I came home last summer, freshly divorced, dark circles and puffed eyes, my collar bones
jutting out, and found my mom having an affair with her orthopedic doctor. She was glowing
pink, her wardrobe looked all new, and on her bedside table, I spotted new brands of body
lotions as well as bone-strengthening tablets.
I lay curled up like a ‘c’ in bed at night, sleepless till the morning hours, digging my nails
into the mattress as I recalled every fight with Rik, every argument in court, his lawyer’s
snorts and grunts, and sometimes as I sat up, clenching my teeth at the downslide of those
four years of marriage, my cheeks burning wet, my nose smashed under colliding toxic
carbon dioxide words, I saw a dreamy yellow light stream out of mom’s bedroom at the other
end of the corridor, falling like a three-legged half-made furniture on the floor, while her pink
giggles were continuous and the ping of incoming texts on her phone relentless. On some
nights they would watch series on Netflix together. The next morning, mom would sleep in
till midday and hum sassy numbers over her brunch, biting into grilled ham sandwiches and
sipping Americano slowly.
One day I ran into the doctor near the staircase.
“It’s good to be fit, especially after a messy divorce,” he advised out of the blue. “I hope you
take calcium?” His choice of context burnt my earlobes and I pushed my tongue inside my
mouth from one side to another.
I looked at my broken nails for a few seconds, collected myself, and then said, “Too young.”
“Is it? How old are you?”
Trying to be sugar daddy, are you? I felt like snubbing him but in an instant, got a better idea.
“Heard of calcium tablets which produce unbreakable stalagmites on bones?”
He opened his mouth to say something and then his eyes widened, “Stalagmites?”
“It’s in the latest issue of the Ortho Society’s journal. Read it attentively tonight. Skip
watching series. It’ll do good to your other patients.”
Silence stood like a block of ice between us.
“Upgrade yourself, it will be good for you too.” I savoured that moment of hitting back at
him. And then, having won the battle, I smiled with my nose crunched up and with a tilt of
my finger close to his nose, I turned around, adding a quick, “Ciao!”