When I was little my mom was some sort of super hero. She never became ill. Of course, I was home with the cold now and then and the best thing I knew was to be at home on the couch and watch Empire of the Sun by Stephen Spielberg and eat sandwiches with cheese and butter and drink a big glass of chocolate milk. I did absolutely nothing. I just lay there and let the films take over from each other.

Once my mother became ill. Dad eventually managed to persuade her to stay home. For some reason, I was also sick at the time. So it was me and mom at home. I explained to her that the sofa was the best spot for chillaxing and how to dip the sandwich in the chocolate milk so that it didn’t fall apart. It took half a movie for mom to become restless.

She stood up and put her hands on her hips and said that we needed clean up. I sighed and stood up as well. My mom is the superhero, like I said, and when a superhero says clean; you clean.