**Part 2**
Then, eight months later, on a Monday at suppertime, my doorbell rang. Seth stood on my porch grinning like it was Christmas morning. He had two big suitcases, a dog bed under one arm, and the dog on a leash.
“Hey, Mom!” he said. “So, funny story.”
He’d taken a job at the co-op in Seward. They’d sold their house in Aurora in three days, which was good for them, but the house they’d bought across town wouldn’t close for six more weeks.
“Our closing got pushed back, Mom,” he said. “So we’re moving in.”
“Just till the closing,” he added. “You’ve got that spare room just sitting there.”
“There’s motels,” I said.
“Six weeks of motel? Mom, that’s crazy money.” He grinned. “Why pay a motel when you’ve got a room?”
I looked at the suitcases, then at the dog. The dog kept shifting on its leash and sniffing the edge of the porch. Seth looked past me into the house, as if the room had already been agreed on.
“Well, isn’t that something,” I said.
“Shawna’s bringing the rest in the morning,” he said. “The kids can sleep in the living room. They’re teenagers, they’ll sleep anywhere.”
Then he asked, “Which room gets the morning sun? Shawna doesn’t do mornings.”
He hadn’t said one word about money. He hadn’t said one word about the four checks I’d written him. I kept my face pleasant, though my jaw was tight.
“You know what, honey? Give me till tomorrow night,” I said. “I want your room ready. Just the way you had mine.”
He kissed my cheek. “You’re the best, Mom.”
They spent that night on the floor at Shawna’s sister’s, who already had three kids in two bedrooms. I watched Seth’s taillights go and shut my door. Then I called Gaylene.
“Gaylene,” I said. “The landlord’s back.”
She laughed so hard she had to sit down on her kitchen floor. She had never told Shawna about the rent. “That’s between you and your boy,” she’d said.
Then I told her what I wanted to do. She got quiet.
“Oh, Carla,” she said. “I’ll be there tomorrow at six. I’ll bring a pie.”
That night I lay awake at two in the morning, staring at the ceiling. I worried Seth would get mad and keep the grandkids from me. I wondered if I was just a bitter old woman getting even over a few hundred dollars. Maybe I should make up the beds, let them stay, and keep my mouth shut like I always had.
I kept seeing that free little pad with his name printed across the top. I kept remembering myself on the edge of his guest bed with the TV turned up. I was angry, and I was hurt, and I was ashamed that I had spent months pretending the arrangement didn’t bother me.
In the morning, I opened my sewing box and took out the last little receipt he’d given me. His name was still printed across the top. I crossed out the old date with my good pen and wrote in tomorrow’s date, neat as I could. I left every other word just the way he had written it. Then I put it in an envelope and wrote SETH across the front.
I made up my spare room for the grandkids, with my best quilt and fresh towels. I pulled out the couch in the living room and made that up too, for Seth and Shawna. I put a little vase of mums on the dresser. I raised him better than that, and I still loved him. That made the whole thing harder.
At a quarter to six the next evening, Seth’s truck pulled in. He came up my walk with both suitcases and the dog bed again, whistling. Shawna followed with a laundry basket and a lamp.
“Smells good in here,” Seth said, walking past me toward the hall. “Is it the room on the left?”
“Hold on, honey,” I said. “I’ve got something for you first.”
I held out the envelope.
He laughed. “Mom, you didn’t have to get me a card.”
“It’s not a card,” I said.
Shawna set the lamp down. She was looking at me funny. Then I heard a car door shut in my driveway. I put the envelope in Seth’s hand, and right then the doorbell rang. When he opened it, Gaylene was standing on my porch with a cherry pie.
“You charged Carla for the room I stayed in for five months?” she said.
Seth’s smile slipped. Gaylene stepped inside and held the pie against her chest. Shawna looked from her mother to Seth, then at the envelope in his hand.
“Mom?” Shawna said.
Gaylene kept her eyes on Seth. “You told Carla you’d charge anybody. You didn’t charge me a dime.”
Seth looked down at the envelope, like he could set it aside and deal with her later. “That was different.”
“How?” Gaylene asked.
“I was recovering from surgery,” she said before he could answer. “You wouldn’t let me lift a finger. You made my meals. You were kind to me.”
I felt the shame rising in my face again. I didn’t want to stand there while Gaylene argued for me, so I took the envelope from Seth and opened it.
Inside was the receipt from his free pad. The old date had a line through it. The new date sat above the same words, and the amount was still $450. His printed name was across the top.
“This is what you gave me every month,” I said. “Four checks. I kept the receipts.”
Seth stared at the paper. Shawna came closer and read it. I could see her eyes pause on the amount.
“You paid him?” she asked.
“I did.”
She turned toward Seth. “You told me she wanted to help with expenses.”
Seth rubbed the back of his neck. “I said she was paying rent.”
“You said she offered,” Shawna replied. Her voice was quiet, but she didn’t look away from him.
He started to answer, then looked at me instead. “Mom, I didn’t think you minded.”
I had to grip the edge of the table. “I cried in that room after I wrote you the first check.”
He looked down. For a second I thought he might say he was sorry. Instead, he said, “We were tight then. You’d sold the farm. I figured you could afford it.”
The words landed hard because they were plain. He hadn’t charged me because he thought the room had to cost something. He’d seen that I had sold the farm, and he’d decided I could cover what he needed. Gaylene had been recovering from surgery. I had been grieving my husband and waiting for my house. He’d treated one of us like family and the other like a source of money.
I was so angry I wanted to say something I couldn’t take back. I said, “You knew I was your mother.”
He nodded once, still looking down. “I know.”
That answer wasn’t enough. I didn’t want a scene that ended with him saying he knew and walking into my spare room as if nothing had happened. I also didn’t want my grandkids punished for their father’s choices.
I looked at Shawna. “Did you know I paid him?”
“No,” she said. “I thought you offered.”
Then I looked at Seth. “The kids can sleep in the spare room. You and Shawna can use the couch. The dog can stay with you. It’s $450 a month for you two, just like you charged me. If you don’t want that, I understand. But you can’t walk in here and decide my room is yours.”
My voice shook. I hated that it shook, but I said it anyway.
