The Milk

When the milk was gone, I knew we were in trouble.  Milk was a necessity in our house and when it was gone, I knew my mom was back in one of her ‘moods’.  We never knew when one of her moods was going to hit or how long it was going to last.  I couldn’t ever link her moods to depression, it just seemed like she got caught on a single subject and became obsessed.  Her current obsession was with clothes.  She was making her new clothes, repurposing clothes she no longer wore and was trying to get my sister and I to work with her.  My sister, being younger, was more apt to join my mother in her obsessions solely so she could spend time with her.  I, on the other hand, was focused on keeping the family going while my mom neglected the everyday duties of running a household. 

While I wanted to be able to sit down and sew clothes with my family, I knew someone had to watch how full the fridge and pantry stayed. I longed for the days when I could spend my time how I wanted, to sit down and read a book in the sun. To use the fireplace in the winter and tell stories. I wanted to be able to go to sleep and not worry about what we were going to eat the next day. As my high school graduation neared, the worry skyrocketed. Who was going to keep the family together? Would my younger sister take over the reins? Two weeks before my graduation, everything seemed to magically fall into my lap. A fashion designer had caught wind of my mother’s refashioned clothes and wanted to meet. If only she hadn’t tried to steal my mother’s designs without recognition or pay, I would never had had to stay home and continue the tradition of keeping the family together.