I flopped down on my bed and leaned over to crack open the window, taking in the cold February air as I settled myself within the warm covers. About an hour passed by without my parents even attempting to open the door, which was unlike them. When I was younger, if I shut myself in my room, not even a minute would go by and they would either knock or just let themselves in. I shrugged it off once more, and with my headache finally subsiding, I rolled out of bed and joined them in the living room.
I sat on the opposite couch and waited for them to say something, but they stayed silent and instead kept to themselves on their phones.
“I’m surprised you guys didn’t try to kick down my door like you used to when I was a kid.”
“Well, you seemed upset, so I didn’t want to bother you.” My mom replied monotonously, her gaze never leaving her phone. I was tempted to round their couch and see what was so captivating on their phones but decided against it and huffed.
“What’s wrong?” My dad asked.
“I just thought you guys would be more excited to see me. You both always tell me to come home more so I bought this expensive teleporter to visit and you don’t seem to care.”
“We do care, honey.” She replied, plastering on what was one of the fakest smiles I’ve ever seen.
“Funny way of showing it.” I again mumbled under my breath. I tried to diminish my attitude for the rest of the day, but my parent’s initial reaction set my mood. I left shortly after dinner, unsure of what to make of the day. I shoved the teleporter into my closet and collapsed onto my bed, thankful I didn’t get a headache this time heading home. As I was plugging in my phone to go to sleep, a text message from my mother popped up on my phone.
I figured it would be something along the lines of apologizing for acting weird today, but instead it read, “We miss you, come over soon!” I stared at the message for a few minutes, wondering if she meant to put, “Come over again soon?” I decided to leave it and text in the morning, not in the mood to text a half-assed reply.
A little over a month later, on my birthday, I decided to use the teleporter to visit my family again. I haven’t been around my family on my birthday in years and my mom has been bugging me about how much she wants to see me, considering this text thread she sent a week before.
“Hi, honey! We were thinking of heading over to you for your birthday. It’s been too long since we’ve seen you!”
“I’ll be there on Saturday, mom.”
“You’ll make the long trek over?” She asked, putting probably twenty red heart emojis after.
“Yep, I’ll be there around 10 a.m. if that works?”
“Sure does, so excited to see you!”
The week passed by quickly, and before I knew it, I was standing in my parent’s kitchen again, though with a less painful headache. To my surprise, my older siblings came and lugged their kids over just for my birthday, but I appreciated it nonetheless. I made sure to keep the teleporter out of my nieces and nephew’s reach and enjoyed a much more celebratory birthday than usual. Granted, I haven’t spent one with my family in a while, but we’d normally make birthdays a quiet affair, particularly mine. I never was a fan of being sung to or making a wish and blowing out candles on a birthday cake, but this time my mom went all out and baked a chocolate cake. She had never been much of a baker, so I was hesitant in taking a bite of cake and accidentally making a face if it was bad, but it wasn’t. It was better than most cakes I’ve had, so much so I asked if she had bought it somewhere and she shook her head with a smile and showed me the recipe she followed. I opened the presents my siblings and parents got, of course with the help of my nieces and nephews, and reluctantly left later that night.
Not even a couple of minutes after I put up the teleporter, I felt a buzz in my pocket and took out my phone and saw a text from my mother that read, “I thought you were coming by and visiting today? I just wanted to check in with you, give me a call when you get this. I hope you had a great birthday and I hope we can celebrate with you soon!”
I narrowed my eyes, dumbfounded at what she meant. I was just there, all day. I dialed her number, and she picked up on the first ring. Before even giving her a chance to say hello, I asked, “What’s with the text, Mom?”
“I didn’t mean to bother you, sweetie. I just miss you, we haven’t seen you in a while.”
“What do you mean? I saw you today, Mom.”
The line went quiet for a second. “Well, I must’ve missed you then.” She laughed before adding, “We haven’t seen you in months.”
My heart skipped a beat at this, wondering what was going on. “Cut it out, mom. I’ve been over several times with that new teleporter.”
“Teleporter? Like the ones on the commercials? When did you get one of those? Why haven’t you used it to come see us? You haven’t been here since last Christmas.”
I dropped the phone, taking in ragged breaths as I repeatedly heard my mom, at least who I think is my mom, call for me. I look at the suitcase that contained the teleporter, a million questions running through my mind. Who have I been visiting?