“But my parents, especially my mother, she has ears like a goddam bloodhound. So I took it very, very easy when I went past their door. I even held my breath, for God's sake. You can hit my father over the head with a chair and he won't wake up, but my mother, all you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in Siberia and she'll hear you. She's nervous as hell. Half the time she's up all night smoking cigarettes.”
He knows his mom cares for all her kids and knows he will be heard if he is home a day early. But he also shows sympathy because he does not want to make her more nervous then she already is.