he was thinking and wasn't sure what to say at this point. "Do you want to talk about that Ke?"

"Um yes, yes I do, but not until after breakfast. I'm still trying to put together what questions to ask. That was a lot to process for one morning." Keanu reached for her hand and she took it.

"Okay then." Abigale took his hand and wondered how deep this rabbit hole was going to go.