Page 61 of The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose
“I usually spend Sundays in the gym,” Dexter said, leaning forward to inspect his face in the mirror, tapping his fingers along his flushed cheeks while pouting at himself. “And I like to step away from my phone for the day, otherwise I end up endlessly scrolling and doing nothing with my day off.”
“Well, you could ignore your phone while doing something with me.” Jonah leaned against the wall as he watched Dexter admire himself. “We could go to Brighton or something. We wasted the entire summer by not having a beach trip and now it’s basically October, and we can’t sunbathe in October, Dex.”
“You would burn if you even tried to sunbathe.”
“I will have you know I go a lovely shade of pink in the sun.”
Dexter scoffed as he looked at him. “Ah, yes, pink, the color everyone hopes to achieve when sunbathing.” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk. “Anyway, you do get to see me on a Sunday. I was over yours a couple of weeks ago and we had breakfast.”
“Yeah, then you ran away the moment you ate all my cereal. I’m just saying it would be nice to see you when we don’t have to worry about doing shows.”
“What’s bought this on?” Dexter asked as he stood from his seat to grab his first costume. He wasted no time in taking his top off, his eyes on Jonah as he did so, and he smiled when he saw the way Jonah’s gaze scanned his torso. “Like what you see?”
“You know I do.”
“So, you just want me for my body, huh?”
“No,” Jonah said, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’ve never been on a date. Let me take you on a date. This Sunday. Please?” The choreography for Bobby Child flashed into his mind; he promised Melanie he would spend his spare time drumming each tiny movement into his head, but, surely, he could let himself relax for one day to date his maybe boyfriend.
Dexter, however, didn’t have a chance to answer, for Jonah’s phone rang loudly in his pocket, jolting him from his leaning position against the wall, unsure of when he turned the phone off silent; he didn’t even know it had a ringtone. He pulled it from his pocket and glanced down at the screen.
“It’s my mum,” he said, looking at Dexter. “Do you mind if I—”
“No, go ahead. Don’t ignore your mum.”
Jonah nodded, and while the phone still rung in his hand he stepped out of the dressing room and into the hallway. “Hey, Mum.” He’d spoken to her almost every day since he called her in Richmond. The call back then left an unnerving beat in his veins, one he needed to stamp out. He knew his dad was safe in the home, so he focused on the well-being of his mother.
Her tears were the first thing he heard. She’d been better recently; she sounded more like her old self, less slurred words and full of gossip. He guessed the new medication was settling into her system, giving her a sense of normalcy. Or, that’s what he hoped, at least. Dad even seemed happy in his new home. In fact, the last photo his mum sent to him showed his dad looking healthier than he had in years, his cheeks no longer sinking into his skull, a smile on his face while he looked out the window at the sea. For the first time in a very long time, Jonah could feel a weight lifting from him; his love life wasn’t a total disaster, things were well back home, and he didn’t wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat brought on by the anticipation of something bad about to happen.
Which is why the tears caught him by surprise. “Mum, what’s wrong?”
“I need you,” she sobbed, words filled with alcohol; they flowed into each other, indistinct and strange. “Jonah, come home, please come home.”
“Mum, I can’t,” he said and tried to ignore the plummeting feeling in his chest. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m all alone.” The three words wrapped around his heart and squeezed until he couldn’t breathe. Alone. She felt alone, and the miles between them stretched even further.
“Can you go to a friend’s house?” Jonah asked. “Or call someone and get them to come to you? How about I call Aunt Penny?”
He heard his mum sniff before letting out another breathless cry. “No. I need you. I need my son.”
Jonah looked at the clock on the wall just above the sign-in sheet. He couldn’t leave now, not so close to a show, and even if he did, he couldn’t get to her for hours. “Mum, what’s made you feel like this?”
“I was looking at the photo albums,” she said. “And it made me so sad. So sad. Jonah, I miss him, your dad, and I miss you, and I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. Sometimes I think about just walking out into the sea and not coming back.”
Jonah froze. The words she said, the admission she made, even if she was under the influence of alcohol, chilled him to the core. “Mum, I’m going to call Aunt Penny, okay? I will need to hang up to call her, but then I will call you right back. Do you promise me you’ll answer?”
“Yes, sausage.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Jonah hung up the phone with shaking hands only for bigger, steadier hands to cover his. He looked to his left to see Dexter beside him, Hector ready, with his mouth in a grim line as he searched Jonah’s face for an answer to what the call was about.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“No, I need to call my aunt,” Jonah said, gently moving from Dexter so he could scroll through his contacts. “I need to call her quickly because I’m worried my mum’s going to hurt herself.”
