“My mother is not racist.” Asserted Zac. “How can you make such blatant remarks?…” he went on and on, cutting Jane who tried to explain but then gave up and let him go on his rant instead.

Jane tried hard to juggle her intermittent cold coffee sips, looking at Zac whilst occasionally darting off to the woman who seemed like she was always yawning as she tried to listen and nod. She wanted to stay focused, but her mind kept pulling her to the time that made Zac seem like a perpetual puzzle.

It was Thursday night. Jane and her roommate Seth sat watching Breaking Bad, taking a shot every time Jesse said “yo” or “bitch”. They were at the incessant-laughing stage when Zac entered. They were drunk, they were laughing. It was only when he handed the bag of muffins to them that they realized he had come home. He then blocked Jesse by standing in front of the T.V. and re-told his story. They of course celebrated and the usual shindig went down. But what was most memorable to Jane that night was the phone call he had had with his mother almost immediately.

Today, five years later, here they are, sitting at the same deli he used to work for—that was their tradition whenever they came back to their alma mater (UCLA)—yelling at her for calling his mother racist. “But Zac, how would you know, you’ve never had a Latina friend before, there is no way you could have known and yes, it is a big allegation, but between the two of us, I’m sorry, I’m the only one with the basis for this judgement.”

“Then take it back.”

“No. She refused to look at me, she did not acknowledge me.”

“She was awkward.”

“I get that. She just seemed scared and shocked at the same time.”

“Scared? Okay see, you don’t know how to read people. You don’t know how to read people, access the situation, how to react. That is why you’re calling my mother, the woman who raised me and my brother single handedly, a racist.”

“Okay. Wow! You’re adding unnecessary factors here….”

“Take it back Jane. You have to apologize.” Zac cut her again.

As Jane sat there quiet, avoiding eye-contact, fighting the awful words of hate and pain targeted at Zac, her mind pulled her back to that Thursday night.

After he told them the good news, he immediately telephoned his mother to tell her the same. Jane could hear him saying Jane and Seth, Jane and Seth a couple of times on this side of the call. “Both are Americans mom. How does that matter?....Yes, thank you. Okay talk to you soon. Love you.” Jane found it weird but she brushed it as irrelevant and had even forgotten about it. But clearly, today her mind was making drawing her back, making some kind of connection.

Now Jane cut Zac, enough was enough. “Okay. Just ask your mom. Ask her what she thought of me. Just do that and tell me what she said, word for word and then I’ll apologize. I’ll apologize to her in person even,” if she meets me that is, she mumbled under her breath.

“Fine.” Zac threw the money on the table and walked out.

As Jane sat there shaking her head in incredulousness, Seth finally arrived.

“Hey! I just saw actor-boy walk away in hurry looking all angrily into his phone. Was that for a scene or is that how he walks now?” Seth started in his usual sarcastic tone as he walked towards the table.

“I called his mother a racist.”

“And he took that seriously?! Are the lines between the screen life and actual life blurring again for him?”

“No you idiot, they’re blurring for you.”

Jane ignoring him went on to relate the story of the meet and even reminded him of the weird phone conversation she had overheard with Zac’s mother.

“Hey! I’m American. So, there’s no problem there I guess.” Seth continued in his goofy manner.

“I’m not apologizing Seth. I was there. I know what I felt.”

“I know, I know.”

“Seth, you’re not helping.”

“Actually I am. Do we know anything about his mom or dad other than that he lost his dad when he and his brother were kids? To some freak accident, right?! And that his mother raised them all by herself?”

“When that’s the whole story there’s nothing more to know Seth. Jesus! But… That sounds like a pretty incredible mom to me. Maybe she was awkward.”

“Maybe.” Seth kept stirring the coffee with the spoon looking at the newspapers as Jane couldn’t take her eyes off the yawning lady.

Three days hence. Finally a message. Meet me now?

Her flight was in two hours, there was time.

They met at the airport cafeteria. Jane and Seth were happy to see him, although the same could not be said of Zac. He just sat in front of them and blurted out, “My dad was shot by a Latino man. In the factory where they worked, back in Albuquerque, they had an altercation and then next thing you know my dad was lying in a pool of blood and I had lost my father forever. He turned himself in and everything, but it was too late for him to undo his actions. So yeah, you were right Jane, my mother does not like you for the sole reason that you are Latina.”

Silence.

“You know all Latinos are not murderers, right?” Jane finally broke the silence.

“I know. But my mother does not see it that way. He life was changed because of that man. Her lens is tainted forever. Does that make her a racist or a scared wife or a protective mother?”

The three of them sat staring as the last call for the flight to Seattle sounded off the intercom.