The following morning, Maddie woke up later than usual. She, too, didn’t sleep until the wee hours of the morning. She felt bad at how she behaved towards her mother and was really ashamed of herself for failing as soon as she began the journey of reconciliation. Her mom refused to talk to her for the rest of the day. She refused food too until Brody returned from work and begged her to eat.
Maddie quickly took her bath and got dressed, instead of her normal routine of going to the kitchen first to check up on Helen .
On getting to the guest room door, she paused; afraid of how her mom was going to react to her. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door, “mom…mom.”
Her heart skipped a bit when there was no response. Maddie tried twice again before Lauren responded, asking her to come in.
She opened the door and walked in. Her mother was sitting at the reading table, working on the computer..
“Good morning mom,” she greeted tentatively. But Lauren did not answer. She kept on pressing the keyboard.
“Am sorry about yesterday, mom” she put a hand on her heart. “I am so sorry. I have no right to ask you not to get anything for your grandchild.”
There was a long silence. Her mother stopped what she was doing. In her wildest imagination, she never thought Maddie would come begging broken like she was that morning.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I forgive you.”
“Thanks mom,” she muttered and sat on the couch beside the reading table.
Silence stretched between them, mother and daughter finding it difficult to communicate with each other.
“Maddie,” Lauren finally whispered. “I am asking you again. Please forgive me.” She begged her daughter. “I want you to please let go of anything I have done that has caused the gap between us.”
Maddie started weeping silently.
“I want to make amends,” Lauren choked on her tears. “Please give me the chance to show you how much I love you.”
Maddie could not remember the number of times her mother had asked her for forgiveness for years. But each time her mother asked for forgiveness, she would just wave it off. She used to think that what her mother was asking was impossible. But at that moment, as she sat with her mother, she was ready to let go.
“l know you thought I was heartless for leaving you with your father. Am telling you today that I did it for your father and most especially for you”.
“How is that, mom?”
“I knew the divorce was hard on your father and when he insisted that I could not take you along with me, I didn’t fight it.” She looked into her daughter’s eyes. “I accepted because I knew if I had taken you along with me, it would have been so devastating for him.”
Her Dad had told her severally that he was the one that insisted that Lauren couldn’t take her along with her. But Maddie had never believed her father. She thought he was just trying to cover up for her mother.
“Honey, I love you enough to give you up for your father. Your father is a very good man, and I thought it was the right thing to do.” She explained further.
Maddie’s head snapped up, she asked her mother the question she had never asked before, “why did you leave in the first place?”
“Honey,” she stood up and pulled Maddie gently to her feet, she led her to sit on the bed. So they faced each other. “I left him because I was childish and naive.” She shrugged. “yes we were having problems, but I could have stayed to work things out with him. They were problems every marriage encounters in the initial period. But I wasn’t patient enough.”
She smiled ruefully, pains of regret etched on her face.
At that moment, Maddie saw a woman longing for what she had lost. “He begged me to stay, that we would go for counseling and all that. But the naive girl I was then thought our marriage was irredeemable “.
Maddie took one of her mother’s hands into two of hers, trying to give her some comfort.
“Now that I am older,” her mom continued, “I know that the real problem was that I got married when I wasn’t ready for it, despite the fact that we were both in love with each other.
“Mommy, I forgive you,” Maddie started. “And I am so sorry for being unreasonable all this while.” Maddie finally said the words her mother had been expecting all these years.
“Thank you, Maddie, for doing this for me,” she took her daughter into her arms. “You have given me the gift I have been expecting all my life,” she said, with tears streaming down her face.
Finally, they have both found the closure they’ve been searching for all these years. Maddie knew she had gotten her healing; she felt so relieved and the whole of her body trembled with joy as she too cried with joy and relief. She was so tired by the time all their drama was over. Her mom made her eat breakfast that Helen had already prepared. Then she tucked her into bed.
She picked her phone and called Brody to tell him all that just happened. He was excited too and promised to return home early.
Maddie slept peacefully for the first time since her mother’s arrival in her house. She was still in bed by the time Brody returned home at around five in the evening. It was the sound of the bedroom door he opened that woke her up.
“Someone is so relieved that she slept for over four hours,” he teased her as he walked further into the room. He joined her in bed and kissed her on the cheek.
“I feel like a heavy load rolled away from my back,” she yawned.
“I know,” he tapped her on the nose. “I can understand the feeling, come here.” He closed the gap between them and wrapped her in his big hands.
“Kiss me,” she pouted, still in his arms and looking into his eyes. “Make love to me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” his smile was big. His hand was already unbuttoning her blouse. She hadn’t felt anything near sexual since her mom came. “Your wish is my command.”
His mouth captured her mouth.
*****
Tasha yawned and stood up to use the bathroom. She had really enjoyed the short story.