Welcome Home, Doctor Zack

Amy "Calm down, Zim. No hitting." I usually sleep in on Wednesday mornings. The bars are open until 2pm, so I sleep in until at least 12pm. But a phone call from the school woke me up. I didn't know what the teacher meant by "your son made a problem", but when I rushed there, I was shocked by what I’ve seen. My son Zim, who never loses his temper, growled at the boy lying on the ground, baring his teeth and looking, I don’t know, like an angry wolf. And his eyes,not sure if it was the light or not, seemed to be glowing. He never does that before. "Zim, what's wrong, tell mom. Did you push him?" Zim didn't answer me, but that boy did. “Zim is a monster! He doesn’t have a dad!” He shouts loudly as he jumps up and dusts himself off, and I suddenly understand why Zim was so angry. “I told you to shut up!” Zim angrily shouts back, and I pull Zim behind me. He slightly pushes against me and comes back around. I’m stunned into silence for a second before I grab his wrist so that he can’t do any more damage. “No. Zim, stop, hitting someone is wrong. Apologize now.” I glare at my son, who just glares right back at me. “No! He hurt me first. He called me a monster!” I saw the light in Zim's eyes fade, replaced by tears. He screamed and ran away from me. And just like that, I felt like the worst mom in the universe. I apologized to the teacher and the boy, even though he was wrong too, there’s no point trying to win with adults who only see half the story. I have to deal with it later. I found Zim in my car. He had his head down, seemingly having gotten over his anger. "Knock knock." I opened the car door and got in, trying to lower my voice to comfort him. "Baby, I'm sorry." He sniffed, looked up and asked me, "For what?" "For...everything." I shrugged to hide the sadness in my heart. Everything I still don’t know how to explain. "No, you're not wrong." Zim wiped his tears and snorted with a nasal sound, "Tom is the one who did something wrong. He always bullies me. I hate him." "Does he beat you often?" I frowned. Tom, should be the boy just now. "No, he can't beat me." Zim said disdainfully, but his face showed sadness, "He always teases me and tells everyone that I don't have a father." Seeing the sadness on Zim's face, I suddenly panicked and began to doubt whether all the decisions I made were correct. Was this my fault? Did my choices doom him to feel like this? Like he was missing half of himself? I mean, taking him away to this place far away from home, and even lying to him that his dad was dead. Doesn't he deserve to know the truth? But what choice did I have? I was only 18 at the time. I thought he could bring me happiness. We all drank after the prom, and things just happened naturally. But I didn't expect that I would get pregnant. I ran to tell him right away, but he refused to see me. That asshole, got a d**k to do me, didn't have the d**k to face me, and just sent me a breakup text message. My dad looked down on me, saying that I had damaged the family's reputation and brought shame to my dead mother, and he even wanted to abort my child. As if erasing Zim would undo my mistake. But Zim was never a mistake. But what choice did I have? Don't I deserve happiness? Running away was the bravest thing I could do at that time. I couldn't go to college and I was a single mother. I worked one job during the day and another at night to support my boy. I think I really tried my best, and I hope Zim doesn't blame me. I shook off the haze in my mind and focused on Zim again. "So, you wanna talk about it?" I stroked his head, "I know he did wrong, but you can't hit him. This doesn't solve anything." “I don’t know. I just felt angry. Billy called me a monster. I didn't know what was happening and the next minute he was lying on the ground.” Zim clenched his fists, as if trying to remember what had just happened. He looked up at me: "Mommy, am I really a monster?" "No, of course not. You are my dearest baby boy." I tried desperately to comfort him. As for those abnormal behaviors, well, let's talk about it later. The phone suddenly rang, interrupting our warm moment. I had to adjust my mood to answer it. Strange number, from the hospital in my hometown. I don't remember ever flirting with any doctor and leaving him my number. What I heard on the phone shocked me. Turns out it was the nurse on duty at the hospital, and she informed me that my father Lion had broken his leg in a car accident and was unable to pay the social worker fee, so I needed to handle it. After 6 years, didn’t expect to see my dad again under such circumstances.Not after everything. Not after he told me I ruined his reputation. Should I go back? But he hates me and doesn't want to meet Zim. After all, he hasn't contacted me once in all these years, and I haven't changed my number, so I guess he hasn't changed his mind. Besides, going back to my hometown, what would that mean, going back to everything that was before, and even... maybe meeting him, which is the last thing I want to happen. Shit, God, don't tease me like this. I can't made up my mind. And Zim interrupted me. "Mommy, is Grandpa sick? We are going to take care of him, right, Mommy?" I was stuck on this. "Do you want to meet him? I have to tell you, grandpa is not an easy person to get along with. Or I should say, very difficult to get along with." "But he needs us, doesn't he?" Zim blinked his big eyes, which were still covered with tears, and looked at me innocently. There it was again. That strange wisdom in his eyes, like he carried something older than his years. What happened to my son? It's like he grew up in just one hour. But maybe it's just because he hasn't seen his grandfather's anger yet. However, I have to admit, he maybe right. We should go. "You're right. Let's go home, pack our bags, and go find Grandpa." I cheered myself up and prepared to start the car. "Now?" Zim's eyes lit up again, "Does this mean I don't have to go to school today?" Oh, I almost forgot about that. "Yes." I pulled the handbrake, "but shouldn't you go and apologize before you leave?" The light in his eyes disappeared again. "All right." I thought that my best lesson to Zim was to insist on being polite no matter what. Turns out, I was wrong. Those vulgar and disgusting jerks are not worthy of our courtesy. Zim had sincerely expressed his apology, but the boy still cursed him and called him a monster, saying that he had no father to accompany him and was therefore uneducated. This really angered me. The teacher did nothing, ignoring his rudeness, but insisted on punishing Zim by making him write a confession and read it aloud. That's it. My boy cannot be bullied like this, and will not accept such groundless accusations. I slapped the boy with my best 'decency', rewarded the teacher with a cup of water poured over her head, and left in style with Zim. "You're so cool, Mommy." Zim couldn't love me more. After all, I helped him quit the school he least wanted to go to. "Come on. Let's go home. Back to Mommy's home." Although I acted very nonchalant, my heart was beating fast and I couldn't help thinking about it. How I wish I had this courage when I was 18, maybe everything would be completely different. Maybe.