+She is a mother, above all else.

 

+"He's not stupid!" she hisses in the quiet of the principal's office. Jim's feet are still thudding against the wall.

 

+"So, what, you have to fail a test once in a while so nobody'll look at you twince?" She hates being angry, but disappointment is so much worse.

  "And if I do?" The set of his jaw is set like George's when he was caught up in righteous anger.

  "If your father could see -"

  "Well, he can't, can he?" He bites his lip after the last syllable, knowing he's crossed one too many lines.

 

+ "I won't hate you if we don't have money for air conditioning, mom," Jim says uncomfortably.

  "Well, maybe there's a way to get Bill to cut us some slack..."

  Jim's face is distinctly disbelieving. She know all of them think she's just this side of a whore, but she knows she's not and - she hopes - so does Jim.

  "You're only human." It's embarrassing, she thinks, having to tell your only son that you fall short of the mark of motherhood.

  "I'm not human," she informs him, brushing stary hair out of her eyes. "I'm a mother."

 

+ When she pick Jim up after he'd totaled the car, she's not surprised to see his jaw set in that familiar way. His blue eyes are a scared tough, and she pitites him. "Jim," she say, not sure what to say. He half winces. He's expecting a tirade, but what's there really to say? Jim is certainly his own creature. "Jim," she says again, and his shoulders sag.

 

+ His face is almost hidden beneath dirt and blood. "Jim," she begins, "you're an idiot." He shrugs.

 

+ He bought that motorcycle hismelf. She's proud of him, for him, because it's his first achievement that Means Something.

 

+ She hears whispers of his potential, sometimes, when she sees the way Jim'll order the boys his age around. She told him once that he would be the Academy's most brilliant brilliant captain one day, and he abruptly got up from the table and left.

 

+ Winona knows Jim is not George, but it's hard to think otherwise when he reads.

 

+ "Mom, I'm hot."

  "So get a fan."

  "No, the girls, they say I'm hot." His voice is carefully curious and she wants to smile.

  "Well, you're not ugly." It was an admission, not permission but Jim, as was his way, took it and ran with it.