Warm air whipped against Beth's cordate face as she rode the city bus as she had been the last three weeks.Only the top half was put down to allow ventilation and yet nothing dispelled the feeling inside.At first it had been nervous denial,which had eventually melted into unbearable infelicity towards what had happened.Though she never breathed a word of it to Desmon or any of her other friends,she still worried over it constantly.
Here it is,she thought with some minor determination sparking a bit and used it to allow herself up to pull down on her section of the thick cords that circuited around the bus's interior.I've got to do this,I can do this.
As the ring sounded and the bus started to slow to a stop in front of a rather large brick building,the fourteen-year-old felt a strange notion to look outside her window but shaking her head at the useless idea,she hoisted her backpack up and started off of it.Once the early evening met her presence,she continued up the concrete staircase with an urge to look behind her still rising within her but also with ignoring the heaviness that was mounted into her,she pulled open a glass door and made her way in.
Hello,Bethany."The male receptionist who was in his mid-twenties was prompt to greet her as she passed,his greyish-blue eyes and expression marked by the utmost kindness."Here to see you're mother,I see."
"Hey,Carter."She replied back vaguely,slipping the tips of her fingers into her jean pockets."Can I go back there or do I have to wait for a minute?"
"All clear."he offered her a smile but she merely walked passed his desk.
Everything was all clear,Mom and I would be home right now.Beth thought illiberally,as she boarded the elvator and took it up a few flights to level four;trying to ignore any other thoughts as she now concentrated solely on the blinging sounds coming in front of her.Though the strange feeling she had experienced outside kept coming up,right below the brink.
Once the smooth,cubic contraption finally paused at her destination and the cool,metallic doors slid open,she had to work up the nerve to even take a step off.But once that was complete,she held her breath and gave it all she had in a kind of hurtle down a corridor and passed a few rooms.
Her breathing came out in loose gasps as she neared the doorframe that would once again lead her into the room of the closet person to her in her life,the person she had always looked to for support when she was young and now she,herself,was the one being looked to.Beth nearly fled from the hall but somehow,as if by another force,she found the courage to go inside.Where she saw the long,slender figure of her mother lying beneath a light blue hospital blanket.Calm and quiet,for the first time in a long and turbulent seven years,they weren't rushing all over the place constantly...
Six years ago,the Bronx...
The churning sounds of a storm brewing in the long,late hours of the night caused Beth to bolt up in her bed,glancing around frightfully she saw the heavy downpour going on outside.Inhaling and exhaling sharply,she managed to scoot back down into the cot that had only been propped up a few days ago.Which she didn't mind much but at the same time made her long for her old bed,where she felt safer.
"Mom'll be home soon,"she tried to convince herself in a hushed tone as she sat up a little more."It's just the angels playing basketball."
With that calming thought of what her father had once told her,she nearly drifted back into a light sleep when she heard a large whack against the window,causing her to shudder down under her covers and peer up every so often.That's how she stayed,looking up and then cowering back down into the firm contours of the matress.
"She's going to be home soon..."She whispered softer now."She'll be home in just a little bit and tell me that Daddys called finally,then he will tell us he's found Rose and we can all be a family."
The storm seemed to settle down again and the whipping,sometimes howling winds dissipated into what sounded like a smooth whistling noise;the stream of midnight blue radiance that shone began to shift into a brighter,more calming shade of ivory.
Which in turn started to instill more confidence to her words,making what she spoke to herself actually tangible and so she was almost asleep after what felt like hours,when an enormous,booming noise caused her to scream out and the next thing she knew her small feet had hit the slightly bouncy floor and she was running into the hall.
Darkness blinded her and yet didn't seem to add anything to the fact that all she wanted was to go home,after putting up for a year with the ever exhausting moving about,the endless phone calls,the very path of what the young girl's life had taken seemed clear even as the ambient of shadows fell upon her,even as she knocked over things in her fustration,in her desperation to get away,she finally saw life as it was now and probably would be for a long time.Unfair and defying.
She was almost ready to cry,almost ready to believe her mother had gone to along with the rest of everyone else who mattered or could of mattered in her life,when a shift in the atmosphere caused her to stifle a sob and it didn't take long for her to realise she was down on her knees with her forehead tucked a bit between;trembling quietly.
"Honey,"her mother's soothing voice reached her ears,as she felt her comely fingers slid under her arms and pick her up."It's late."
"Don't leave me!"Beth cried out demandingly,latching herself tighter around her ribs."Please don't leave me again."her voice fell to a low and unstabily aghast."I don't wanna lose you too...please Mama."
Despite the tenderness dispostion she displayed,she heard her laugh just a little under her breath and pulled the little girl away from her to look into her eyes.Her gaze was gentle but with some firmness to them,those of understanding and yet coupled with experience.
"Listen to me.It isn't always going to be clear why the people we love the most do things we do but the best way to go about it is to let them find out what they need to for themselves.Even if it means we have to wait for them...remember that,if you care for someone,then you wait for them..."The woman's voice drifted into the calm,careful night,holding her daugther close as she did."Always wait for them."
Present day...
The memory served as little comfort to Beth,as she made her way inside quickly but over towards the window that held the view of neighbouring shops across the street.All the other times she had been there in that most horrible place,Desmon or her other best friend Jennifer had gone with her and now she had finally told them she wanted to go by herself;she was so confident she could handle it,like she could handle anything and anyone.
So if I can face up to any obsticle in my life,why can't handle looking at my own mother on my own when she's in this condition?She thought angrily,a raw glare crossing over her delicate visage as she hugged her arms to her chest.Why is it so hard for me to make a difference?To do something that would stop making life like hell.
Her gaze finally moved up into the sky,which was clustered with graying nimbus clouds coming into range,the singal of a storm.Rolling her eyes at the annoying coincedence,she nearly turned away when something caught her eye;two figures moving across the roof of the building straight across the way from the hospital.Curious as to why people would be out on a roof in that kind of weather,Beth concentrated harder on the two beings.
"What the...?"She protracted her words in confusion and watched at the figure to the right leapt to another building,as if it where nothing at all.
The figure on the left came into her sight once again but instead of moving after the other person,the person paused and seemed to turn their head in her direction.Freezing up,the fourteen-year-old was about to yank back the curtains into place,when an odd feeling came over her and she tried to peer harder at the person.Every inch,every strain,until finally seeing what she thought was around her age dressed in what seemed like ninja attire.
Beth hid behind the curtain she had pulled up but narrowed her eyes now to the girl's masked face,where two eyes that were like jewel oceans looked back at her.It was as if there was a suspension in time,the two of them locking gazes from different times,different lifes.The more she saw into this strange girl's eyes,the more she saw herself reflected in them,as if this girl were reading her and surprisingly,she felt as if she read her too.
BBBBbbbbzzzzzzrrrr......
The bleaping noise caused her to whirl around and see the green line that had been going steadily on the heart monitor was now moving at a much less frequent pace,even weaker.Beth recalled these kinds of situtations in movies but never once did she think she would be in one.With a shake of her head to relieve her of those thoughts,she moved out into the hallway.
"HELP!"She screamed at the top of her lungs,frantically glancing around for assistance but the only people she found were a few kids staring like she was some sort of lunatic.Oh,shit!Shit this horrible place
Fear at the thought of not being with her if something else happened was swift to well up inside of her and she was back inside without having even realised she had moved again.Gripping one of the handle bars on the bed and feeling it's chilly,hard feel,she hesitated with even touching her mother with her other.What if she got worse if she did?What if she just passed away on the spot?Would she be put up for adoption?What of her home?
"Mom...?"Beth inquired her faintly and finally made up her mind,reaching out to lay her hand gently on her mother's folded ones."Mama,wake up."
The woman appeared so peaceful,though her head was banaged,she still looked as young and as beautiful as ever.Yes,over-worked but not even stress could deter from the fact that she had single-handedly raised Beth for the last seven years.She and her mother had had to endure more then their share of rough times,settling for cheap cloths brands and such.But never once had she gone hungry and never once had she slept without a roof over her head.And yet,she'd complained a lot and was ungracious to her mother.They didn't get along a lot of the time but not more then ever did she just want her mother to be well,more then ever to she want to tell her how much she loved her.Even if she hadn't once said it in years.
"You once told me that we have to wait for the ones we love most..."she began in a broken voice,her throat was so clogged up with unshed tears that it made it hard to talk."And of all people,you were the one person I thought I'd never have to wait for.You were just home and that was that."
The slightly rhythmic sound of the monitor was now fainter in her range of hearing,now that she talked slowly but clearly to her mother,switching her blue eyes every few seconds from her mother's partially pale features to the rising and falling of her narrow chest.Terror that had layered over her bravado was starting to lower as she continued to just merely talk to her mother,as if she were still very much awake and listening to her speak.
"We've waited for my sister..."Beth finally told her in a drearyingly calm tone of voice,not bothering to mask her fear any longer."We have waited for Dad..."she started to move her finger under her mothers."Maybe,I guess you meant that day you told me about waiting and everything that although we can go about our regular lifes,that if we really love someone...we wait for them."her hand finally clasped her mother's as a small smile parted her puce lips,a warm tear rolling down her left cheek."And no matter what,even if I'm the only one,I'll wait for you too."
The sound of claxoning gradually made it's way back to her ears and she thought it was because of the fact that she was paying attention but as the sound rose and there became more less paused between them,a thought crossed her mind but as it did so,she suddenly felt someone squeezing her hand and caused her to move her azure eyes from the monitor to the face of her mothers;who fluttered her lids open and turned to look at her.
"Wait until I tell my co-workers,"She spoke with a contently,soft smile as Beth lowered herself down to her mother's level and the two embraced as a stream of generous golden rays shone through."I followed the sound of my daugther's voice and it lead me here,they'll never believe me again."
"I love you too,Mom."Bethany laughed thankfully,the feeling of life now breathing into her soul,making everything they'd been through seem trivial.
The End.