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as she waited for the moment of truth.
    “Hello?” her mother answered, the voice
sounded hesitant and somehow fragile.
    Raven clutched the phone so hard her
fingers nearly went numb.   “Hi, Mom,
it’s me.”
    There was a long, pregnant pause.   “Raven?   Is that you?”
    “Yeah, it’s me.”   She wanted to puke.   This was too hard.  
    “I just tried to call you,” her mother
said.  
    “I saw that,” Raven told her.   “I wondered if maybe you saw the news…”
    “Joe and Mary Barrett came over this
afternoon and were talking all about how they saw you on TV with some movie
star.   We were completely confused,
to be honest.”
    Raven felt her cheeks flush.   “It’s weird, I know.   And kind of a long, confusing story how
everything happened.”
    “I can imagine.”   There was another awkward pause.   “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to hear
from me, Raven, but I had to make sure you’re okay,” her mother said.
    Raven sighed.   “I’m okay, Mom.”
    “And you’re happy now?”
    Something about how she’d phrased it made
Raven feel judged, as though her mother didn’t believe that Raven could truly
be happy.   But then again, maybe
that was old stuff.   Maybe her
mother had changed in the last few years, just as Raven had changed.   “I’m pretty happy,” she replied,
wondering what the truth really was.
    “That’s good.   Because you know it’s all your father
and I ever wanted for you, was just that you be happy.”
    “And you and Dad?   How are you both doing?”
    There was another too-long silence.   “We’re good.   Pretty good.   You know, things happen but we’re doing
fine.”
    “What things happened?” Raven said, the
cold sweat turning hotter as she felt her pulse raise that much more.
    “Nothing for you to worry about, Raven .   The point
is, everyone’s doing fine.”
    “Mom, if something’s wrong—“
    “If you really wanted to keep up with us,
you should’ve called and enquired about how we’re doing,” her mother said, her
voice getting brittle.   “Besides, we
haven’t spoken to you in so long.   We never wanted to bother you.”
    The guilt was settling in like a lead
weight on Raven’s shoulders.   “I
don’t want to get into the whole back-and-forth about why we fell out of
touch,” Raven said.   “I have my
version and you guys have yours and we’ll never agree.”
    “Well, we agree about that,” her mother
said, her voice strident now.
    Raven shook her head.   Why did it have to be like this between
them?   There was no good reason for
why it had all gone so bad, but she wasn’t going to take all of the blame for
it.   “Anyway,” she said, “I was
hoping that maybe I could come and see you both soon.”
    Another long pause.
    She’s
going to say no , Raven
thought.   Won’t that just put a nice bow on all of the stuff that happened, if
now, after everything, Mom says she doesn’t even want to see me again .   In a way, it would be a relief if she
said it.
    Then Raven could tell Jake that they
couldn’t go visit, and it would be guilt free.
    “We’d love to see you, Raven.”   Her mother’s voice had become emotional,
hoarse, a little raspy, like she was close to
tears.  
    “Jake and I were planning on making our
way out there very soon, the next couple of days.   Will you and Dad be around?”
    Her mother was confused.   “Jake who?”
    “Jake Novak.   He’s the guy that I’m…we’re spending
time together and that’s why I’ve been in the news lately.”   Even saying it felt silly and stupid and
unbelievable.
    “Jake Novak…I think I’ve heard that name
before.”   Her mother hemmed and
hawed.   “Was he in that Disney film
about the young man that played football?”
    “Yes, Mom, that’s the guy,” Raven said,
laughing a little.   “He’s been in a
few movies and he’s a musician too.”
    “You’re seeing each other,” her mother
said softly.   “Well that sounds