“I am not going to be dragged off and stuffed into some old folks’ home to die!” his mom shouted, her normally pale face red from anger.

Kylie had been wrong. Oh so very wrong. His mother wasn’t just telling him no, she’d told him what a terrible idea it was using phrases from other languages that he didn’t even recognize. Or maybe his mom was just hurling made-up swear words at his head. He wasn’t quite sure at this point.

He held up his hands in front of him defensively. “I’m sorry!” he blurted out. “Kylie thought that you might enjoy working down at the store, and—”

“So now you’re listening to Kylie, huh?” his mom yelled, cutting him off. “Is she trying to get rid of her future mother-in-law so she can have you all to herself?”

“Now, hold on a minute,” he growled back, glowering at his mother, his worry about upsetting her morphing into anger. “Kylie was just trying to help. She is one of the nicest people to ever grace this planet, and I won’t have you saying shit like that about her!”

“Don’t you swear in front of me!”

“Don’t you give me cause to swear in front of you!” he retorted.

They were breathing heavily, just staring at each other, neither one willing to move an inch, when his mom snarled, “So. Is this why you wanted to sell my car to her? Just wanting to start the process of selling off everything I have and leaving me with nothing at all?”

“What?” he yelped, jerking his head back in surprise. “Mom, what are you talking about? You begged me for years to sell it for you but I was always too busy. You were thrilled with having Kylie take it over. Why are you acting like this?”

“Why are you trying to get rid of your mother?” she shot back. She struggled to her feet. Instinctively, Adam hurried to her side to help her but she waved him away. “I’m going to my room,” she announced. “Maybe by tomorrow, you’ll have realized what a terrible mistake you’ve made.”

Head held high, she pushed the walker down the hallway, not looking back.

Adam collapsed into the wing-back chair and stared off into space.

Well, that went well.

It’d seemed so simple, so straightforward, when Kylie had talked about it last night. And it would be…if his mother wasn’t so damn stubborn.

He pushed himself out of the chair and headed outside. He needed to go do something. Just sitting in the house, staring at the walls, his mother busy giving him the silent treatment…that wasn’t going to help.

Somehow, he found himself in front of the Long Valley Senior Citizen’s Center, without making the decision to actually drive there. Ugh. He really needed to stop driving on autopilot. He was going to get into a wreck at some point if he kept it up.

He swung out of the truck and stared up at the building in front of him. It was a sprawling building; obviously, someone had made the wise decision to build out rather than up. When the majority of the residents have mobility issues, adding stairs into the mix was never a good idea.

Despite its size, though, it still had that welcoming feel, from the wisteria climbing up the side of the building to the rose bushes in full bloom. There was a large grassy area off to the left with some huge red maple trees to provide shade, where families could sit outside together and just hang out.

It was Sunday afternoon, so the place was bustling with family members down to visit relatives for the week. There was laughter and the Monkees belting out I’m a Believer and small kids running around…

It sure didn’t seem like the ass end of the earth to him.

Ms. Blackburn came walking up. “Hi, Adam!” she said, obviously surprised to see him. “Down here to visit someone?” She was the center’s director and from the little that he’d heard over the years, she seemed to be doing a stand-up job. Not that he’d made much of a point to pay attention previous to now, but thinking back through his memories, it sure seemed like he’d heard good stuff.

“No,” he said slowly. “My mom – Ruby Whitaker – her hands are getting worse. The arthritis…” He shook his head. “I broached the topic today about moving over here and you’d think I’d suggested she move to outer Siberia or somethin’.”

Ms. Blackburn laughed dryly. “I know this doesn’t help, but that’s actually a really common response, at least at first. I’m sure your mom has been here, visiting friends, but still, another visit might be in order. It’s one thing to go somewhere just to chit-chat with your friends; it’s different to take an official tour and look at it as a potential future resident. It might help her realize that quite a few of her friends are here already, and there are some fun things to do, I promise.”

“Actually, my girlfriend, Kylie, said that y’all are associated with Second Time Around. I think my mom would love to work there, once she got past her pride.”

“Not everyone can work there,” Ms. Blackburn said, “and even if someone wants to and is able, their shifts aren’t usually for very long. And that’s okay. I try really hard to match physical and mental abilities with tasks so that everyone can play a part, if they want to.

“It’s all voluntary, but I’ll be honest, I think that store is part of the magic of this place. At so many retirement homes, people move there right at the end, when the family can’t take care of them any longer because their physical and emotional needs are too much. Being in a strange place – it’s hard any time, but it’s especially hard if you’re not mentally capable of understanding what’s going on. We do have some end-of-life cases like that here, but the people who do the best were moved here when they were still active and loving life. When that happens, residents find that they have friends around them again. They have a purpose. They have a job to do, a job that they’ve chosen and want to do. And, they get to hang out with their buddies while they do it.”

She laughed a little. “Honestly, people don’t change just because they get older – they still want friends to hang out with. Sundays are a pretty popular day for families to visit so you see lots of them here right now, but even on a Tuesday evening, you’ll find residents out here, listening to music and chatting with their friends. Not everyone is happy 100% of the time, but that’s because they’re human beings, so…” She shrugged and laughed. “But for the most part, once people settle in, they love it here. They tell me that every day.”

Adam nodded, looking closer at the elderly women scattered in chairs throughout the grounds. Keeping track of who his mother’s friends were had never been a specialty of Adam’s, but a few of the women looked damn familiar to him. If nothing else, she surely had acquaintances here. “I’ll see if I can talk her into a tour,” he said finally. “I believe that she’d love it here, if she’d give it a try. I’m afraid she won’t, though, just to spite me.” He gave the center’s director a wry smile.

“Some people are more stubborn than others,” she said mildly, and he wondered for a moment how many residents had fought her tooth and nail when they’d first been moved into the place. She didn’t have an easy job, that was for sure. In that moment, wrestling steers to the ground almost seemed relaxing by comparison. He sure couldn’t do what she did.

“Well, thanks anyway for your time,” he said, and headed back to his truck. More than ever, this seemed like exactly what his mom needed. He’d give her a few days to calm down, and then try the conversation again. By the end of this, his mother was either going to love the retirement home, or hate his guts, and he wasn’t too sure which outcome he should place a wager on.

Oh, Mom…