Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Lulu.com
Type: Fiction
Copyright: 2011
Christine is a young girl struggling with issues of co-dependency due to her mother’s fight with schizophrenia. Must she be her mother’s keeper? She loses at love once, then has to struggle a second time to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. My Mother’s Keeper is a story of loving, learning, maturing, and developing in spite of overwhelming trials. Can she learn her own self-worth and mature into a healthy young adult?
A young adult novel, based on a true situation, dealing with co-dependence and young love.
Excerpt
My Mother’s Keeper
CHAPTER ONE
Christine heard the ambulance siren wailing
in the distance. She had to get to school. But, she
couldn’t leave her mother like this. She had to see
her into the ambulance before leaving. She
couldn’t miss any more school, though. They had
already been taken to court because she had
missed so much. She didn’t want to stress her
mother any more than she already was by having
to deal with another court appearance. She would
just have to be tardy. She would get Ms. Mabry to
take her to school late. She often helped them out
in an emergency like this.
The ambulance stopped in the driveway.
Christine went out to the yard to meet them. The
EMT was walking up the walk toward the house.
“Where is your mom?” he asked Christine.
The EMT gave Christine a look of sympathy that
almost made her dissolve in tears. She had to be
strong, though. She was the only one to see to
things when her mom was sick.
“She’s in her bedroom. She won’t come
out,” Christine told the EMT. They already knew
her, since this was not the first time they had been
to her house. They had been many, many times.
“She sees small, black trolls in the doorway. She
won’t come out.” Christine knew, as did the EMT,
5
that her mother was hallucinating again. She had
gone through a screaming episode this morning
when Christine went in to try, again with no
success, to get her mother to take her medicine.
She had begun screaming at Christine. She
couldn’t be consoled no matter what Christine told
her. So, there was nothing for Christine to do but
call the ambulance and have them to take her back
to the hospital again. Her hospitalizations seemed
to be getting more and more frequent lately.
Christine knew it was her own fault. She just got
so tired of fighting with her mom to get her to take
her medicine. She would often just go off to
school, knowing her mom wasn’t going to take her
medicine, but not wanting to start her day with such
anger. It ruined her whole day. She couldn’t focus
at school or enjoy her friends or anything for
thinking and worrying about her mom at home
during those times.
“Get them away from me. I won’t come out
until you get them out of my room. They are
looking at me. They are laughing at me.” Christine
heard her mother screaming at the EMT, but she
didn’t hear what the EMT said back. She just
heard his deep, quiet, comforting voice. He was
one of the ones that had come before, and he
knew that in a bit her mother would calm down and
would go with them. He was very patient every
time he came. His low, comforting voice soothed
Christine as much as it did her mother, even
though she couldn’t hear what he said. She knew
6
he was in charge now. She could relax and let him
take charge. It felt good to not be the one in
charge. She knew that he understood her mother’s
hallucinations, at least as much as anyone could
understand them. He had once confided in her that
he had a brother with schizophrenia, and that he
understood what she was going through. She was
always relieved when he was the one that came
out on the call. Her mother grew silent, and soon
the EMT appeared in the door with her mother on
the stretcher. Her mother looked so small and
helpless. She was helpless, Christine thought.
“Honey, we are taking your mother to the
hospital. She has agreed to go. You already knew
she would have to go, didn’t you, before you even
called us? You know there is no other way to help
her. She needs the hospital where she can be
forced to take her medicine, and where someone
will watch her all the time, make her eat, bathe, and
all the things she should be doing. You knew that,
didn’t you? There is no way you can do it all by
yourself, and your mother is not capable right now
of making daily decisions and caring for herself,
much less you, too. You did know that, right?” The
EMT spoke to Christine as the child she was. At
sixteen, she had been cast into an adult role for too
many years. It felt good to be treated as a child.
“Yes, I knew." Later,she would have to bring her
mom home with her, and her mom would be really
angry at her, and would blame her for
everything. But, for right now, Christine wasn’t the
one responsible. The EMT was, then the nurses at
7
the hospital would be. She was so relieved that all
the decisions, and her mother’s care, were no
longer her responsibility, at least for a while. Not
that she could relax or anything. She would still
have to care for herself, and visit her mom and
stuff. She always did a thorough cleaning of the
house while her mom was gone, because her mom
hated for her to move anything or throw anything
away. She never got to thoroughly clean except
when her mother was gone to the hospital.
“You are going to school, right?” the EMT
asked, breaking into her thoughts. He had been
out here enough times to know that she had
missed way too much school and really could not
afford to miss today. He was one of the ones who
was here when her mother had “lost it” after they
had gotten back from court about her excessive
absences. Her mother had thought the
government was out to “get them” she said, and
had imagined all sorts of bugs in their house, and
thought people were watching their house. She
had just really lost touch with reality, and Christine
had called them that time. It hadn’t been that long
ago.
“I have got to go. I can’t miss any more
school. Mom will have to go to jail, and pay a big
fine. I have to go. I can’t go to the hospital with
her. I hate to send her alone, but I just can’t be out
of school anymore. You understand, don’t you?”
“I surely do. She will be fine. Go to school,
and then this Ms. Mabry can take you to the
hospital to see your mother. She will be fine until
you get there. The nurses will take good care of her.
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