“So,” I say with a shrug. “What happened?”
“They got into a fight, I guess. My mom’s been sort of stressed lately.”
“What do you mean?”
“She and my nurse, Christine, have been getting on each other’s nerves. They used to be friendly. Not anymore.”
“Christine, Ms. Lemonopolous, she’s here a lot?”
“Yes, sir. She lives here.”
Oh-kay. A live-in nurse? Not sure where this is going. Christine is curvy and cute. Don’t know if she’s, you know, dating anybody or even whose team she’s playing on. So I just nod a little. Hope Samuel will give me more to work with. He does.
“Christine is just my home health aide. She doesn’t really have a place of her own, I guess, and can’t afford to find one because she quit her real job, so Mom let her stay here rent-free in exchange for helping me with my feeding tube and, you know, the seizures. She also does housecleaning, the laundry, and I guess you’d call it babysitting if Mom stays out late on a date. Stuff like that.”
“So, how long has Christine been living here with you guys?”
“About a year, maybe. I had somebody else before, but I like Christine better.”
I press on.
“So, what happened tonight?”
“I dunno. They both went totally ballistic. I was in my room. All of a sudden, I heard shouting. Then something crashed and glass shattered.”
I look to the floor. See shards of clear and green glass, not to mention a broken-off wine goblet stem.
“I rolled out here as fast as I could,” says Samuel, “and saw the two of them going at it. Christine was kicking at Mom. Mom was grabbing Christine’s throat. I told Mom to stop. She told me to, you know, ‘eff-off.’”
“That when you called nine-one-one?”
“Yeah. You guys got here fast.”
“We caught a break. We were in the neighborhood. You okay staying here tonight?”
He gives me a look. “What do you mean?”
“You sure you’ll be safe? If not, we’ve got places you could go …”
“Don’t worry. My mom isn’t going to strangle me, if that’s what you mean.”
“Okay. If you feel different, just call nine-one-one. Or, here.” I hand him one of my business cards. “Call me. I’ll come pick you up.”