322 night in the woods - the argument with mom

Dear Readers,

Time for another horrible dream! This was the one with the train that seemed to be going fast but going nowhere, like it was just another building.

I activated the four musicians and was treated to a giant alligator mouth this time that flashed brightly.

In the morning, Bea had an away message that was all about the play at the Ol Pickaxe. I'll be there later.

Gregg just had a Happy Halloween message.

Dad had moved the boxes too! I went into the basement and collected the tooth from the safe.

I went down to mom to say hi and she murmured. I asked her "You ok?" and she said sure honey. I said she was lying. She asked me if I felt like talking about school yet and I said "um... ok". This was the conversation I was trying to avoid last time and I restored a save and all. I'll deal with it this time though!

She asked me what the story was and I said I just felt like it wasn't where I should be. She asked me what did that even mean? I was like ugh, never mind and asked to talk about it later. She asked me if I had any idea when I might want to do that because she was all ears. She said she really was dying to find out why I decided to up and abandon all the plans we'd made as a family and I was like geez, mom where was this coming from?

She said I was the f... and I finished her sentence, saying I was the first Borowski to go to college. I said I knew as I only heard that since I was like 6. She said they'd been planning for it since I was born, spent 18 years and got into all kinds of trouble, just for me to decide I'd rather be here. Might as well have taken all that effort and money and worry and dumped it in a hole. I asked her if she was having one of her mood swings again.

The music stopped.

She went ugh, like as if she was the moody one in this house. I said she was the moody one in this house. She said to enjoy this house while we still had it.

I leaped off the counter and went what?! What's happening to the house??? Mom said maybe it just wasn't where we should be, mocking my own words about college. I said "Mom. This isn't funny."

Mom told me don't worry about it and don't worry about anything and why start now? She told me to go off and do whatever it was I did. I lowered my eyes and said you know what? Maybe if I'd had more examples of, ya know, getting out and making something of myself. She said no no and I did not get to... and I butted in, saying maybe she wanted me to get out of here because she never got around to doing it herself. I opened my eyes more again and said maybe I was just the most recent failure in the line of failures that was our family.

There was a long pause as we looked at each other. I then said I was leaving now. She made an ellipsis before going back to her book. No more words. The music did not come back.

This was the big argument I was trying to avoid. I decided to have it on this second playthrough just to see it through.