A part of her

The night had been a breezy one. Me and my siblings with our parents sat on the balcony and conversed on many things. My mom had graced us with our favorite cultural delicacy as dinner, and our voices rang so loud with laughter. It was a night to be remembered. We stayed out till it was past midnight, then my mom sent us to bed and they retired for the night as well

The loud bang on the door jolted me from sleep. I picked up my phone and checked the time, it was 7:45 am. Soon after I had dropped the phone, a knock came to my door and my kid sister walked into the room.

"Mom asked me to wake you." She said to me. There was a deep frown on her face.

"Is everything okay? Why did she bang on your door like that?" I asked her.

"I don't know. Currently, she's in the kitchen yelling at Daniel." My sis replied and left my room.

I sat up on my bed and reminisced on the night before, the awesome dinner we had and the jokes we made and that got me wondering.
'Why would someone so happy last night, wake up this morning and rain down hell?' I thought to myself.
I heard my mom shout again, but this time, it was my sister she shouted at.

"Where's that girl? She still hasn't gotten out of bed. Has she?" My mom asked my little sister.

I threw the blanket off my body and hurried out of my room to the kitchen.
"Good morning, Mom." I greeted her.

"What is it by your time?" She asked me. I was taken aback by the harsh tone of her voice. I got scolded.

"7:56 am and a grown girl like you is still sleeping comfortably. You forget that there are things to do in the house. Will the dishes wash themselves or perhaps, the food will probably cook itself, right?" She kept hauling the words at me and I just kept my face down.

"I'm sorry, Mom, I overslept." I tried to apologize but that only angered her more.

"Of course, you're sorry. I wonder how you intend to cope when you finally have a family of your own since you can't get anything done right." She said and brushed past me, still raining angry words at me and my siblings.

I heaved a sigh of relief when her voice finally quieted down. Looking at my sister, I could see the tears that were already swelling in her eyes. She was too light-hearted and the faintest of all things would get her bawling her eyes out. I drew her close to myself and patted her shoulders.
I couldn't think of what to make for breakfast and I still couldn't bring myself to ask my mom. I pleaded with my brother to take up the cross of asking our mother what we'd be having for breakfast, but he refused.

"I can't go to her, please. I've had enough abuses for one day, you have no idea what she had said to me this morning. She even reminded me of the bad grades I had two years ago, so, I can't go to her now." He said to me and I couldn't force him against his will.

I turned to my sister, but with one look at her face, I knew it wasn't even worth attempting. In the end, it fell on me to carry out the task, so I went to their room. I knocked once and I heard my dad's voice, so I opened the door and walked in and was met with a glare from my mother.
"What do you want?" She snapped at me.

"I wanted to ask what I'll prepare for breakfast." I replied quietly.

"You can cut my hair and use it for breakfast since you can't think of anything with that brain of yours." She said in response and the words hit me so badly that I couldn't keep down the frustration that heaved on my chest.

"Mom, what exactly did we do wrong this morning to get you this upset? You've been using some really bad words on us and it doesn't sit well with me." I complained and she flared up.

"You're too grown now, right? Get out of this room before I do something bad to you!!!" She yelled and threw a pillow at me.
I picked up the pillow and dropped it on their bed, then I turned away. As I left the room, I heard my dad asking her what had gotten her upset but she only hissed and kept mute.

I went back to the kitchen with no clue of what to possibly make for breakfast. I was deeply frustrated and confused. I couldn't fathom why one person would have too many personalities.
"Y'all have no choice but to make do with whatever I come up with." I muttered to myself.
After setting the table, my mom ate her food silently. There was no complaint from her about the food, but the frown was still very deep on her face.
After she had left the table, my brother suddenly stopped eating. He stared at my dad for some time, but his face lacked any expression.

"Dad, did you fight with mom?" He asked our dad.

"Why would you ask me that? Have you seen us fight before?" My dad barked at my brother.

"I'm sorry, Dad." My brother apologized and left the table.
Truth is, I was actually thinking of asking my dad about mom's attitude but with the response he gave to my brother, I knew it was a silly thing to do, so, I took the remains of my food and went into my room, as I couldn't bear the tensed environment any longer.

Source

I've never seen this side of my mom before. I've seen her angry, frustrated, sad but on every different occasion, she always managed to get a hold of herself and I've always admired that very virtue of hers. But on this very day, we couldn't even tell what the problem was or what the possible solution might be.
No one left their rooms that day, there was no form of conversation. We all stayed put and prayed for the day to come to an end, and when it finally did, I was happy to rest my head.

---

The next day, I woke up before seven in the morning and I woke my siblings as well. Before 8:00 am, we were done with our chores and I had also prepared breakfast and set the table as well, without asking my mom, who hadn't even stepped out of their room that morning.
When she came out, she was surprised at the ton of work we had already done. We waited for her scolding but she surprisingly smiled and went to their room to inform my dad that breakfast was ready.
I exchanged glances with my brother and he shrugged his shoulders. It was surprising that she didn't lash out at us.

"Gracy, why are you staring at your mother like that?" My dad suddenly asked my sister. He had noticed the deep frown on her face as she stared at my mom, who was eating peacefully at the table.

"Mom, can I ask you a question?" She asked my mom and she replied with a nod.
"Do you have any personality disorder that we don't know about?" Grace blurted out after a few seconds of silence.

"Are you out of your mind?" My dad retorted at her.

"I need to know, Dad, I really do. Yesterday, she was a whole different person and she scared the hell out of us, now, she's all nice and sweet like it never happened and we're just supposed to accept that?" My sister was yelling now and as expected, she started to cry as well.

I stared at them and kept mute. I would've asked my mom the same thing but, I couldn't be sure of what might happen when I did. My mom didn't respond and when she finally finished eating, she smiled broadly.

"Jenny, you did well with the food. Daniel, I probably said some nasty things to you yesterday and for that, I am sorry." She drew a long sigh and turned towards my sister. "Grace...I do not have a personality disorder and I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings yesterday." My mom apologized.

"So what's your explanation for what happened yesterday? You've never acted that way before." I asked her, seeing that she had been calm.

"Well, you could say that I probably got up on the wrong side of the bed, and the mood swings followed, but I'm fine now and I'm truly sorry about yesterday." She apologized again and I nodded in response.

Source

I stared at her as she laughed away with my dad. It all seemed weird to me but I was glad that she was back to her normal self, though I wouldn't forget what had transpired.
We all thought our mom to be a coolheaded kind of person but after the incident, we were able to draw to the conclusion that, she could be a dove on a normal day and a tigress when she got up on the wrong side of the bed.

Thanks for reading