On that Friday, the snow had just melted in Borden City, but it was still cold, and Yolanda Taylor was up early.
It was the anniversary of Petra’s death.
Yolanda Taylor’s feelings for her mother, Petra, were more complicated than her feelings for her father, Kipling Taylor.
Before the age of fifteen, Petra was what everyone in the neighborhood called a good wife and mother; she was always gentle and considerate, and she would be so gentle because of Petra.
But after fifteen Petra was like a different person, at first she just cried every day, after a year or two of crying she stopped crying and started disappearing for a while every few days, and by the time she found out that Petra gambled, it was too late.
When she found out Petra was gambling, it was as if she had changed, the gentle kindness she used to show was gone, and every time she called her, she asked for money.
Yolanda Taylor tried all the soft and hard things, Petra listened to her when she got the money, but as soon as the money arrived, she immediately went to a small gambling house to gamble.
She and Petra later fell out so hard, or because Petra knew that she and Gwen Fox together, had several times behind her back to ask Gwen Fox for money.
Even though that amount of money might just be a meal for Gwen Fox, Petra did so by holding her self-respect down at Gwen Fox’s feet.
Petra’s most outrageous time is once she lost more than 30, 000 yuan, hidden from her to find Gwen Fox to ask for money but was known to her, Yolanda Taylor humiliated Petra pulled away, pulled home after Petra sat there cursing, unpleasant words she is used to hearing, until she heard Petra said: “You and Young Master Fox for his money? Now that you’re doing well for yourself, you don’t care about mom and dad?!” Yolanda Taylor had heard these words from many people behind her back, but she didn’t care, she didn’t think that one day, such words would come out of her mother Petra’s mouth.
Petra that day is gambling money gambling crazy, can not ask for money, said more and more excessive, she could not stand it and she argued, the two mothers and daughters from then on as if they were enemies.
But Yolanda Taylor know, Petra in the end or love themselves, she later went to find her apologized, a slap slap to their face, all with a hard force.
She also knew that Petra had cried in the kitchen the night Kipling Taylor took her last breath.
The night before she left, she’d hesitated, but in the end she’d chosen to go with her, to start over with her.
Petra ran out in such a hurry, probably because she was really afraid that Gwen Fox would give her a hard time, and she wanted to take her away.
But instead of taking her away, she left her alone inside this despairing world.
The woman on the tombstone stayed in the year of twenty-five years old, black and white photo of Petra does not hide the flavor, a pair of eyes with flowers with honey, smile when gentle and charming.
Since she was a little girl, people said she looked like Petra, but Yolanda Taylor thought she didn’t look like Petra at all.
Where was she as good looking as Petra.
“Mom, I’m getting married next Sunday. Don’t worry, Primo Jones is a good man and so are his parents, they’re both good to me.” Tears fell down her face and she raised her hand to wipe them away and repeated, “Really, they’re really good to me.”
But the more she wiped, the more she couldn’t hold back those tears.
In the end, Yolanda Taylor simply stopped wiping them as well, and raised her hand to caress the picture on the tombstone, “Why did you run, mom, how good it was for you not to run, how good it was for you to wait for me to save you!”
She cried as she spoke, the lingering wind chilled her heart.
“You used to say you would personally dress me in a wedding dress and hold me in marriage, but I’m getting married and where are you mom?”
Yolanda Taylor used to think that she hated Petra, that she had gone from being a good mom to a bad mom, but now all she could think about were the things that Petra had done for her when she was a child.
She was the only child in her family, and her grandmother, who favored boys over girls, sent her to a family in the mountains when she was three years old without the knowledge of Kipling Taylor and Petra, who worked in Borden City.
When Petra and Kipling Taylor came back at Christmas time and found her missing, they went from house to house asking for her, climbing from mountain to mountain, and on the day they found her, Petra hugged her and cried like a child.
Kipling Taylor and Petra took her to Borden City and never went back home.
During the six months when she was sent away, she lived a very bad life, starved to the bone. In order to take care of her, Petra boiled red date congee for her every morning at five o’clock, went out to the factory at six o’clock, and at noon, she secretly brought food back from the factory, and gave all the food to her, and ate only white rice by herself.
At that time, the family was poor, can not afford to eat meat, but Petra froze in three months to raise her fat.
People can not recall the past, whether it is good or bad, once recalled, always inevitably difficult.
The large cemetery only a few sporadic people to visit friends and relatives, Yolanda Taylor leaned against the tombstone, she was already a little stiff from the cold, but she still did not move.
Gwen Fox watched her, wanting to go out and pick her up, but worried about a repeat of the last time.
When he saw her move, he stepped back on his feet.
Yolanda Taylor sat for a moment and when she got up her hands and feet were stiff and cold.
The tears had dried on her face, but it was so cold that they were congealed on her face, and the wind blew over them as if they were cutting into her face.
She put the scarf back around her and looked at the picture on the tombstone for a while longer before Yolanda Taylor turned to leave.
Not far away came the sound of three or three cries, and she looked back over her shoulder to see that it was a new burial for someone.
It really wasn’t a good day, either four years ago or four years from now.
It was after four in the afternoon when she got out of the cemetery, and it was a little dark outside, so Yolanda Taylor waited fifteen minutes for her car.
It was dark when she got back to the city, and when she got out of the car, she realized it was raining.
Yolanda Taylor didn’t bring an umbrella, it wasn’t raining too hard, it was just cold.
She grabbed her bag and put it on her head and ran into her apartment. There weren’t many people in the elevator at this time of day, so Yolanda Taylor quickly waited for the elevator.
When she got back inside, she ordered a bowl of beef noodles and went to take a hot shower.
Primo Jones’ family had a ten o’clock flight tomorrow morning, and she didn’t dare sleep late tonight.
After eating the noodles, Yolanda Taylor called Primo Jones and confirmed the flight information then turned on the TV for a while, and around ten o’clock, she went to bed.
Yolanda Taylor had a bad night’s sleep, probably because of her visit to the cemetery to see Petra. She dreamt about that day at the airport again, she was almost on her knees begging Gwen Fox to let her mom go, but he didn’t, he just took Petra away in such a heartless manner.
And then after that, all she got was a death sentence and a disfigured body.