When your house is a den of darkness and people only show up to get what they want, you tend to ignore everyone who comes close to you.
The people who actually care about you are the rare bright spot in the bleakness that is life.
Why do I say that?
Countless men were as close to my mother as physically possible but once they spilled their seed in my mother’s garden, they got dressed and left as quickly as they came.
Only one stuck around.
He wasn’t the normal client, he didn’t pay her in cold hard cash, he paid her in the substances she needed to get through the day.
Of course, I’m talking about her dealer, the oldest relationship for the oldest profession.
Most of the time, she paid him for his sweetest plant with cash but on days she didn’t have it, she let him have her way with her.
With walls so thin, I had to hear her moans but at least she didn’t fake it with him, she knew he’d be back.
However, once she got what she wanted, she discarded him like all the others.
He realized that was a matter of the game for both of their careers but he fell for her despite knowing what she did to get by.
How did I know?
He tried to stick around as much as possible, like a vine he clung to her tight until that inevitable cut, she only took the green she needed and let the rest fall off her.
That was their story until she got older, her body couldn’t handle the job anymore and she knew it.
I remember one afternoon hearing my mother sound human with a man for the first time in my life.
She didn’t have the money, clients came less and less as newer,shinier models became increasingly available.
He assumed they would do their normal routine so he got up to go to the bedroom, she held on to his hand and simply asked, “Can you just hold me?”
I’ve never seen a man cry until that day, the vine got what he always wanted and he held her as long as she let him.
He was around much more after that, he was the closest thing I had to a father.
He showed her what love was and she truly blossomed under him, every moment they were together was a way to help her grow.
She was the plant that grew in the darkness, she just needed someone to tend to her.
Unfortunately, when you grow tall enough, that’s when you’re bound to get snipped.
My mother was a lot of things I don’t miss but undeserving of love was never one of them and I’m glad she found it later in life.
It’s why I came to the Bleak in the first place, Curze.
My stepfather wanted the plant he didn’t have that represented the woman we both love the most.
It was the least I could do to try and get it.
Thank you for getting it for me.
I’ll leave you alone now the vine can be with his black rose.