Mama's Boy

MAMA’S BOY

It was eleven dollars a night to stay at the Chelsea shelter and nine to stay at Harvest Grove in midtown. Penny counted six dollars in change and she still needed to find something to eat. She had worked the number four train from back to front twice, but the holiday season was over and people were less generous with handouts. It happened every year once the tourists had left the city.
Sometimes she saw her boy Luke when a child was on the train. Once she asked a little girl why someone put a ribbon in his hair. She tried to take it out, but she was stopped by the train operator. He didn’t understand.
One day she would find him. What she didn’t know was that Luke had been strangled by her boyfriend the same night he hit her in the head with a ball hammer. She didn’t remember two weeks in the hospital. She didn’t remember the police flashing pictures of the boyfriend or telling her how much time he’d be locked away before his own death sentence. She didn’t remember anything of her past.
All she knew was that it was cold, she was hungry and she wanted to see her boy one more time. She looked up when the door chimed open and a young woman entered the next car, holding a small boy in her arms. His hair was darker than she remembered, but it was him.
“Luke,” she whispered as the doors closed and the train whistled into motion. She pushed her way through the crowd and tugged the connecting doors open. “Luke,” she muttered as she stumbled toward the woman who settled herself into a seat, the squirming boy on her lap. They looked up at her curiously. “Where did you find my boy?”
“I’m sorry?” The young mother questioned.
“I’ve been looking everywhere,” Penny whispered and reached down.
“Leave them alone,” a tall man said gruffly.
“It’s Luke,” she explained, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the screeching brakes.
The doors opened and the woman hurried off the car. “I’ll get the next one!”
The man had Penny by the hand and everyone on the car stared at them strangely. “Let me go!” She cried.
“I’m making a citizen’s arrest,” the tall man said simply. At the next stop, he led her outside and dialed 911 on his cell phone. “My boy,” she whispered. “I’m supposed to be with Luke!” Did nobody understand?
The police station was warm and Penny forgot about her hunger. For hours, she sat on a bench waiting. Finally, she looked out the window and saw the woman who took her boy on the train. In a flash, she ran outside and wrestled the young woman to the ground, throttling her. “You took my boy!”
“Hey, that’s my girlfriend,” a rookie cop yelled, but she didn’t hear him. The girl tried to fend for herself, but Penny cracked her head on the cold sidewalk, drawing blood. Several officers grabbed Penny and handcuffed her, pushing her roughly back inside.
“She’s got my boy!” Penny screamed, fighting with all her might, but she was weak physically as well as emotionally. That night she woke up, surprised to be warm. She looked around and realized she was on a thin cot in a jail cell covered with a rough blanket. It was warm and so very quiet compared to her train. When she tried to stand, her knees buckled and she fell to the floor.
“Shut up,” someone said from the cell next to hers.
“Luke,” she whispered, near tears. “Where are you?”
“Here I am, Mama.” She turned back toward the bed to see her precious little boy. He was five years old, in his favorite overalls. A mischievous twinkle shone in his eyes. She crawled into bed and held him tightly. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered and sang him softly to sleep.
Morning came and an officer banged his nightstick against the bars to wake her. He unlocked the door and stood above the homeless woman who had died quietly in the night, clutching her pillow.

692 words