Mama's Boy
When Carla Lavery met Rodney Sears at a motivational seminar, she was overjoyed at her good fortune. A single woman past the age of forty, Carla had thought her chances of finding true love were slim, akin to finding a California condor nesting in a tree in her backyard in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Rodney was not only single, but he was also intelligent, caring and good-natured. To add icing to the cake, he was a doctor, a successful surgeon with a thriving practice. His profession, he assured her, was the only reason he was still single. For years he had put all his effort into medical school, internship and residency. Now that he was no longer struggling to pay off his student loans and had a steady income, he was ready to marry and raise a family.
Only three days after the seminar was concluded, Rodney telephoned Carla and asked her out on a date. For several months, the two enjoyed getting to know one another. They shared a mutually satisfying relationship, albeit a platonic one. As time went on, however, Carla found herself wanting more than simple companionship. One night, she invited Rodney to her apartment for a romantic dinner, complete with candlelight and soft music. After the meal, she made several feeble attempts at seduction, but Rodney politely rebuffed her.
"Don't you like women?" Carla blurted out in frustration. "Or is it that you don't find me attractive?"
"I like you very much. In fact, I want you to come to my house and meet my mother," the handsome doctor replied.
Tears of joy fell from Carla's blue eyes. With that simple invitation, Rodney had proven his love to her. There had been several men in her life who tried to get her into bed, but Rodney was the only one who treated her with honest, old-fashioned respect. To Carla, Rodney's asking her to meet his mother was tantamount to a formal proposal.
* * *
The night she was to meet Mrs. Sears Carla wore her best suit, one she reserved for weddings and Easter Sunday church services. It was conservative enough to please the older woman, yet flattering enough to impress her son. Carla's straight brown hair was pulled back and worn up off her shoulders. She put on very little makeup, just some powder, a few brushstrokes of mascara and a light-colored lipstick.
"How do I look?" she nervously asked Rodney when he came to pick her up.
"Don't worry. You look fine. I'm sure Mother will be pleased."
"I hope so."
Rodney had told her nothing at all about his mother, so when Carla met the woman, she was taken aback. Not only was Eloise Sears confined to a wheelchair, but she was also mute. Carla covered her surprise as best she could and tried to be at ease with the woman who, hopefully, would one day be her mother-in-law. Eloise, on the other hand, seemed quite upset by the sight of the younger woman. When Carla walked into the living room, Mrs. Sears rolled her chair toward her son's girlfriend as though she intended to attack her.
Rodney stepped in and, taking the handles of the wheelchair, escorted his mother back down the hall to her bedroom.
"I'm sorry," he told Carla when he returned. "My mother isn't feeling well today. Perhaps you should come back some other time."
"What's wrong with her?"
"Nothing. She was just excited by your visit. She doesn't see many people."
Carla suspected there was more to Mrs. Sears's behavior than that. She supposed the older woman was emotionally disturbed if not seriously mentally ill. Had Rodney not come to Carla's aid, Mrs. Sears might very well have hurt her.
* * *
In the weeks that followed, Carla saw little of Rodney. He did not phone her, nor did he return her calls. Finally, she decided to confront him face to face. She did not want to go to his office and interrupt him at work, so she drove to his house instead.
On her second visit to the Sears home, Carla was not concerned with either her clothes or appearance. She showed up on Rodney's doorstep in a sweat suit with her hair hanging down limply around her shoulders.
Carla was about to press the doorbell when she heard shouting coming from inside the house. Her first instinct was to turn and leave. If Rodney was in a bad mood, she did not want to make things worse with an unannounced visit. Then it occurred to her that given Mrs. Sears's mental state the man she was in love with might be in danger. With a trembling hand, Carla reached for the doorknob, turned it and opened the front door. What she saw through the doorway disturbed her immensely.
Rodney stood over his mother's wheelchair, yelling at the poor woman in a threatening voice.
"I can't trust you at all," he screamed.
Eloise Sears, unable to speak, could only submit to her son's verbal abuse in silence. Yet there was defiance in her eyes. Rodney raised his hand as though to strike his defenseless mother, but then he saw Carla standing on the threshold.
"What are you doing here?" he cried.
"I haven't been able to reach you by phone, so I thought I'd come to see you."
"Well, get out! I haven't called you because I didn't want to. I'm through with you."
Carla's heart filled with sorrow as she saw her romantic dreams come crashing down around her. Eloise, meanwhile, was quite agitated. Her hands were desperately reaching for Carla.
"Now look what you've done. You've upset my mother."
"I didn't mean to. Please, Rodney, I need to talk to you."
"Not now," he insisted angrily. "My mother needs her rest. Just go."
When Carla made no attempt to leave, Rodney's demeanor softened.
"Look, it's been a very rough day. My mother needs me now. I'll call you when things calm down. I promise."
* * *
Like a lovesick adolescent, Carla remained at home that night, sitting by the telephone, waiting for it to ring. It never did. Finally, five days later, the call came.
Rodney's voice was strained.
"I'd rather not hurt you," he began, "but ...."
Carla's hopes fell.
"I'm sorry, but my mother doesn't like you, and I could never marry a woman that my mother didn't approve of."
"She doesn't like me? How is that possible? She doesn't even know me. I spent less than ten minutes with her."
"My mother knows an opportunist when she sees one."
The callous remark cut Carla like a knife.
"I'm not an opportunist. That's not only a lie; it's also exceedingly unfair."
"Face facts. You're a forty-three-year-old woman working in a low-paying, dead-end job. Along comes an unmarried doctor with his own home and a significant income. I'm the answer to all your prayers, no doubt."
Most women would have been offended by Rodney's harsh remarks and would have returned his malice with both barrels, but Carla was too injured by the injustice and falsehood of his accusations to respond with bitterness.
"I didn't go out with you because you were a doctor. I went out with you because you were a kind, caring, compassionate person. You were one of the few men ...."
Rodney cut her off.
"I was one of the few men over forty who was still available, and you were desperate."
Carla could no longer stand hearing his vicious remarks. She hung up the phone and collapsed on her bed in tears.
* * *
Weeks passed, and the loneliness of her life began to sadden Carla again. Yet rather than stay home and pray for a telephone call that would never come, she sought the company of friends and relatives. Sadly, all of them were happily married, causing her to feel like a square peg in a room full of round holes.
"I'm tired of being on the outside looking in," she cried into her pillow one night. "If it weren't for Eloise, I might be engaged by now."
Try as she might, Carla could not understand why the old woman disliked her. She had done nothing to offend her. Maybe, she thought suddenly, it was a simple matter of jealousy. Mrs. Sears had had her son all to herself for so long. Did she want to possess him for the rest of her life? And was Rodney so blind that he could not see through his mother's tactics?
Fresh hope sparked in Carla's breast. Perhaps she could reason with the older woman and convince her that should she not oppose the relationship she would be gaining a daughter and not losing a son. Just maybe there was still a chance for Carla to resurrect her shattered dreams.
* * *
Carla waited in her car across the street from the Sears home until Rodney drove away, presumably to either his office or the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. When the doctor's Mercedes turned the corner, Carla got out of her Subaru, walked across the lawn and into his unlocked house.
"Mrs. Sears?" she called, temporarily forgetting that the old woman was mute and would not be able to reply.
No one was in the living room or kitchen, so Carla went down the hall toward the bedroom. The door was ajar, so she stuck her head in. Eloise Sears was sitting in her wheelchair, working on a jigsaw puzzle.
"Mrs. Sears," she said. "Could I please have a word with you?"
The woman frantically nodded her head, appearing most eager for conversation.
"First," Carla began, "I'd like to apologize for that scene the last time I was here."
Eloise brushed her apology aside. Apparently, she had more urgent things to discuss.
"I know you don't like me. However, if you would only give me a chance, we might become friends," Carla said respectfully.
Mrs. Sears did not appear to be listening. She rolled over to her night table and took a pad and pencil out of her drawer.
"Let me assure you that I care for your son very much," Carla continued.
Eloise hastily scribbled a short message on the pad of lined writing paper, tore off the top sheet and handed it to Carla.
Leave and don't ever come back.
"Why? I'll make him a good wife, and you'll always be welcome to live with us. After all, you are his mother."
Eloise wrote her reply.
He's no son of mine. He's a monster.
"How can you say that?" Carla cried, jumping to the defense of the man she loved. "Are you that selfish that you'd sacrifice your son's happiness for the sake of your own?"
I was in your place once. He told me he loved me, too.
"He won't stop loving you if he marries me. You'll always have his love."
Eloise began to write another message, but then the two women heard the front door open. Carla saw her words on the paper: Call the police ....
Moments later, Rodney appeared in the bedroom doorway.
"Carla, my dear," he said, "what a pleasant surprise. Don't you agree, Mother?"
Rodney walked into the room, took the sheets of paper from Carla's hand and read them silently.
"She's quite right," he confessed to Carla. "I'm not her son. In fact, she's several months younger than I am."
Carla stared at him, perplexed by his words.
"Like you, she hoped to move into this house and spend her life taking care of me, so I obliged her."
Hatred blazed in Eloise's eyes as she looked up at her "son."
"Unfortunately, she wasn't satisfied with the arrangement once she moved in. How fickle is woman," he chuckled.
"I don't understand any of this," Carla cried.
"My mother ran away with another man when I was quite young. My father raised me, but my mother had broken his heart and left him nothing but a shell of a man. Anyway, when he died a few years ago, I decided to search for my mother. I found her living in New York with her new husband. She wanted nothing to do with me, so I came back to Massachusetts, determined to find a good woman and lead a normal life, but I soon learned that it was not a wife I needed but a mother."
"So you kidnapped this poor woman?"
"Oh, she isn't the first. There were two others before her. Mother number one was always trying to escape. She became more trouble than she was worth, so I replaced her. The second wasn't much better, though. When I was out of the house, she slit her wrists, preferring death to her new life with me."
Carla's heart filled with sympathy for the two innocent women victimized by this lunatic.
"And now, Mother number three is becoming troublesome again. When she tried to pass a note to the mailman, I had to chastise her. I even brought you here to show her how easy it would be to replace her, but she wouldn't learn. She was soon up to her old tricks again."
Rodney reached up to the top shelf of his mother's closet and took down the gun he kept hidden there.
"I hate to have to do this ...."
He put the silencer on the end of the barrel.
"... but you've given me no choice."
Before either woman could stop him, Rodney pointed the gun at Eloise's forehead and pulled the trigger.
* * *
As the anesthesia began to wear off, Carla slowly became aware of the sounds around her. She tried to sit up and was overcome by a wave of nausea.
"Sit back, Mother," Rodney said solicitously. "You don't want to overdo it so soon after your surgery."
Carla tried to ask what had happened, but the words wouldn't come.
"Don't waste your time trying to speak. You can't. I've performed surgery on your vocal cords, and your spinal column, too. You'll be confined to a wheelchair from now on, poor dear."
She was paralyzed, unable to make her lower body respond to her commands.
"Once you're feeling better, I'll dye your hair. You ought to look quite lovely with a nice salt-and-pepper color. I never did like that mousy brown of yours."
Carla's eyes sought Rodney's and tried to plead with him, but there was no mercy to be found in his cold heart.
"I have to go to work, now," he said, "but when I get home—if you're up to it—I'll order a pizza and we can watch cartoons together. And afterward, we'll have milk and cookies just like we used to do when I was a young boy. Won't that be fun, Mommy?"
Although he rarely admits it, Salem is a big mama's boy.
