A/N: Another little one shot. My BFF Thomas gets a cameo here, but I think he'd choke on air if he saw where it was XD It's ok, I don't think he'll read it.
My Mother Never Cried
My earliest memory of my mother was when we were looking through old photo albums she kept in her office at home. We sat on the couch together, flipping through the pages of her when she was younger.
"There!" I remember crying excitedly, pointing to a picture. "That's you an' Dad!"
"Yes," she laughed, "This was our wedding day."
"An' that's Uncle Atrus an' Aunt Catherine!"
"Yes, they were there as well."
I had always called them Uncle and Aunt, even though they were old enough to be my grandparents. They had always been in my life, ever since I could remember. My mother said she met them when she was sixteen, after a long trip. I didn't know what that meant at the time. I just remembered the little things, like how Uncle Atrus would tell me stories and Aunt Catherine would bake cookies for us. She would always let me have the first one.
"Mama? When I get married, can I have a pretty dress like yours?"
She laughed.
"Of course you can!"
"An' all the flowers an' things like that?"
"You can have all the flowers and beautiful things you want then, Eliza."
"An' will Uncle Atrus and Aunt Catherine be there?"
She went quiet for a minute.
"Mama?"
She smiled at me.
"Of course they will be there, sweetheart."
I was content with that, and we went back to looking through the pictures.
My mother disappeared a few days later. Dad said that she had to do some work for Atrus. I remember him pacing up and down the hallway in front of Mom's office. It didn't make any sense to me though. When she comes back, won't she come back through the front door? Dad just smiled when I told him that, though. He said when I was older he'd explain it to me. I'd sit with him for hours, reading or playing or watching TV, but he'd always get up every few hours or so to go into her office.
He was scared, I think. I told him not to worry, 'cause Mom wouldn't just go and not come back. I said that Uncle Atrus wouldn't let anything happen to her.
I was five. I didn't know that adults weren't as faultless as I thought they were.
She did come back, though, after a week or so. She was dirty and her clothes were slightly ripped in places, but she was happy. I don't think I'd ever seen my dad so happy to see her. She picked me up and swung me around, and I laughed. Dad asked her what happened.
She just smiled and said, "Old wrongs have been righted."
I didn't understand that, either. I just knew that it meant my mom was back.
The years went by. When I was ten, my mother showed me the Linking Books. I was stunned - it went against everything they taught us in school. I even went so far as to ask my science teacher if such a thing was possible, but he said it wasn't. I told my mom that and she just laughed and said to not believe everything that was taught in school. She also said not to mention the Books again.
"It's our secret, all right, Eliza?"
It was strange that what was normal for me was so strange to others. It had become second nature to me to link to Tomahna to ask Atrus for help on my homework after school, or to go to Narayan and show Saavedro my latest art project. It was part of life for me, but it was something that I couldn't tell my friends.
When I was a Sophomore in High School, my mother disappeared again. There wasn't any notice from Atrus this time. Dad was beside himself with worry. He wanted to link to Tomahna immediately, but I didn't let him. I told him if something was wrong, Atrus would have said something.
We did get a note from Mom, a few days later.
Atrus' sons are dead, Thomas. I'm staying in Tomahna for a few days to sort things out. Give my love to Eliza.
"I thought Sirrus and Achenar were already dead, Dad."
"I did too, 'Liza. I did too."
"Who were they, really? Uncle Atrus never told me."
He sat on the couch and patted the spot next to him. I sat next to him and he pulled me close.
"Sirrus and Achenar," he said, "were evil men, from what your mother told me. They killed many people and destroyed many worlds, including Narayan. They became trapped in special Books of Atrus' creation."
"Atrus trapped his sons in Books?"
"The Books were not intended for them, 'Liza. You see, he didn't know they were doing these horrible things. The Books were intended to trap those who might want to steal the normal Linking Books in Atrus' library."
"But why did Atrus . . . well, I guess he didn't kill his sons . . ."
"I don't know, 'Liza. You'd have to ask Atrus or your mother."
"Did Mom meet Sirrus and Achenar?"
"Yes, when she first went to Myst."
"So . . . they're a lot older than her?"
"I don't know about a lot . . . again, you'd have to ask her when she gets back."
He ruffled my light brown hair affectionately.
"You'll know eventually, I'm sure. You always seem to figure things out, even when we don't want you to."
I grinned.
"'Course."
I did find out what happened eventually. I found out about Sirrus' plan and Achenar's redemption, about the Prison Ages and everything that had occurred in the day and a half my mother spent running around them. I talked to Yeesha and I talked to Atrus. They cried.
But not my mother. Despite everything that happened to her over the past twenty years, between Sirrus and Achenar, Gehn, Saavedro, and now the brothers again . . .
My mother never cried.