![\"mother](\"http:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/short-stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/95\/2014\/09\/ef30b80920f11c3e81584d04ee44408be272e2d110b7114990f0_640_mother.jpg\" "\\"Photo")
\u201cUm\u2026hello!…excuse me\u2026what\u2019s her name\u2026I forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cUm\u2026hello!…excuse me\u2026what\u2019s her name\u2026I forgot.\u201d<\/p>\n
My dad had something to tell the woman I hired to help me do some cleaning around the house. He was calling from upstairs and he had forgotten\u00a0her name.<\/p>\n
But what really was her name? I called her \u201cBull\u2019s mom\u201d. Of course that<\/p>\n
wasn\u2019t her real name, but I insisted on calling her that for the sheer pleasure of watching her eyes light up and a broad smile flicker across her face. I could tell by a \u201csixth sense\u201d that she was truly delighted to be addressed as \u201cBull mom\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her real name was Renita. But I had to find a way to explain that to get on the best side of this woman, you should call her \u201cBull\u2019s mom.\u201d. But who was Bull, and why did he have such a strong bearing on her life?<\/p>\n
My first experiences with Bull started when I stopped with my bike to purchase gas at the nearby gas station. He initiated several trivial conversations with me and since then started calling me his \u201cfriend\u201d. And of course, he didn\u2019t hesitate to capitalize on that title of being my \u201cfriend.\u201d He showed up time and again at my house, at work, the moment I stepped out of a car, to tell me one sad story after the other about work, his home, his family, his new born baby, and of his wife leaving him alone with the child.\u00a0 And every time I peeled out a couple of dollars hoping that it would take him to the nearby grocery to feed himself and family instead of the nearby \u201cblock\u201d to feed his crack addiction. I got to understand that he did the latter more often that not.\u00a0 He was on drugs and it was getting progressively worse. He stole everything he could get his hands on, from slippers to ducks and fowls. Everyone advised me to keep him away from my premises and to call the police on him.<\/p>\n
Then one day Bull didn\u2019t show up. He didn\u2019t show up several days in fact. He didn\u2019t show for several weeks. But his mother did. His mother came to meet me. She told me that she just spoken to Bull. She told me he that he is in the lock up and he asked her to contact me, his friend, and ask me to please loan him the required bail money.<\/p>\n
On that day, Bull mom also asked if I had any sort of work to give her. She said her husband works at the estate, and her smallest son works in a store. She told me they live \u201ccomfortably\u201d in the family but would still like some work to supplement her family income.<\/p>\n
In the weeks and months to follow, Bull\u2019s mother would do the laundry, pack the clothes in the wardrobe and clean whatever she could in the house. She would work one day per week and four hours per day.<\/p>\n
One day, her son, Bull, came to visit her at my house while she was working. It so happened that one of the neighbors wanted something from the nearby grocery, but insisted it was not convenient for them to go for it themselves. So they called upon Bull, the guy that chanced to ride by the streets that day, and gave him the money to buy the groceries. Of course, Bull never returned. Well he returned, but from the nearby \u201cblock\u201d with his pockets full of white powder.<\/p>\n
The woman that sent her was the wife of a policeman. They were very annoyed. They would lock Bull up for sure. There was no way he could escape jail. But his mother pleaded and made them a deal that she would repay the money if they give her a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
The neighbors complained time and time again to me that Bull\u2019s mother wouldn\u2019t repay them.<\/p>\n
Then one day, Bull\u2019s mom didn\u2019t show up to work. I checked by her house and her daughter in law told me she was not at home. She was at the police station filing a report against Bull. He had stolen all her gold jewelry and blew it into black burnt ashes through a tiny glass pipe\u2026white powder.<\/p>\n
Bull would spent quite some time in prison for that offence. And there was nothing his mother could do about it.<\/p>\n
Bull was what many people would term the \u201cblack sheep\u201d of the family. He was a dope addict, a thief, a prison escapee. The entire gamut of society despised the sound of Bull\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
But all the while that Bull was in prison, nothing brought a broader smile or brighter eyes on Aunt Renita\u2019s face than the sound her being addressed as \u201cBull\u2019s mommy!\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"