MAJOR/minor: Generation Gap, Chapter 7: Mother’s duty

Elliot grimaced, mirroring the face of the short MAJOR that had answered the door. 

“I was just leaving.” Minnie huffed before rudely brushing past him. He was forced into the doorframe by her passage and he turned to shoot her back a dirty look and felt a jolt as he met her eyes. Why’d she turn around? She sneered to reaffirm their mutual disdain before continuing down the hall of the girl’s wing. 

Elliot entered to see Riley causally strapping on a bra and pulling a torn sleeved shirt over it. The shirt was black and read had “Storm Trooper” on the front in Star Wars font with the titular trooper shooting a blaster. 

“What?” She asked clearly still upset with him. 

“So that’s still happening?” Elliot asked bitterly pointing a thumb behind him. 

“Is you dating a rapist still happening?” Riley shot back. 

Elliot flinched at the word. The small seed of truth made Riley’s bad faith question sting just a bit. 

Elliot didn’t reply for a moment. This wasn’t why he’d come. 

“My…mom’s coming to visit.” 

Riley’s eyes went wide. “Shit…please don’t say.”

“She wants to take us out to dinner….both of us.”

“No way!” Riley snapped. “I’m not gonna play the fake girlfriend game again!”
“She knows we’re not dating!” Elliot exclaimed. “Why would she think we’re dating!?”

“It’s not about what she knows!” Riley shouted. “It’s about what she wants! You have no idea how it feels with her looming over you, just expecting you to do what she wants. You have no idea!”

Elliot stared stone faced at Riley. 

“.....Well my point still stands at least!” She spat. “She makes me feel like I’m five!” 

“She makes everyone feel like that.” Elliot said. “I’m just warning you okay? I told her you wouldn’t want to come, but I doubt that’s actually going to mean anything.” 

“Fuck.” Riley cursed. 

Hilda hated surprises. When her oldest son Richard showed up at her doorstep like announced, that wasn’t a surprise. No the surprise was his minor ex-wife, her first grandson a minor/MAJOR half breed commonly called a “halfsie” and what appeared to be two new full MAJOR children of about eight years in age which is just around the time a MAJOR started growing and becoming a real nuisance. 

“Surprise!” Richard beamed! 

“No!” Hilda said before shutting the front door to her manor in her oldest son’s face. She knew this game, he’d played this card before and she’d been forced to console a sobbing underage minor six months pregnant.

The pounding was almost instant. 

“Mom!?” 

“Mom!...Please!?!?”

She wouldn’t fall for it.

“Grandma!..Grams!”

Not this time. 

“Grammy!”

Nope.

“...Ms. Maldera….Hilda. Could you open the door please?”

Hilda sighed. 

Hilda cracked open the door and stared down at the darker skinned woman. Age was finally starting to show on her face and despite being over half a century her junior they she was starting to look older than Hilda herself. Grey was creeping into the dark brown curls of her hair. Crows feet were forming under her pretty beige eyes. She put on weight or possibly kept it on after her apparently her second pregnancy, just a bit around the hips and chest. It was an improvement in Hilda’s eyes, minors always looked better with a bit of softness and she was borderline anorexic after the postpartum from her son. 

“Him again?...Really?” Hilda sighed. 

“Things are different this time.” She said. 

“Come in.” Hilda relented. The whole family moved to enter but Hilda stopped her son with a palm to his chest. “Just her and…” Hilda glanced over the rest of the family. Her oldest grandson, just a few years Moonie’s senior, looked completely disinterested in anything beyond his phone. Dirty unkempt hair and a shitty piece of scruff on his chin that he was probably proud of. The two children..twin girls she’d never seen before. “The children. You can stay outside!” 

“Mom! You can’t just-!”

“Find a hotel, Richie!” She smiled before closing the door in his face.

“So?” Richard Maldera jr. regarded his smaller cousin with a cheeky grin as he shoved a mouthful of Munalune’s favorite cereal into his mouth from a large salad bowl. “Which room do I get?” 

“Don’t talk to me.” Moonie hissed. She didn’t care for her cousin,not this one. She had a least a dozen, apparently even more now, most of which she barely met except Richard jr. The halfsie that somehow embodied the worst aspects of both. Spoiled, lazy, uneducated, but also entitled, self absorbed, and arrogant, and because of his share of MAJOR genes he never gained any weight despite shoveling obscene amounts of junk in his gross pimpled pie hole! 

“Where do we sleep?” One of the girls asked. They were both taller than her if just barely. The bolder of the two had her hair done in twin puffs while the shy one stared at Moonie from behind her sister’s back. Her wild unkempt hair blocking the bit of face she dared to even show from behind her sister. 

“You’re not sleeping anywhere.” Moonie said flatly. “Because none of you are staying her.” 

“That’s not what mom said.” Richard shot in.

“You’re mom’s not in charge around here.” Moonie stated. 

They were staying. For how long Hilda didn’t know but just looking at the stress in Mia’s face.  The memories of her son abandoning Charmelia pregnant at sixteen on her doorstep came back. Six years it had taken to get her back on her feet, with a proper job and a future for her and her son. Now she was back again at 33, having survived Richie uprooting her life yet again, with false promises and an all too familiar deposition toward gambling but without any of the experience Basil had developed to offset it. 

“We lost the apartment.” Mia revealed. 

Hilda choked down her anger. She’d co-signed on the lease. 

“He’d said it was a sure thing, this time, an investment in the future….in our future.” Mia was actually crying now as she said it. 

“Why didn’t you call me sooner?” Hilda asked. 

“I was embarrassed!” Mia sobbed. “I believed him! The next time I saw you it was supposed to be different, I was supposed to be better.”

“Oh, child.” Hilda sighed and brought her daughter in law into a hug. The protective nature she held for this woman, maybe it was because Mia was a minor, or maybe it was because she’d experienced it before, but the tiny woman would always be her family regardless of blood. Richie on the other hand had a lot of explaining to do. 

“We have plenty of room.” Hilda said. “My home is always open.”

“I can’t do that.” Mia said. “You’ve already done too much for me.” 

“Nonsense.” Hilda disregarded. “I insist.”

“It will only be for a few weeks!” Mia eyes brightened up a bit. “I just need to save up a few paychecks and we can afford to move somewhere else. A month at most I promise! And we’ll pay rent of course..and-”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Hilda stated. “You live here now. I don’t need your money. There are plenty of nice schools here for the kids. And they will be going to school, no exceptions.” 

“Really?” Mia asked and in that moment all the age faded away and she looked exactly like the sixteen year old girl she’d first met seventeen years ago. 

“Really.” Hilda repeated. “Moonie could use the company.”

Elliot waited outside the minor dorms with Riley and Minnie. It was chilly outside with the evening breeze. 

“How much longer?” Minnie huffed. 

“I don’t know.” Elliot said. “My dad texted me like 15 minutes ago and saying they were “close””

“This better be worth it!” Minnie snapped. 

“Nix the attitude.” Riley stuttered nervously. “Trust me you do not want to piss this woman off.”

“What?” Minnie scoffed. "I’m supposed to be scared of some minor mother with an attitude?”

“She is not a minor.” Elliot chuckled. 

“Then she should appreciate a little pushback.” Minnie said. “I don’t even want to be here. I’m only coming because Riley’s afraid to say she’s dating someone else.” 

“I’m not afraid!” Riley snapped. “You..just don’t get it! It’s not something you can explain you just have to see it first!” 

“Wow.” Minnie gasped in feigned shock. “Y’know it’s actually kind of cute to see you nervous." 

The earth quaked. Not from footsteps but from tires. It was a light slow rumble that got louder as the silhouette of a vehicle came into view. It was dark black and the size of a bus. What could best be described as a SUV but appeared more like a tank. 

As it came to a stop even the MAJORS had to start upward at the size of it. In truth it wasn’t originally a commercial vehicle at all but actually a modified cargo truck used for hauling freight in combat arenas by the military. It was over twice as tall as any MAJOR there. The passenger side door opened and out hopped someone rather unexpectedly. A MAJOR man. He was dressed sharply with a black dress pants and a tan sports coat. His hair was dark and slicked back that matched a dashingly handsome mustache and beard. 

“Dad.” Elliot greeted. 

“Elliot.” he smiled down at his son with a little bow. “I see school life is treating you well.” He winked at the two women next to his son. “Riley.” He nodded to her and Minnie. 

“Mr. Reynolds.” Riley nodded back sheepishly. 

“Nice car.” Minnie smirked. “Compensating much?” 

Elliot gasped but his father didn’t respond. He gave his son a knowing look. 

“You could say that.” Mr. Reynolds finally stated. 

The sound of a door opening, then closing. 

A thud. 

Another. 

The earth was shaking again in rhythm. Like footsteps. 

Then she appeared. 

Magnolia Rose Reynolds. 

Rose was not a common MAJOR. No, she was more than that, easily twice as tall nearing 30ft standard. A MAJOR among MAJORs, a true giant. Her body teeming with muscles powerful enough to casually destroy a building yet sculpted into a personification of godhood in human form.  A rare breed of human, they called them CYCLOS and some believed them to be the next step in MAJOR evolution. 

Minnie’s face went impossibly pale at the sight of her. An expected reaction. 

Rose disregarded it. She brushed strands of navy-blue hair from her face so she could better see the people that mattered. Her husband, and more importantly at the moment her son, her only son. 

“Elliot.” She said. She bent down impossibly far. Even crouching she dwarfed the MAJORS near her. Minnie being the smallest barely came up to the hem of her thigh high heeled boots. Elliot being even smaller than that just about reached the tip of her toes. She placed down a hand to the ground. He was expected to climb on, easily a handful to his mother. 

As she lifted her son to her face Minnie seemed to gain her sense. 

“What the fuck am I witnessing here?!” She whispered to her girlfriend. 

“The reason you need to cut the shit with Elliot tonight!” Riley hissed. 

“How are your studies going?” Rose asked her son. 

“Well.” Elliot said meekly. “I just passed my first culinary course. They let me work in the kitchen and actually serve people.”

“Good. I've been very generous to this school. I expect much from it and from you.” Rose stated coldly. “And you’ve acclimated well to the campus, formed a friend group? Riley-Anne has taken care of you I trust?” 

The cyclo gave a brief glance to Elliot’s childhood friend. The much lighter blue haired MAJOR girl jumped at the attention. 

“And this new one?” She said turning her gaze to Minnie who was frozen in a slack jawed stupor. 

“My g-girlfriend.” Riley stuttered holding Minnie close to her. 

Rose’s eyes narrowed. “Point made Riley-Anne.” 

Riley gulped.

“Well you are free to join us for dinner if you wish Ms.?” 

“M-minnesota.” Minnie choked out. “Minnesota Casterello” 

“You must be a woman of great character to enamor sweet Riley-Anne. Ms. Minnesota.” Rose stated. “I look forward to truly understanding the scope of that character.” Minnie wasn't sure how to take that statement but suddenly felt an intense pressure to not leave a bad impression.

Rose turned and opened the back door of her “SUV”for the MAJORs to enter. 

“Shall we?”