Mum and mother - 2

Mum and mother - 2

Martha's glass of orange juice and a lot of sugar felt on the carpet.

Martha: My daughter…

Alice: Yeah…

Martha: Oh my god! But… you… you're a woman! And she was so little when I had her on my arms… - her eyes were wed, she stood up and hugged that girl, then she broke down and started to cry – Oh god, thanks! Thank you for take her back to me! My little baby…

Alice was crying too, but she broke the hug.

Alice: … but you abandoned me… you gave me on adoption… how can you thanks God for take me back if you really didn't want me…

Martha: Oh no, no please… don't think this! – said Martha while she was caressing her daughter's hair – I… I really want you… but I was too young… and it didn't was me who decided what to do…

Alice: Do you mean that someone obligated you to leave me?

Martha: Yeah… my father. I tried to search you! But the price that I paid for that was so high… - she put her look down. Alice hold her hands.

Alice: But now I'm here… and you can demonstrate me that you really love me…

Martha: Oh dear, of course I love you… I always have… - they hugged again – When did you start to search me?

Alice: When my dad dead… I started to ask about you when my mum dead, then I was eleven years old, but my father didn't really know too much about you, and he didn't want me to find you, but when he dead, two years ago, I felt alone and I started to look for you. It was difficult because I hadn't too much information, on the adoption papers there wasn't your name, there was just a surname, Clark. I went to the hospital where I was left and the nurse who took me said that the men who came with me asked them to call me Martha… then I imagined that that could be your name. There are a lot of Martha Clark on the USA, but when I saw you at TV as the Kansas' Senator, then I knew it was you… because we really seemed like the other.

Martha hold the girl's hands. She still crying, and she looked at her blue eyes.

Martha: I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I have always thought about you… but sometimes, when I finally didn't need to be scared of my father, I thought that if I ever find you, you maybe didn't want to know about me… because you would already have a family…

It was already midday when Clark arrived and found her mother cooking at the kitchen with a young red-haired helping her.

Clark: Hi…

Martha: Hi Clark… She's Alice, the girl who came yesterday…

Clark: Hello.

Alice: Hi.

Clark: Mum… didn't you go to have lunch with Lionel?

Martha: Oh my god! – she run to the phone – Lionel? Hi dear. Listen… there's a little problem… we should cancel our lunch…

Alice: Oh, no, please! Don't do that for me…

Martha (ignoring her): yeah, I know I told you that… I know! Why don't you come to the farm? No it's not a problem… ok… we will wait you… bye!

Alice: You needn't to do that!

Martha: But I want – she caressed Alice's chin - You are more important than anything.

Clark: Mum? – he didn't understand why his mother was as sweet with that girl.

Martha: Oh Clark… sorry… I've forgotten that you have arrived… please, come here – he hold Clark's hand to take him next to her… - Sweetheart… She's Alice, your sister.

Clark: What?!

Martha: Well… your half-sister…

Clark: How can she be my sister? You're sterile! Oh god! It's daddy's daughter! He lied you?!

Martha: No! No, no… She's my daughter, Clark… I haven't been always sterile…

Clark: Don't you?

Martha: No… I had Alice when I just was seventeen.

Clark and Alice at the same time exclaimed: Seventeen years old?!

Martha: Yeah… I was so young…

Clark: How? Who's her… father?

Martha: I was seventeen when she was born… but I was sixteen when I met him, Thomas Smith. He was the captain of the football team, and I was a silly teenager who was sure to be in love with him… He asked me to have a date, I accepted, and we started a relationship of months… I didn't want to have… you know, sex with him… I had been raised in a catholic family… But he was two years older than me, he knew what he want from a girl… and as I told you, I thought myself to be in love with him…

Clark: You did it.

Martha: No. I promised him that I would have sex with him on my seventeen birthday. But when the arrived… I wasn't prepare and I told him… He didn't understand… - Martha had her look lost, as if her eyes were looking at the past.

Alice: What happened?

Martha: We were at his home, he had prepare everything… a great dinner… a nice room… roses, champagne, music… that seemed to come from an old romantic film… He got so angry with me… He said that all the girls of the school would give anything to be at the same bed with him… I said that I wasn't one of those girls… He slapped me, I felt on the floor and I hit my head with something, because I felt unconscious, and I found myself on the bed, I was naked, and he was on me.

Clark: He raped you!

Martha: He did… I tried to resist, but the panic didn't help me, and he was so strong… When he finished he threaten me saying that if I told that to anybody he would come and kill me. I didn't talk about that with anybody during some days… but then I started to feel sick, I went to the doctor and I listened that words "You're pregnant".

Alice: What did you do then?!

Martha: I was afraid of him, and was scared of my father reaction… I decided to shut up… don't tell anything and have the baby… when it was at my arms anybody could say anything… that was what I thought… but one day, at the school, I fainted. They took me to the hospital, and the doctors told my father what the matter was… I remember that he entered to my room so angry with me and that the first thing he did was slap me, then I cried.

Clark whispered: Son of…

Martha: He asked me how it could happen to his daughter… who was the father… and what was I thinking on when I decided to continue with the pregnancy. He was really upset, but when I pronounce the word rape, he changed, he continued being angry, but what he did was to rang to the police and report Thomas. He was arrested, and being my father the richest lawyer of the state, he was imprisoned a few days after for too many years.

Clark: But what happened with Alice? Why didn't you keep her?

Martha: It was late to abort, and any way, an abort would have been worst for the Clark family… My father said that we should hide that problem… He locked me in the house until the baby was born with the intension of give her in adoption… At this way nobody would ever asked… nobody would ever know about that.

Alice: And you didn't do anything?

Martha: Of course I did. I tried to escape too many times… but he was lawyer, he had the power and I hadn't anything… You were born a nice Saturday afternoon… in my room – She was crying and caressing Alice cheek -… in my bed… You were so beautiful and so little… I had you on my arms; I haven't been ever able to feel anything like that… I was a mother… I had a baby… I had a nice daughter… and my father took all that away from me. – Some silence – When I woke up again after rest some time you weren't there. I got up and started to walked around the house shouting your name… Alice.

Alice: You give me my name?!

Martha: I did. Instead my father didn't want me to fall in love with you, because you would be a few time with me, I wanted to call you Alice, as my mother. He arrived at home, I asked him for you, and he told that he had took you to the hospital… I couldn't believe it, I run to the door, but he took me from my arm and push me on the floor. "Listened to me, Martha" Said him", you have never had a baby in this house, ok? You have never been raped, and you will never search that baby… because if you try to ruined the perfect family that I have build… I will be obligated to teach you some things…" These were his words – she stopped crying -. I felt weak for the labor, and I was sick for the lost… I spent four long days in my bed… without move, without eat… One night… I escape from my bedroom's window. I could arrive to the hospital, and I asked for a little baby who was taken there… That nurse was really kind with me… He let me take you again on my arms… She said that my father took you there, that he said you called Martha, and she also said me that I could take you with me, because I was your mother… but my father arrived… I saw him in the distance… I was so frightened… She offered me her help, but I knew that my father was able to destroy all what he wanted… I just said her that your name was Alice… I kissed you and I gave you to the nurse again… You took my finger with your little hand… and then my father came and slapped me… The nurse ask him to leave… he said her that he was sorry about me, that the baby couldn't be on the family… and he took me with him… before the door was closed I turned round and look back to see you for the last time…

Alice and Clark were crying too, they both hold Martha's hands.

Alice: I can understand you… You were so young, and your father…

Clark: He was a son of a bitch!

Martha: Clark!

Clark: It's just the truth! He wasn't anybody to decide about your life!

Martha didn't say anything, she just put her look down.

Alice: Did you try to search me again?

Martha: When we arrived at home, that same night, we had an argument… I didn't feel my self able to let you go for ever… We argue really hard… But he just know one way to persuade people… the force.

Clark: Did he hit you!?

Martha: I didn't remember so clear… but he slapped me… and on one moment he pushed me… and I felt down the stairs…

Alice: What?!

Martha: I woke up on the hospital two days after… my father was next to me holding my hand, with a scaring smile on his face… the doctor was at the other side… I don't know if that was because the fall or because one of his hits, but the doctor said that after then I would never been able to be a mother… I started to cry… I remember that as if it was yesterday… My father hold my hand stronger… he come close to me… and he whispered to my ear: "This is the price you have to pay for your sin". – after some silence broken with Alice cry – I didn't felt able to look for you during so many time… I just tried to forget the pain I had felt… I think that I just could do it when I met Jonathan. I told him about it once, before our wedding, and he said me that we could look for you… I just come back to the hospital, they said that you already had a family… then you was nearly four years old, and I wasn't able to tell to a four-year-old girl that I was her real mum, and that she had to abandon her family… I'm sorry, Alice… Maybe I would do it… maybe I would search you… sorry…

Alice hugged Martha.

Alice: Don't be sorry… You did what you thought was the best for me instead that it mean more pain for you… Oh, Martha, you're the best mother of this worlds… and you're mine, you're my mother…

Martha smiled, and Clark hugged the two women. Then the door's bell rang… It should be Lionel…

TO BE CONTINUED…