Lingering in the room for a bit, Jon was nearly overtaken by some new sensations. He felt a weird kind of loving admiration for his mother, and he suddenly wanted to protect and care for her (if she had been in her right mind, his mother could have told him that those were her maternal feelings). Shaking it off, he looked around his mom's room and noticed for the first time how unbelievably messy it was. Clothes were strewn about, magazines were left lying on the floor, discarded food wrappers and papers littered the area near her trash can.
He found himself momentarily disgusted. "Hey mom, clean up this room before dinner, ok?" he said.
"Yeah, whatever. In a minute." Was the reply he got from her as he walked back out into the hallway.
That strange moment passed, Jon returned to his room. Wary of picking up a romance novel or movie just yet, he decided he'd put himself to work around the house. After all, the place didn't clean itself.
After cleaning the bathroom and taking care of laundry (the larger portion of which had come from his mom's room), he decided to make dinner. While he found himself enjoying the activity more, he quickly discovered that he had none of his mom's skill or cooking expertise to back him up, and so ended up just making some hamburgers on their grill.
Then Jon heard a car pull into his driveway and his heart skipped a beat. "That's my husb... father," he thought, mentally correcting himself before continuing to think about how glad he was that he had come home. He was so happy in fact, that he greeted his father at the door, asking him how his day was.
When they sat down to dinner (Jon found that his mom had to almost literally be dragged away from her game), Jon found himself taking pride in his meal and his family. He felt an entirely new sense of accomplishment looking at his father, mother, sister, and brother, and it was so strong that he was almost brought to tears. He briefly excused himself and walked to the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, he noticed he was on the verge of tears. Was this how his mom felt all the time? How did she deal with it?
