On Sunday morning the phone rang. Hoping it was, oh, Tracy or somebody, Zephyr answered it via speakerphone.

"Hi, Zephyr. Wow, you actually answered your phone for once!"

"Hi, Mom," Zephyr sighed, settling into his old brown easy chair beside the phone.

"How are you?" Marlone asked cheerfully.

"Good."

Marlone hesitated and tried again. "So, what's been going on in your life?"

"Not much," Zephyr told her, wishing he'd already made coffee. He was usually in no hurry to wake up on Sundays, but talking to his mother before his morning caffeine was never a good idea.

"Oh, come on, Zephyr. Quit being so cold. You can tell me how your friggin' week was."

Zephyr almost choked on his exasperation. "What? I'm not being cold! Really, nothing interesting is going on. Okay, yesterday I worked. Friday I worked. Thursd--"

"Yesterday was Saturday," Marlone pointed out.

"So? MARZ is barely getting off its feet. We have to put in a few weekends here and there. But honestly, Mom, that's all I can tell you. I work and work and occasionally sleep."

"How's Reg?" Marlone asked.

"Fine," Zephyr said. "The same. He works."

"Oh. Well, speaking of work, did I tell you I got a new job? I'm a customer service rep for the cable company."

That took Zephyr by surprise. "What happened to the job you had?"

"Cashiering? I've had cashier jobs all my life. I was dying to do something, anything, other than that and, oh god, waitressing."

Fair enough, Zephyr thought. And maybe answering phones for the cable company was the perfect job for her. She liked to talk, she was naturally obnoxious and argumentative... what more could one want? "So when do you start the new job?" he asked.

"Oh, I've already had it for two weeks. I like it a lot so far. I enjoy helping people. A lot of the callers have very bad attitudes, but I help them anyway. I get satisfaction knowing that I can help even when I'm underappreciated."

Zephyr had to stifle a burst of laughter. That was his mother, all right... helping people whether they liked it or not. "This is the answer you're looking for and I'm going to ram it down your throat until you hang up on me."

"That's great," he said instead.

"Yeah. Oh, and I'm making new friends already. There's this one woman, Libby, and we eat lunch together. She has a gay son, too, but he's only 17 or 18. She belongs to this support group for parents of homosexuals, so she invited me to join."

"Mom!" Zephyr thought his mother was very fortunate that his lack of caffeine prevented him from articulating well. As it was, words could not express the raw... the raw... he couldn't even name the emotion.

Marlone seemed to grasp the sentiment well enough. "Zeph, you can't tell me not to join a support group. It's a frigging support group. For positive growth." Her tone was somewhere between indignant and venomous.

"Yeah, but... geez, Mom, can't you join a support group for something you really need support for? Don't you have enough problems of your own? My personal life is not an issue for you, and don't start telling me it is. You've never had any moral issues with other people's lifestyles... at least, not until you went and joined that church. Can't you just join Alcoholics Anonymous or something?"

"I still go to that," Marlone shot back defensively. "This new support group isn't just about condoning your sexuality. I do that just fine already. It'll help me with deeper things, like... oh, I don't know, but I'm sure I'll find out soon. And the people are so nice. Not just Libby but everyone. The woman who runs it is a real psychologist with degrees and everything, and she's very intelligent. Like you. We had such a good meeting last week. And I've got to have more social contact than just a bunch of angry cable customers."

"What about Jack?" Zephyr asked. "And your church lady friends?"

"Jack and I get along fine. He might even start coming to the support group meetings with me. But we don't have a lot of friends outside our families. The church group... uh... well, it wasn't really what I was looking for. They were all kind of snotty. Nothing I did or said was ever good enough for them. I don't need that kind of crap in my life - not unless I'm getting paid for it. If I feel like yessing an uppity bitch, I can do that at work."

Zephyr had to admit he could sympathize with that. And to be honest, it didn't surprise him. It was a shock to learn that his mother had accepted Christianity, but Christianity accepting her was another matter entirely.

"We still go to service," she continued, "and a couple of the women still talk to me. But I don't do any of the activities anymore. Jack doesn't mind. I guess when you've been a Baptist all your life, it's not that interesting anymore."

"Oh. I wouldn't know."

"Well, I guess I should be going. Jack and I are going to the garden center to pick up some azalea bushes and some... other stuff. Peat, right. If he gets up in time. He worked late last night, clearing out a big tree that fell across the road. Hey, did you get thunderstorms there last night?"

Zephyr thought back. "Hmm, no. A lot of rain, but no thunder or lightning."

"Lucky you. It hit us bad here. The town gave Jack today off because they're too cheap to pay him time and a half, but this week they'll probably work his butt off. Well, anyway, it was nice talking to you. Love you, Zephyr. Bye!"

"Bye, Mom," Zephyr replied, then reached over and closed the connection before she could say anything else. That wasn't so bad, he thought... as long as her new support group didn't start giving her ideas.

Now for coffee.