Amy Yamada - Bedtime Eyes

Coco just stood there. There was nothing strange about a kid trying to get his dad to pamper him, but Jesse was flirting with Rick like a woman would. She didn’t know whether to pity or despise him. She felt a cold shiver running down her spine.

Coco bit her lip and left the room in defeat. Was she really jealous of Jesse? There was no doubt that Jesse had been jealous of her when she had been talking to Greg on the phone, and now it seemed that he was having his revenge. Jesse was a little devil, and it no longer mattered to her that he was just an eleven-year-old kid. He had challenged her, and now he was the enemy.

Eventually, Jesse refused to even let go of Rick. He was always touching him somewhere. The only time Coco felt Rick was hers was when she was making love to him. In a way, that gave her a sense of victory because she had a physical relationship with Rick that Jesse could never have, but at the same time she was choked with jealousy because the same blood ran through Rick’s and Jesse’s veins, and that was something she could never have.

Luckily, Jesse’s efforts began to fail sooner than Coco had expected.

He had no real experience of getting close to anyone, so when he tried it just didn’t seem natural. Even Rick began to feel uncomfortable with Jesse hanging all over him all the time: he was too old to sit on his father’s lap and cuddle. When Coco saw Rick push Jesse away as he tried to put his arms around his father’s waist, she was jubilant. But at the same time she hated herself, disgusted by the satisfaction she derived from seeing Jesse hurt.

Jesse didn’t know what to do. He just stood there with his head down. Rick wasn’t even aware of what he had done. He had pushed him away without a second thought, and seeing him standing there, he tousled his hair as if to ask him what his problem was. He was totally unaware of what Jesse was thinking or feeling. Jesse looked relieved for a brief moment and turned to leave, but when he caught Coco looking at him, he turned away from her. He seemed to know that his plan was beginning to fall apart.

Once in a while Coco felt as though the whole situation wasn’t serious at all, that it was actually pretty funny. And looking at Rick, sweet, oblivious Rick, it was impossible to imagine that he had a son and a girlfriend who were constantly hatching vengeful plots or underhand schemes behind his back. When she had that attitude she could finally begin to relax and feel loved again. But, later, when she was doing something like washing up the dishes in the kitchen, she would suddenly think of Jesse and her optimism would fail, crash to the floor and burn.

One day the doorbell rang. Coco opened it and found a woman standing there.

“Hi!” The woman smiled as if she assumed she was expected.

Coco was sure she didn’t recognize her and struggled to find the words to reply. Apart from her friends coming to visit, it was the first time a woman had been to the house since she’d moved in.

“Mama!” cried Jesse.

Coco took another look at the woman’s face. She had thin lips and narrow eyes and she reminded Coco of a drawing of a peasant woman in an old picture book she’d had as a child. She was a little nervous, but as the woman was smiling so amiably, she let her in. To be more accurate, the woman walked right in.

“Oh, my baby!” she gushed, flinging her arms around Jesse.

What can this bitch be thinking? Coco instantly remembered the story about the two hundred dollars—it was this woman’s fault that Coco had been forced to take care of Jesse in the first place.

Even though she had refused to look after him, even for a few days, now his mother was hugging him and telling him how much she had missed him. Coco felt the woman was trying to flaunt her power and impress her.

Jesse looked puzzled, but gingerly put his arms around the woman’s neck. Sure, they were mother and son, but even to Coco there was something not quite right about the picture.

Rick came out to see what was going on, but as soon as he saw the woman, his face lost all expression.

“Hi, Rick! You look great,” she squealed.

Her high-pitched voice seemed to shake him back to life, and he offered her a chair. Then he introduced her to Coco, but his voice wasn’t the same as usual.

Coco smiled weakly and said hello, and the woman flashed a huge smile back at her and hurriedly told her not to worry because she didn’t love Rick any longer and she had only come because she was worried about Jesse.

Coco went to make them some drinks. All she could hear from the kitchen was the woman’s squeaky voice. Rick didn’t say a word.

When Coco returned to the living room with the tray of drinks, Jesse’s report card was on the table and the woman was screeching.

“Why are his grades falling?” she demanded. “Tell me! I can’t believe he’s doing this badly just because I’m not here to look after him.”

Coco felt like telling her that it wasn’t just Jesse’s grades that were the problem, there was a lot more besides, but this woman didn’t seem to know what was going on, and Coco didn’t think she had the right to know.

“You want to know why his grades are getting worse?” said Rick sarcastically. “I’ll tell you why. He doesn’t study, that’s why!”

She glared at Rick accusingly. He refused to meet her gaze but his tight-lipped expression and narrowed eyes betrayed his anger. It was the first time Coco had seen him with such an expression.

“So why aren’t you studying, Jesse?” barked the woman.

Jesse started to whimper. Coco simply could not believe what she was seeing. The little brat was playing up to his mother! Could it get any worse than this? At that moment Coco hated Jesse more than ever—more than she had believed possible. As far as she was concerned it would have been better if he had just come out with one of his usual bold, bare-faced lies: It’s okay, I’ll study hard from now on, Mama!

Rick had a sick, sarcastic smile of exasperation on his lips. Coco was frustrated by his silence, but Rick loved Jesse in his own way and he had already spent over a year looking after him alone.

Jesse continued to cry, but there were no tears in his eyes. It was just another one of his tricks, and that irritated Coco even more. Suddenly the woman turned to Coco as if she had just noticed that she was in the room and started talking to her.

“Please don’t worry about any of this. You see, the problem is I hate Rick. And it annoys the hell out of me when I think that I wasted ten years on him. I know it’s none of my business, but to be honest, I really can’t understand why you’ve moved in with him.”

Coco observed her calmly, taking no notice of the bile she was spouting. Her face actually wasn’t that bad, but the hatred that consumed her made her look twenty years older than Coco. Damn, she was ugly. Coco couldn’t bear to think that it was being with Rick that had, over time, made her so repulsive. She wore loud, unfashionable clothes that didn’t suit her and made her look uglier still. In fact, Coco felt sorry for her.

She was a pathetic human specimen.

Coco was amazed by the incredible effect hatred could have on a person. She shuddered when she realized that she herself was dangerously close to being consumed by the same passion.

“Damn! You’re nothing but a stingy, cheating prick!” spat the woman, as she continued her tirade of Rick s shortcomings.

It took a moment for Coco to process what she had said. She looked over at Rick, shocked, but he smoked his cigarette in silence. The woman continued to rant at him, Hecks of saliva flying out of her mouth. Coco found it hard to believe that a woman could treat a man she had once loved like this.