Page 6 of Shake Your Boo Thang

Out of old habit and despite the overcast sky, I slip on my sunglasses. Once spirits notice you noticing them, it can be awfully darn difficult to get them to leave you alone. My sunglasses provide a bit of a protective shield from that.

It doesn’t take me very long to find a sign for the double-decker bus tour I want to do, and within minutes, I’m sitting up top and watching the city go by.

As we pass the Tower of London, Big Ben, and Parliament, as well as Buckingham Palace and a whole bunch of other places, I pull out the snazzy vintage Polaroid camera Mama bought me just for this trip—she knows what I like—and snap photos like a man possessed, making mental notes of the places I want to actually visit. I also end up with quite a few good prints to include in the scrapbook I’m planning to make when I go home.

By the time my loop around the city ends, it’s nearing lunchtime, so I disembark to see where my feet and the wind take me.

There’s certainly no shortage of places to eat in this city, but I take my time as I navigate the streets and check out all the restaurant fronts. People here sure do move a lot faster than we tend to down in Alabama though. They’re all rushing somewhere as I duck out of the way and continue taking my time to read menus in windows. I don’t bother taking photos out here, worried someone might bump into me and cause me to drop my precious camera. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take right now. At least I have a proper carrying case for it with a cross-body strap, so I can keep it close at all times.

As I amble along, my phone rings. I smile when I pull it out and see who it is.

I press my phone to one ear and cup my hand over the other so I can hear around the street noise. “Hello, Mama.”

“Beauregard Jeremiah Montgomery, you were supposed to check in with me two hours ago.”

I wince as I continue to walk. “Sorry, Mama. After I called to let you know I landed, it was a bit of an ordeal figuring out the train into the city, and then how to get to my B&B. By the time I got there, I just took a shower and crashed out for the next twelve hours. Don’t you fret, I’m out exploring and feeling back to my usual self.”

“I know I’m probably being overly anxious. I just worry about you, sweetie,” she says. “You’re special, and that means you end up finding yourself in a whole lot of trouble even when you don’t mean to. And in a city as old as London? That can be a whole helluva lot more than your usual lot.”

I wince again. I can’t deny it.

“I’m being careful,” I say, “and I am a grown man now, after all. I can look after myself.”

“You’ll always be my baby boy,” she replies defiantly.

I chuckle.

“Are you having a good time?” Her voice is softer now.

“You better believe it. I’ve never seen so many old buildings with all kinds of architectural styles right next to each other like this. And London’s so much bigger than I imagined in my head. It’s amazing.”

“Well, I don’t see what it has to offer that Mobile doesn’t have,” Mama grumbles a little indignantly.

This is the first time I’ve left Mama and traveled out of Alabama by myself. But I’m twenty-nine, going on thirty real soon, and I need to spread my wings and fly, as they say. It’s been a bit of an adjustment for us both, and Mama hasn’t quite gotten used to not seeing and talking to me every day.

Mama and I have always been close. We lost Daddy when I was just a boy, and Mama raised me all on her own. It wasn’t easy, especially when Mama got sick. Doctors ignored her symptoms for a long time until things got much worse. That’s when she got a lupus diagnosis and we could finally start treating the condition properly. There were times when she’d be bedridden or unable to leave the house for days on end, and I did all I could to contribute to the household. Cooking, cleaning, and giving her gentle massages when she wasn’t in acute flare-up. It took a long time for her to go into remission, and the toll it all took on her body made it hard for her to work, let alone take care of herself like she needed to. Fortunately, Daddy had taken out a life insurance policy when they got married, never expecting we’d need to use it so soon, but it kept us from falling into abject poverty. In addition, I’d take odd jobs here and there to bring extra cash, mowing yards, fetching groceries for some elderly folks, and delivering newspapers.

When I turned eighteen, things got loads better. It turned out that Daddy’s parents, whom I’d never really met, had left most of their money in a trust for me to start being parceled out to me once I graduated from high school. I’ll get complete access to the full trust when I turn thirty soon, but the money I’ve received up till now has been plenty.

I’m not living high on the hog, but I’ve got enough for me and Mama to be comfortable for the rest of our lives. That’s probably a good thing because I’ve had a devil of a time holding down any kind of conventional job for long. The whole seeing ghosts thing ends up causing all sorts of problems. My podcast’s growing in popularity, but it doesn’t bring in any real money.

“I think you’d like it over here,” I tell Mama. “In fact, why don’t we come over together next time? My treat.”

“Hmm, you might be able to talk me into that,” she says, “but for now, I’m still thinking about that cruise you’ve been dangling in front of me and Doreen.”

Doreen has been Mama’s best friend since her senior year of high school. She’s a drag queen who hosts Sunday Drag Bingo in town—Mama helps her give out cards and calls the numbers. Doreen’s the one person who came by on a regular basis to help us out during hard times. When Mama was too sick to get out of bed, Doreen would cook and stockpile food that we could reheat easily in the fridge for us. She also helped me with homework and made sure I was doing okay. This was all while she was working a full-time job as a lab tech at the hospital too. Now that she’s retired, she’s Doreen more often than she’s Bill. As she told me not too long ago, “Bill is part of me and serves his purpose, but the older I get the more fabulous I want to feel, and Doreen is the epitome of fabulous.”

I’d never disagree with that.

Needless to say, she’s like a second mom to me, and of course I offered to send them both on a cruise. They deserve it.

“The both of you should swallow your foolish pride and accept my offer. It’ll do you both a world of good and it would make me so happy to gift that experience to y’all.”

“That’s my baby. Generous to a fault.”

“Oh, hush. If you can’t be generous with the people you love, then what’s the point?”

Mama chuckles. “I’ll think about it. Thank you, honey.”