Recap: “Jude, she named her daughter after me”
“I thought you were happy about it!”
“I am! But what when they come to know that we were lying to them! What if they come to know about our deal?” I stared at her as her words sank in. What indeed?
Jude’s P. O. V:
Both of us were silent for the rest of the way home. I kept glancing at her troubled face. Natasha looked like she was about to cry any moment. Now that she mentioned it, I started thinking of the short comings of my not so brilliant plan. My entire family knew about it. Natasha’s close friend did. We were going to end up betraying the people we loved and cared about the most. There was no going back now though and I didn’t have to think about this for another year so I just sat back and tried to relax. We reached home soon and Natasha went straight to bed. I wasn’t sleepy for some reason. So I stayed in the living room trying to watch a movie but I kept thinking about Natasha’s words. I saw a note by the phone.
Mrs. Bowers had already come and gone and she had left the note saying she had made lunch and dinner. I smiled and thanked God for Mrs. Bowers. My phone rang suddenly shaking me from my reverie. I answered wondering who could be calling on my home phone.
“Jude honey! Where are you? I have been calling you nonstop!”
“Mom! I am sorry my phone was on silent mode” I remembered putting it on silent when Natasha glared at me after my phone went off in the hospital. I then proceeded to tell my mom about my day yesterday.
“Oh that’s great! You must congratulate Ellie and Gary and Kyle from your father and my behalf”
“I will mom”
“Alright. I was calling to remind you that you are coming home tomorrow with Natasha! We just can’t wait to meet her!” I winced thinking about Natasha throwing a fit about more betrayals.
“About that visit mom-”
“Don’t even think about it. Jude you are not getting out of this one.”
“Mom did you have to invite the entire family?” I asked panicking a little.
“I did not invite them all! It’s just that when well you know I told them about you settling down they wanted to meet the girl who managed the Herculean task.” I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration.
“Mom we will be there tomorrow just keep it low key ok? I don’t want you to scare off the one girl who wants me!” I joked.
“Don’t be silly Jude. She’d be lucky to have you.” I smiled at my mom’s tone.
“Bye mom, I love you.”
“I love you too son.” I hung up and frowned as I heard mumbling coming from my room. I went there and stopped as I heard Natasha’s worried tone.
“I know matron! I am extremely sorry but I had an emergency to attend to!” There was a pause as she heard what the other woman had to say. Then broke down in tears.
“I know! I know it’s a gift and I wouldn’t do this purposely you should know that!”
Then she asked in a small voice and it almost broke my heart to hear her say, “Mom knows that right? Somewhere there she knows I didn’t do it on purpose right?” She started sobbing uncontrollably and said, “I am on my way.”
I walked in at that moment and Natasha’s eyes widened as she saw me.
“I need to talk to you Natasha.”
“Wh-what happened?”
“I was about to ask you the same.”
“Nothing. I uh Jude I need some money.” I hated the shameful, embarrassed tone she had asked me for it and instantly felt angry with myself. She shouldn’t have to ask me this way. The first thing I would do after I came back from my parents is set up an account for her at the local bank.
I immediately reached into my wallet and gave it to her. She ran into the bathroom and washed her face.
“Jude I will be back in a while”
“Natasha wait! Where are you going?”
“There’s something I have to do”
“I am coming with you”
She opened her mouth to argue but I gave her a stern look. This girl was stubborn but I knew that whatever she was going for she needed someone to be there with her. She realized that this time I wasn’t giving up so she just nodded.
She gave me directions and I was surprised when we stopped outside an old age home. She went inside and I followed her. An elderly looking woman stepped forward and Natasha hugged her and started crying. I looked on bewildered. What on earth was going on? I patted Natasha awkwardly on her head. The elderly lady looked at me and then at Natasha questioningly.
“This is my er-”
“I am Natasha’s fiancé” I said smiling at the lady.
She looked really surprised. She had a stern face that was hardened by age. It wasn’t an ugly face it was just lined with experience that comes with age. Her eyes betrayed her expression. She had the most kindest eyes I had ever seen.
“What a lovely young man” she exclaimed.
“Jude this is matron” I nodded politely and she nodded in return.
“Where is mom?”
I did a double take and stared at Natasha. Didn’t she tell me her mother was with her sisters? One thought after the other started chasing each other in my head. Was something wrong with Natasha? Was her mom ill? Or worse, was she dead? I looked at Natasha worriedly. The matron led us both to a room. There I saw a woman in her late forties. She was wearing a gown with pastel flowers. Her flaming red hair was in a neat braid and she sat there staring outside the window.
“Tracy, look who’s here!” exclaimed the matron.
Tracy turned around and I gasped. Natasha had inherited her hair and sparkling green eyes from her mother. This woman was smiling and looking at Natasha intently.
Natasha stepped forward, “Mom?” Tracy didn’t respond and I stared at the pair in confusion. Why wasn’t Tracy responding? Was she mute?
“You know dear, I have a daughter and she must be just about your age” Tracy replied still smiling. I stared in shock, I saw Natasha’s brave attempt at smiling fail and she burst into tears and ran out of the room. I turned to Tracy who looked at me and asked innocently, “Was it something I said?” I just shook my head and followed Natasha who was sitting on a couch at the reception and sobbing uncontrollably. I went there and held her tight.
“Natasha I don’t understand! Did your mom and you have a fight?”
Natasha shook her head and said, “I wish it was as simple as that.” I stared at her shocked. Seriously? Fighting with your mom was simple?
“My mom has Alzheimer’s” I stared at Natasha and felt a clench in my stomach. I saw her tear stained face and the hurt I her eyes.
“I came home one day to find that my mother doesn’t remember me. I mean literally, my mother didn’t remember she had a daughter. I was so worried. At first I begged her to stop joking. I pleaded, I cried and I begged. Then after a while I realized something was seriously wrong with her” I sat there listening to her in a horrified silence. How much had this girl been through!
I felt ashamed as I remembered taunting her about living an expensive life. Natasha swallowed and continued, “I rushed her to the doctor when I realized something was seriously wrong with her. The doctor told me that she had Alzheimer’s disease. He told me that if I was out working then I should get someone to take care of my mom because leaving her alone meant she was in constant danger. It was the worst moment of my life. Mom and I had been really close.”
“So she’s been staying here and I didn’t tell you because I can’t stand the pitiful looks people give me. That day in the park, I was thinking how I was going to make ends meet. I had just left the job at the café and then I met you.”
“Sometimes I wonder, if I wasn’t working double shifts then maybe I could’ve seen the signs you know?”
I nodded and said, “Maybe you would’ve seen the signs but Natasha there is no cure for it and there was no way you could’ve prevented it.” She nodded and started sobbing afresh.
“What were you telling the matron over the phone? That you missed a gift?” Natasha started sobbing even harder and I instantly regretted asking her this.
“L-last night mom was lucid. She actually remembered me and was asking for me. The matron says that she tried calling me a lot of times. But we were at the hospital and my cell phone was on silent mode!”
She started bawling at this point. For the first time in my life my heart went out to someone. I actually was crying with her, I didn’t know what to do so I held her and cried with her. If it wasn’t for me Natasha could have been there with her mother when she was lucid. I was filled with self-loathing. After a while Natasha stopped crying and turned to me with a shaky smile,
“Jude thanks for being there. I am glad I told you.”
“You don’t have to thank me! I am glad you told me too”
She nodded and said, “Let’s go home”
“Don’t you want to meet your mom?”
She shook her head and said, “No, I would just start crying in front of her. Besides right now she thinks I am still in school and according to her I am at a boarding school. She doesn’t remember I have grown up at all.”
Could this day get more horrifying? I guess I thought too soon when Natasha said, “She remembers that dad is dead. So all she is living with is a memory of her dead husband and her 13 year old daughter.”
Natasha went to the matron and paid her the fees and money for her mom’s medication. I went outside to get my car. Natasha came after a few minutes. We put our seat belts on and I drove away. As I was driving I couldn’t help but admire the woman next to me. She was so young and she had been through so much. She was actually giving up on a dream wedding for a fake one so that she could take care of her mother.
I admired her and respected her even more.
“Jude aren’t we supposed to meet your parents tomorrow?”
“Yes but I can cancel that.”
“No don’t! We have to do it sometime or the other.”
“Yeah I guess the sooner we get this out of our way the better.”
She nodded in agreement and then smiled, “Well you’ve met my family I can’t wait to meet yours.”
“Oh I am not looking forward to it!” I made a face and she giggled.
I made her laugh! I high fived myself.
Suddenly Natasha screeched “Baskin Robbins! Jude stop! STOP!” I hit the breaks and looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
She shrugged as I glared at her, “I really really really want a chocolate chip mint ice cream!”
When I looked at her incredulously she shrugged and said in a small voice, “Ice cream cheers me up.” I smiled at her and parked the car at the curb.
I rushed in and bought two cones. I think Mississippi mud wins hands down. I watched as she ate her ice cream like a little child and hoped tomorrow’s day would be better.