J. D. Mason
Dirty Diana
Story Note
This story came on the heels of some major
life changes and on the eve (give or take a
week or two) of a dream trip to Europe. It
was important for me to reel in the chaos
and focus, so I made it a point to progress
through this story like an MMA fighter in
training.
Diana Rigby was shaken out of a deep sleep with words she
never thought she’d ever hear again.
“I’m callin’ ‘bout yo’ momma,” Aunt Lorraine said in that slow
Southern drawl, laced with a kind of artificial sweetness that
compelled an eye roll from Diana.
“What about her?”
Through the years as she climbed the ranks to become a Mixed
Martial Arts Champion, she’d almost forgotten that she’d had a
mother. That was her goal after she left Rhino, Texas not long after
graduating high school. She left that same day, as a matter of fact,
not bothering to tell anyone; determined to put as much space
between her and the hell she’d grown up in as soon as possible.
“She ain’t doin’ too good, Diana,” Lorraine offered, then she
waited, no doubt hoping that Diana would ask the most logical
question. What’s wrong?
Silence hung heavy between the two for several beats before
Lorraine continued. “Doctors say she ain’t got much time left.
Cancer got her. She stayin’ here with me, until … well.”
“That’s too bad,” was the best Diana could muster.
Lorraine seemed disappointed in Diana’s lack of emotion or
any expression of sincerity in her regret. Diana offered words.
That’s all. She had nothing else to give her mother except empty
and hollow words that meant absolutely nothing.
“She asks ‘bout you. Asks Tray to look you up on the Internet
to see how you doin’.”
Again, Diana had no response. She left the edge of the deck
and settled onto a cream colored chaise.
“I’m sure she’d like to see you, Diana. It’s been so long.”
Returning to Rhino had never been on her radar. She never
expected to see her mother again. But apparently, the umbilical
cord between a mother and child is never fully severed, and it
tugged on Diana until a few days later when she drove into town in
a rented car on the same road she’d ridden on in that Greyhound
bus when she left.
Welcome to Rhino, Texas, the sign on the side of the road read.
Population 24,353.