Oh I call my Mum Katy

Their relationship was complicated.

In the broad Facebook like labelling, what it meant in this case was…

Dave loved Katy.

Katy loved herself too much, and Dave and the kids came after.

The boys, Cody, 12 and Elliot, 9 were mixed about their Mum.

Cody remembered more of Mum before she left. But the happy family memories made him bitter and sad, which showed up as general ambivalence.

He called his Mum, Katy which drove her mad.

Elliot still hoped for a reunion.

An ideal movie ending which was kept alive just enough, by the infrequent chemistry between his Mum and Dad.

So, he tried his hardest to love them both and make them proud.

Katy had a habit of going from once every other weekend Mum, to picking the boys up from school and cooking them dinner at home every other day, when her latest relationship went tits up.

Her solution to the break up three years ago had been to recapture her youth through any man who treated her like she wasn’t a 30 something Mum of 2, and helped her realise the fantasy of still being in her early 20’s.

What no-one actually knew is that Katy deep down still loved Dave and wanted to go back to the way things were.

She just felt like too much water had gone under the bridge, or in her case, the boys had met way too many potential Uncles.

It’s embarrassing when you realise you’re not just wrong, but completely mental, and even worse when everyone else looks at you with doe like eyes, saying it’s all going to be ok.

So in her pursuit of trying to prove herself right Katy chose to circumnavigate the Earth to return to where she once was, instead of just turning round and walking back.

But then Dave met someone.

He’d been single since the breakup, and apart from the occasional late night fondle with Katy as she nursed a hangover or another bad break up, he’d not had much to do with any females at all.

Out of the blue appeared Suzie Sumner.

Well, out of Cody’s English class to be more exact.

She was cute in a wholesome way, single, no kids, young looking (mainly due to a lack of partaking in things which make you look older, like cigarettes and methamphetamine) and simple crazy about Dave.

Being a typical man, even after she got his number under the pretense of a parent’s evening “follow up” , a coffee to discuss Cody’s latest work and 3 weeks of texting back and forth, Dave had no idea Suzie Sumner liked him until she full on Frenched him in his car and stuck her hand down his tracksuit bottoms.

That was 2 months ago.

It was a frosty Saturday morning, and Katy was trying to call Dave.

She would just re-dial and re-dial until he picked up.

Seven dials in and still no Dave.

She wanted to go round and cook the boys a fry up. Mainly because she’d woken up with a head like an anvil, and about £7 to her name in change on her bed side table.

She got the car going, and set off for the 5 minute drive to see the boys, phone still re-dialing in hand as she gripped onto the steering wheel with two fingers and lit a fag.

Still nothing.

Katy was getting angry.

“Where the fuck are you Dave.”

The boys had phones, but she didn’t bother to call them.

Elliot never had it on him, and Cody wouldn’t pick the phone up to her if he could see she was on fire.

She pulled up to the house.

There was another car in the drive behind Dave’s Volvo.

A little Fiat.

A girl’s Fiat.

Katy flicked the end of her second fag out of the window and marched up the drive.

She hammered on the door.

She was fuming now.

Inside she could hear laughter and Dave’s heavy tread coming up the hall.

Opening the door, Katy quickly touched her hair and swore under her breath as she knew she looked a state.

“Katy, hey” he said.

“Babe, I’ve been trying to call you.” she said.

She was trying to see through into the kitchen down the hall.

Elliot came running up behind his Dad.

“Mum!”

He squeezed past Dave’s legs and gave his Mum a reassuring squeeze.

“Babe, who’s car is that?” Katy said.

Dave couldn’t look her in the eye.

He kept staring over her head, like he used when she’d blow up at him coming home late at the weekend, after saying he was just having a quick pint after work.

“Dave who is it?” said a woman’s voice from the kitchen.

“Who the fuck is that?” Katy barged past Dave and down the hall.

“That’s Suzie” Dave called after her.

She almost yanked Elliot straight into the door frame as she stalked down the hall and into the kitchen.

Behind her island, was some bitch called Suzie.

“Errr hello, who are you?” Katie said.

Suzie turned round, a picture of domestic bliss.

Cody was sitting on a breakfast stool next to her, as cooked in front of the stove.

That probably burnt more than anything.

He’d used to do it when she cooked Saturday breakfast.

“Oh hi there, I’m Suzie, Dave’s girlfriend.”

Hours later as Katy sat crying he heart out at her Mum’s dinner table, she swore she couldn’t remember what happened.

But Dave and Cody had to grab her as she lunged over the island to grab a carving knife and stick in little Miss. Suzie’s face.

All three of the boys had dragged her to the car as she screamed words and images that would stay with them all, and forever be associated with their Saturday morning fry up.

Katy’s Mum, Sheila, had stood wide eyed as Dave had banged on her door (something he never did) , marched Katy into the dining room, and then said in an angry hiss, that until she calmed down she wasn’t welcome back at the house.

Sheila held her daughter’s hand and noticed that behind the tears was a steel in her daughter’s eyes she hadn’t seen since Cody had been hospitalised for a heart condition as a toddler.

This wasn’t going to be the end of it.