Saturday with Mom

The sun came up Saturday morning. I get to spend the entire day with my mom. It's not that my mom's a drag or anything it's just that she's kind of a drag. She has this idea that she should spend at least one day a month getting to know her children. Last Saturday was my sister Lisa's turn. This Saturday it's mine. I get my mom all to myself. The thing is I'd rather be hanging out with my friends. I had no idea what my mom had planned for our day out but I was pretty sure it wasn't worth wasting a whole Saturday on.

I hear a knock on the door bright and early. "What is it?" I yelled through the closed door.

"Get up kiddo!" My mom yells back, "We've got to get out of here bright and early if we're going to get anything good."

"Mom, I'm not a kid anymore" I yelled back through the door and what did she mean by find something good.

"You'll always be a kiddo to me" She answered back as if that was supposed to make it less lame.

"Coming!" I yelled in response. I get up out of bed and throw on some old clothes that just happen to be laying on the floor. When you're hanging out with your mom, what you are wearing isn't going to matter all that much as far as your reputation goes.

"Can I at least have some breakfast?" I ask when I get into the kitchen. Mom throws me a breakfast bar and I roll my eyes. We get on the road. I would much rather still be in bed.

"So where are you dragging me to?" I ask in an irritated voice.

"It's a surprise." my mom answers enthusiastically, completely ignoring my bad attitude. "So how's school?" She asks trying to make small talk.

"It's okay I guess" I say nonchalantly. After that there is silence. We turn down streets and drive past buildings. I start to notice there are less buildings and more trees and we finally stop in front of this run down old place. The sign above the door says "flea market" but I'm pretty sure even the fleas wouldn't want to be caught dead here. I see some other cars around so the place isn't deserted. My mom gets out of the car and motions me to follow. I reluctantly get out of the car as well and follow her inside.

The inside is just as impressive as the outside. It looked like stuff was just thrown all over the place and wherever the stuff landed is where it stayed. When I say stuff I really mean junk. My mom starts rummaging through a pile. I think the best part of this place is that there is no chance of seeing someone here that I actually know.

Instead of standing there being bored I start rummaging through a nearby pile. It all looks the same to me. I mean junk is junk. Every once in a while my mom shows me something she thinks looks cool but it's still junk. My mom is losing herself looking through all this 'stuff' and I'm bored out of my mind when she shows me something I've never seen before. It looks like a tin can but it's in the shape of a cube and it's completely enclosed. It's got tiny holes in it that you see barely see through when you put it up to your eye. Inside the can there are scenes like from a movie that you can barely make out.

The strange part is there is a different scene in each hole. It's kind of freaky. My brain starts whirling as I'm trying to figure out how the effect works. I take it up to the guy selling the stuff and I ask him how much he wants for it. He said I could have it for a couple bucks so I hand a couple bucks over.

I spend the rest of my time there trying to figure out how the thing worked. In each hole there is something different going on. Some of the scenes look like they take place outside and some look like they take place inside. There are people in some scenes and no people in others. The scenes are kind of blurry so I can't quite tell what is going on in them. I was almost thinking about prying the thing open just so I could find out what was really inside of it.

"Trying to figure it out are ya?" The shop keeper asked when he saw me fiddling with it. "Well, there's nothing inside those holes, it's all in your mind."

"What do you mean in my mind?" I asked.

"You'll find out soon enough" the shop keeper replied. It was freaky. I got the feeling the shopkeeper knows something he should be telling me but for whatever reason is deciding to keep it to himself. I asked my mom to look through the holes and she complied with my request.

"So what am I looking at?" she asked.

"Don't you see anything inside?" I asked getting irritated that someone was playing some kind of joke on me.

"I don't see anything" My mom replied, "It's too dark. All I see is darkness."

Okay, this is officially weird. Unfortunately for me, this wasn't the only place on my mom's list. She also thought this would be a good time to find some new clothes for me to wear. Now if being in the middle of nowhere with your mom is embarrassing, being downtown at a department store is even worse. I tried explaining this concept to my mother but she brushed it off. I was pretty sure this kind of thing happened to her when she was a teenager and this is some kind of revenge thing. If she couldn't get back at her parents she would do the next best thing and humiliate one of her children.

Even though I thought I was going to die, I managed to survive and when it was lunch time we ended up stopping at Taco Bell. Taco Bell wouldn't be my first choice but it wouldn't be my last choice either. Mom said it was cheap. It took me all of 30 seconds to gulp down my 2 taco's and burrito supreme. That breakfast bar really didn't do it for me earlier and I was really hungry.

After lunch my mom decided to take me miniature golfing. I had thought that all the miniature golfing places in town went out of business because nobody does that anymore but I was mistaken. There was still one left. Mom said she loved doing this when she was a kid and I thought that must have been at least 50 years ago. I was starting to think that mom looked on some web site somewhere that had a list of uncool things to do with your kids and she didn't notice the 'un' part.

After miniature golf we go to eat dinner at the Sour Dragon Chinese Buffet. It's all you can eat for $4.95. Mom says she loves the food there but it didn't look like real food to me and I'm wondering if somebody didn't die there. I find something that doesn't look like somebody has groped through it with their bare hands and give it a try. I take one bite and spit it out. I tell mom I can't handle the texture and I'm not eating anything there. Mom eats about 3 plates full and I just drink about 5 cokes. Just watching her eat made me want to throw up. We drive home after dinner. Thankfully my Saturday with mom is over.

When we get home I go to my room and throw my 'tin can' on the floor. By this time I had completely forgotten how freaked out I was by it. I spend the evening in my room watching You Tube videos. Around midnight I finally feel a little tired. I think the 5 cokes is keeping me up but eventually I fall asleep.

After a while I feel someone shaking me. "Come on Nia get up. You'll be late for school and if you’re late one more time you'll get detention." Why is some girl calling me Nia and why is she in my room? I open my eyes and I realize I'm not in my room at all. The girl has a grave look on her face like she's scared. The other thing I notice is that my body doesn't feel right.

There is a full length mirror on the wall like the one in my sister's room. I get up and stumble over to it and check myself out in the mirror. I have long brown hair that goes down my back and amazing green eyes. When did I become a girl and where the hell am I?