A son is so ashamed of his one-eyed mother that he hides her away from the world and refuses to allow her to come to his graduation. Most people didn’t know that Derek Ryder had a mother. When his friends talked about their parents, Derek just clammed up. He never invited any of his friends over to play video games or to watch a movie. In fact, from primary school all the way to his senior year in high school, no one ever set foot inside Derek’s house, not ever. When he started dating a girl, he’d tell her: “Look, babe, my mother is funny religious, she won’t let me date.
” — but it was all a big lie so he wouldn’t have to introduce her. The ugly truth was that Derek was ashamed of his mother. He didn’t want people to know that she was a freak, like something out of a horror movie. Derek’s mom had only one eye, and the left side of her face was a mass of scars. Gail Ryder had been like that for as long as Derek could remember. When he was little, he hadn’t even noticed — she was just his mom, but as he grew older, he saw how people reacted to her.
His mom wasn’t like other people, he realized, his mom was UGLY. The first day he went to school he saw how the other moms flinched even though his mom wore huge dark glasses and a hat.
“I don’t want you to take me to the gate, mom!” he told her that night. “I can walk in on my own.” “But honey, all the other moms take their children to class…And you’re still small!” Gail had said. “You’re a FREAK!” Derek had screamed. “I heard Bobby’s mom say so and now they will all say I’m a freak too!” And so Gail had never again come into the school. She’d drop Derek off, and drive away, tears pouring down her right cheek. Her son was ashamed of her, and it broke her heart.
As for Derek, he was fine as long as Gail stayed out of his public life — he pretended she was a recluse, a religious fanatic, anything that would keep people from knowing the truth. But when graduation came around, Derek was in a quandary. He had been named valedictorian and the headmaster had clapped him on the back. “Well, my man, I hope we finally meet your mother!” he said. “I want to congratulate her personally!” His mother?
Derek couldn’t bring his mother to graduation! Everyone would know! But what could he do? That night, found himself an agency that represented character actors and he hired himself an actress. The woman he chose was the perfect image of the woman he’d always wished was his mom. Pretty, kind-faced, unscarred. Derek carefully coached the woman on how she was to dress and what she should say and arranged for his pseudo-mom to pick him up from his home.
When Gail saw Derek in his graduation cape, she gasped. “Derek! Is it today? Oh just give me time to get dressed!” “Dressed? For what?” asked Derek. “Why, to go to your graduation, honey!” Gail replied.