Free Live Fast Die Hot by Jenny Mollen Page B

disability and I wasn’t going to let Jason distance himself from it. He was my husband and he made a vow to love me in sickness and in health, with legs and without.
    Minutes after I was in the water, my mobility issues were eradicated. My limbs were lightened and I was free to move as I pleased. I swam laps up and down the crescent-shaped pool, weaving through pockets of day-drunk honeymooners and children learning to snorkel. I let out a small trickle of pee to test the water for that dye that apparently notifies the people around you that you are peeing on them.
    “Looking good, Choppy!” my mom called out encouragingly. I glanced over my shoulder and saw my mom smiling. Her eyes were trained on me.
    “Watch this!” I called back, dunking under and doing a handstand.
    When I surfaced she wasn’t watching. Instead, she was dangling Sid over the hot tub.
    “Mom! What are you doing? He can’t go in there!” I swam toward the adjoining Jacuzzi, draining my entire bladder along the way and demanding she pull Sid out.
    “Jason?” I looked over at Jason, who’d been up with Sid all night and was now sleeping under his
National Geographic.
    “The pool is too cold for him,” she said. “He likes this better because it’s more like the womb.”
    “Mom, you can’t put a baby in a hot tub,” I said loudly, adjusting my voice as I heard the words coming out of my mouth.
    “You can’t? It’s not that hot.”
    “I’m fairly certain you can’t.” I paused. I hadn’t actually read anything about babies and hot tubs, but then again I hadn’t really read anything about babies in general. “I’m almost positive.”
    “Excuse me, babies aren’t supposed to be in Jacuzzis, are they?” I whispered to a passing pool boy.
    “No. Definitely not.” He looked at me, then at my mom, then at his manager, and walked away.
    “Sorry, Sid. Your mom is being a total buzzkill.” She rolled her eyes, pulling Sid up and taking him back to Jason. I tried to follow, but then remembered I still couldn’t walk.
    When my mom never returned to crane-lift me out of the pool, I decided that it was time to see a doctor. Something was drastically wrong, with my leg and my mother, and I needed to get a professional opinion on both.
    “I can hang with Sid if you two wanna take the ferry over to Maui. I have a girl who could probably drive you to an urgent care, but I doubt you’re gonna be able to get in for an MRI on such short notice.” My mom ate what was left of Jason’s sushi roll. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a dollop of spicy tuna making its way toward Sid’s virgin lips, but I intercepted it, smacking it away with my hand.
    “Jason is half-asleep and doesn’t know Maui at all. You need to take me.”
    “Me?” She was shocked by the idea.
    “Yes. You
are
my mom,” I reminded her.
    “Then who’s gonna watch Sid?” she said, confident she’d found a loophole in the plan.
    “Sid has to come with us. I don’t have enough pumped breast milk to leave him.”
    My mom’s face dropped. She knew I had her trapped.

    The Expedition Ferry slammed up and down as it cut across white-capped waves, fighting its way to Lahaina Harbor. Water splashed violently against the window as my mom looked out like a smoker stuck in after-school detention.
    “Rocky is going to be so pissed he’s missing his afternoon walk,” she said with a groan. I could barely make out her bitching over the sound of the roaring engine under our feet. She’d complied with my wishes and come along for the ride, but like getting an overpriced lap dance, I was left feeling underwhelmed and more pathetic than before.
    When we arrived in Lahaina, we met up with my mom’s taxi-driver friend, Kiki. Kiki was an Asian woman who spoke in a super-loud high-pitched voice that sounded like a motorcycle sliding under a semi. She was nearly forty and six months pregnant with her third child. Her maroon minivan taxi was decked out in Mardi Gras beads,