Ben Williamson was a mistake. He found this out as a young boy, living in a dingy, red-brick-against-grey sky type of building in Bedford, Brooklyn. He was too young for school, too young to realize that his mother was a tired mess during the day, hands itching to get just one beer and a full-out drunk by night. He was too young for anything more than playing with his broken Superman action figure, an arm ripped off, the Superman embazelment scratched until it became nothing more than a glimmer of color on the action figure's chest.
His mother day after day stared blankly at Ben, a bit of pity, a bit of regret in her watery blue eyes. Instead of getting a job, instead of calling the landlord to fix the leaky faucet or ask for an extension on the rent; instead of acting like a mother, she told him stories, a bottle of Corona in one hand, a lit cigarette in another,
"I neva' wanted you. Your father, I neva' even knew his name," she said in a hoarse voice, her eyes, bloodshot, shadowed with dark bags, closed briefly as she paused for a long drag, the ash falling to the dirty carpet. Smoke whisped out of her stained ruby-red lips, dancing up into her thin bleach blonde hair and she continued the story. Maybe once she was beautiful, but that doesn't matter now. The originally bright blue walls of the apartment, had faded down into a dull grey. No matter how much spit and shine you wipe on it, it'll still be unyieldingly grey.
"Me and Anita, we was at a club in the city. Met him there, I don't even remember his name. I was too high off a' whateva Anita had in her bag," she said, chuckling at the memories, before falling foreword, her chest wracking with heavy coughs. She downed another gulp of beer, emptying the bottle before standing and stumbling over to the tiny cooler by the door, steadying herself as the world swam and swayed before picking up another. She returned to the used in Laze-Boy she bought for ten bucks at a yard sale, reclining back and finishing off her cigarrette. She dropped it, still smoking, onto the floor and stamped it out, her foot near where Ben sat playing with his idol.
"Benny! Are you listening? Mammy got to tell you something important."
Ben stopped spinning Superman in the air, letting the hero hang limply in his hand. It was a gift from "That damn Amanda" as his mother so gently put it. His aunt Amanda visited every week, with a new toy or a new shirt for him. She had tried to adopt him when he was a baby, claiming that her sister 'had a problem and needed to address and correct it before she could handle the responsibilities of being a mother' or something fancy like that. Amanda was younger, prettier with a good teaching job and a cop husband. Ben's mother had hissed and yelled her way out of it, half dragging him to the new apartment in Bedford. He was barely a child and loved Auntie Amanda because she always gave him macaroni and cheese and called him her 'darling'.
Ben looked up at his mother, sucking on his thumb, his bright blue eyes wide in either admiration or fear, probably the latter.
"We went back to my place and then two months later, doctor told me I was pregnant with you. I couldn't get no abortion cus' the money, so I was stuck. I know it wasn't your fault. But my life and dreams gone, cus' of you. You were a mistake,"
She took a sip of her Corona, not quite enjoying the taste, the burn, but glad that the edges of her vision were completely blurred, that suddenly taking a very long nap seemed like a good idea. She turned away from Ben, staring blankly at the wall, indicating that the one-sided conversation was over.
He was too young to quite understand exactly what his mother was talking about. She often went on tangents like this one. It was strange, sometimes she was loving and sweet, making him yummy food (never macaroni and cheese, though)and saying that she was going to get help, that she was going to get a real job.
These moments of love would only occur after Ben's mother would wake up in a shallow pool of her own vomit, her head pounding, her son sitting a couple feet away, planning with his Superman action figure or maybe after hearing the hushed whispers of the neighbors 'Disgusting woman can't even take care of herself, let alone a child" and always, always after a visit from Amanda, the beloved younger sister, who came full of presents for Ben and an envelope of cash for her sister.
But then Anita would call or maybe she would see a half-empty bottle of amber liquid in the sink and tip back her head, desperate to forget. His five year old mind caught the last sentence of her rants, as it was the one she repeated most often.
"You were a mistake."
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