Predicting Mater

"Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that suppose to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing."
-From the novel 'Beloved' by Toni Morrison

I should have known. I should have known better than to mention to my mother that I had run out of tea and drained my supply.
I should have known that she would not answer the telephone when I called thirty minutes later.
She did not, could not answer.
She was not there.
She was standing in line in the village post office making absolutely sure that I would get my tea.