A few days later

“Do you remember Kathy and Kimberly?” She asked one morning before school as she sipped her coffee, and I munched my cereal. “They were my best friends back in high school. They're in town this week and were free this afternoon so I said that we should get lunch.”

“Hey, going out in public! I’m very proud of you.”

“I go out in public,” she swatted my arm playfully.

“Work doesn't count.”

“Hmph,” she pouted, thrusting out her bottom lip theatrically. “Well, never let it be said that your mother can't change and do new things.”

When I was done with breakfast, I grabbed my backpack from out of my room and slipped the ray gun into it.

“Bye, mom,” I said, jogging out the door as if I was heading off to school.

I waited in a secluded spot in the park down the street, killing time by mindlessly scrolling through TikTok until it was closer to lunch.

Then I circled back around to my house. I could see my mom through the window, moving through the main floor. It was her day off from work, so she wasn’t dressed in any of her work clothes. As she moved from the bathroom to the main hall, she stopped at the very same mirror I used a few days prior and stared at her reflection as she slipped in a pair of thick small hoop gold earrings.

She was wearing a light floral, pinkish-cream linen billowy short sleeves that had elastics on the end. She had tucked the top into her light blue jeans and finished it off with a thin gold looking chain belt and a pair of camel open toe ankle boots with a small heel. My mom always had a great sense of fashion, it must have come to her naturally but somehow the outfit was revealing in the right way and didn’t make her come off as slutty in anyway, she looked elegant.