Ariella
Ariella sat in the once warm living room, staring blankly at the walls, the once comfortable couch now suffocating her. She thought back to last week when the living room still felt warm, when her mother was still there. Ariella's eyes travelled into the kitchen, the sink now overflowing dirty dishes she didn't have the energy to clean. It amazed her how much of a mess she could make in a week. She could picture her mother standing there, cleaning them up and yelling at her simultaneously to get her act together.
"Ariella, I know that is hard but please, please look at me."
The man's voice shook Ariella loose from her memories. She was tired and exhausted and just wanted to be left alone.
"Like hell" she snapped back.
They had been sitting in the living room for what felt like an eternity. The man from the lawyer's office explaining the will, what was left for Ariella. Telling her the next steps to take to get her life back on track. She heard him give an exasperated sigh. She didn't blame him, she hadn't been all that cooperative.
"This photo was left for you. Your mother said you would understand. I'll leave it here and get out of your hair. Feel free to contact me with any questions. You have my card."
Ariella didn't look up to say goodbye as he left. Her eyes were glued to the faded photo she had seen in her mother's wallet thousands of times. She took a deep and shaky breath. She understood what that photo meant, she knew what her mother wanted her to do.
She took a deep breath before getting up and stuffing the photograph in her front jean pocket. Ariella wandered around the main floor of her home, engulfing herself in memories of her mother. As she wandered around the house she saw touches of her mother everywhere; in the decorations, the paint colors on the walls they had fought over, the pictures of the two of them that crowded the walls. Everything she saw seemed to tell her that her mother was running some errand and would be back soon, even after a week it didn't seem real. Ariella went upstairs, she figured packing up her things might help finalize everything; the fact that her mother was gone, this wasn't her home anymore, and that she had to go find him, her absent father of sixteen years. She walked past her mother's door, their bedrooms were right across the hall from each other. Ariella couldn't count the number of sleepless nights she had when she walked across the hall and crawled into her mother's bed to find a peaceful nights rest. Ariell's hand grabbed the knob and slowly opened the door to the undisturbed room. This was the first time since her mother's passing that she had the courage to go in there and she could barely walk through the doorway. She slowly made her way to her mother's bed and crawled under the covers, letting herself cry for the first time since her mother's death. Ariella didn't know how long she stayed there, wrapped up in the blankets, allowing herself to cry and fully accept that her mother was gone, but when she got up she finally felt a sliver of peace. Her mother wasn't coming back, but there was something that Ariella could do for her, she could complete her mother's final wish.
"Mother, I will find him, but know that this is for you. I don't want it." Ariella said to her mother's empty room. After taking a deep breath Ariella crawled out from under the blankets and left her mother's room, closing the door for the last time. She walked over to her room and began packing some clothes into a small duffle bag, she wasn't sure how long she was going to be gone but she had the feeling it was going to be for a while.