48. The Drugs

My complaint here isn't the fact that my mom needs prescription drugs, a lot of people do. My complaint here isn't that she needs us to pay for them, that's called life.

It is rather her timing that is extremely frustrating. It is how she waits until the last possible minute, a minute that must look like it is extremely bad timing and then brings it up. Like when we are struggling to figure out how to pay all of this months bills with a check that is too small to cover them all. When we are figuring out which ones to shift until next month. When we are in tears about not having enough money to cover everything.

That's when she will knock on the door and say, "Are we going to have enough money to cover my meds this month?" First of all, I like the "we" in that sentence. It is much like a little kid (you know the kind before they are old enough to do chores) asking if "we" were going to have enough money for them to do this or that this month. After all she is a non-contributing member of this household. She doesn't do chores, she doesn't cook, she doesn't work, or chip in any money (okay a little bit, she gave us forty dollars worth of this months foodstamps, the rest she spent on junk for herself, yet she continues to eat with the family each time I cook). So, the "we" is certainly interesting.

But aside from that, why is she asking this question now? Why not at the beginning of the month? It's like a child who goes, "oh by the way, I need sixty dollars for tomorrow's field trip." Only this sixty dollars goes toward things like HEART MEDICATION!