A Good Little Boy

Now look.
Mummy's going somewhere.
Where bad people go.
You shouldn't come.
Why?
You know why.
You're a good little boy,
And Mummy wants you to stay that way.
Listen.
Mummy loves you
She really does...

"The next morning, I looked everywhere and couldn't find Mum. Eventually I noticed the light was still on in the upstairs bathroom, but the door was locked. I sat down outside."
"Didn't you open the door?"
"I tried. It was locked, Zane. So I sat down and..." Greg trailed off. The memory had surfaced, and he took a couple of deep, quiet breaths. The boys stood in awkward, emotionally ambiguous silence for a while.
"I stayed outside the bathroom for as long as I could bear. I kept thinking I could hear Mum inside there, crying or maybe singing, or taking a shower; I always sat outside the bathroom and listened to her then..."

A longer silence followed.

"I banged on the door when I thought she was taking too long. I told her to come out. I promised to behave, I promised to always listen and be good. And there was nothing. I started screaming, and crying, and trying to open the door. And eventually I crashed on the floor, sobbing, until I fell asleep. It felt like days until anyone came in to help me."
"God, that's crazy." sighed Lim, after a while.
"No, it wasn't," Greg said, sharply, "it was my Mum's choice. She was the most sane person I knew."

> The Way One Was