Mom's Nose

The mother sat the child in front of her across the kitchen table. She spread a towel on the table. She was wearing her pink bathrobe.

”Mommy needs to find you a new daddy, baby. Somebody to take care of us. Pay the bills, take you to the zoo, hug and kiss. But she cannot do it with a nose like this. That’s why mommy got this cutting wire. It was only 12 dollars, much less than a fancy plastic surgeon."

"Mommy, what is cutting wire?”

The mother shoved a spool of wire in the child’s face: “It’s a wire that cuts, you little shit. Don’t act like an imbecile. I should scrape your face off with it, you’re so ugly. God!”

But then she calmed down. “You see what you made mommy do? You made mommy scream and get angry. Anyway, it’s time to begin.”

The wire cut into her nose, blood started pouring down. The mother started to scream and cry. The child was quiet, with a motionless face, retreated into herself. Deep, deep into a safe place.

The mother got halfway through the nose, she could not take it anymore. She got up to the kitchen sink and started putting a lot of paper towels to her face. She was sobbing. The child could only see the mother’s back and her pink bathrobe. Finally, the mother said in a calm voice.

”Sweetheart, would you call mommy an ambulance?”

The child did not know then all of this would make a great story for bowling nights, parties, and 4 a.m. pillow talk.

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk