FIFTY-EIGHT
"Hej, mamo."
Hi, mom.
"I wish you were here." She laughs wryly, "Just as I wanted you here for my first real job, Kirika and Shirabe's graduation, my last concert, moving in with Tsubasa, my wedding… and all the little moments in between.
"Then again, I could be fifty-eight years old and still be missing you. That's just how it is, isn't it?"
Sighing, she traces the edge of the picture frame; her mother's stern look seems to reprimand her for moping around.
"I'm not moping around."
Younger Maria, posing next to her mother, smiles tentatively up at her.
Always second-guessing herself, yet she made it through, didn't she? She's here now. She has her quiet life, far, far away from the turmoil that has haunted her since she was a lost little girl.
"Of course, if I weren't independent by now, it'd be very worrisome."
That doesn't mean that she doesn't want her mother's advice. Parenting is a challenge—on her shoulders rests the future of another human being, an entire life that will go on to impact other lives. She wants nothing more than to be a mother to Elfnein—but. But there are always doubts.
"Which is why I always come back to you, mamo. You don't hesitate to set me straight."
She smiles.
"I have to go now; get some sleep, hopefully, so that I can give my all tomorrow."
a/n: I hope the Polish is correct; I took it straight from google translate.