One & Half Mother -Chapter 7

Chapter 7

New York City had changed a lot in those eleven years. Ellen came outside of JFK airport and was astounded to see the advancement of the gigantic city. While traveling toward home in a taxi, she was contemplating the vast contrasts she saw in New York. Ellen perceived the East River, which was the main thing that stayed unaltered since her adolescence. “Still Dirty.” The cab driver smiled looking at the stream after hearing her whispering.

Aileach looked old now among new neighboring structures. Ellen felt the large cabin in her memories contracted to a little one. She felt nobody was living in the home while walking inside. The pool had turned into a junk pit before Aileach and the lawn practically obliterated, and the mud was visible on the ground. She felt a lousy vibe while entering the compound. It was not the way it was in her fantasy. She progressed toward the home and saw a cutting-edge sports automobile going out of the house with a terrible exhaust noise. Ellen realized somebody was living there.

Daniel woke up to a child’s cry in the house. He had no clue where it was coming from. Last evening, he had seen a woman with a tyke before the home while going out from that point, yet he didn’t expect she was somebody close to the family and going to remain there that day. He got out of the bed with a smidgen of outrage toward the tyke that irritated his rest, the sobs ceased, and Daniel heard his mother calling Ellen, to come and take the milk for the child.

Ellen! She had returned, with a kid. He went through the stairs. And saw his sister. Ellen was looking at him from the corridor. They both stood where they were. Daniel had the most exceedingly bad inclination in his psyche for a minute. He strolled toward her.

“Ellen. You changed a ton; I didn’t recognize you.”

“See your nephew little Johnny,” Jacqueline told him with a smile.

Johnny was checking out the new faces.

Daniel was confounded to see Ellen back home. Rather than bliss or amazement, nervousness reflected on Daniel. There was a pin-drop silence for a couple of minutes in the corridor. They strolled outside when Jacqueline went to the room after Antony called her.

Johnny strolled around the dried swimming pool. He didn’t find any dragonflies or frogs to while away his time.

“So, why you chose to return with an infant? To get your advantages from the family?” asked Daniel.

“DANIEL,” Ellen yelled, it was a shock to her. Her sibling was stressed about her arrival. Daniel thought Ellen came to take her advantages from the family. Her tears cleared a path through her excellent face to the floor.

“Daniel, you have changed a lot,” Ellen stifled her sob.

“I could have returned and asked for help when I battled more in my life, I could have returned and made a battle with the family and got my rights legitimately, did I?”

Daniel ended up without an answer.

“I thought you would be happy to see me after a long time, brother, I may not be your real sister, but I cared for you more than your mother once, and you know how it ended. You may forget that, but I will not,” Ellen became emotional.

Daniel apologized and attempted to explain. However, his explanations were not enough to stop the fire inside Ellen. He held her hand.

“Please stop crying. I apologize for what I said. Now, please. Dad and Mom are coming,” he whispered to Ellen.

Ellen wiped her tears.

Jacqueline came back with Antony in a wheelchair. Antony was looking at Johnny. He reviewed Daniel’s childhood when he saw Johnny. A moderately fair-skinned girl came out. Anyone could make out her parents were interracial by her skin tone and silky long black hair. Alicia—Daniel’s girlfriend or his partner for a long time now. Like her name, she looked like a combination of beauty and elegance, at heart, she was much worse like Daniel. Her father was a black businessman who divorced her mother during her childhood. She was one of Daniel’s companions since childhood. With the drowsy steps of last night’s hangover, she walked toward the car garage. Ellen was looking at the girl who hadn’t even noticed someone was standing right front of her. The girl opened the door of the car, and it was a charge for Daniel to take her out, Ellen stunned to see Daniel running out of the house, without even saying a word to parents.

Once the noisy car left home, Jacqueline apologized for Daniel’s and his girlfriend’s strange behavior. The mother couldn’t shroud her tears while saying it to Ellen. Ellen didn’t sleep the night in the wake of hearing tragedies that had happened in the family. She was tragic to see Antony half incapacitated before her eyes. Ellen hadn’t expected Jacqueline with an old and tired face even in her fantasies. Ellen was terrified about Daniel and his companions. Ellen decided to talk to Daniel in the morning. But with his very first question to Ellen, she realized what Daniel cared for in his life.

Jacqueline told Ellen about the mishap which had toppled the family and got it topsy-turvy. Five years back, Antony was driving back home on a stormy night, at some place, his car drove out of control and bumped into a tram. Everybody thought the story ended there. But he came back to life with damaged vocal cords and a deadened right side following a half year of coma. Jacqueline’s world shrank. Next to Antony’s bed, she spent days and nights to see him open his eyes. Daniel was twenty-years-old at the time. He was the only one to lead the business his dad and mom built in years. He used it well. Slowly, he dealt with the core of the company.

Even after Anthony’s recuperation, Jacqueline didn’t set out to request her son to give them back the authority to make decisions about the company. She was mentally drained following a period of restless days. Jacqueline wept through the days seeing her drug-addicted son terminating the world they built. Jacqueline was smart enough to keep something for their old days. She still had an untouched bank balance which even Antony didn’t know.

Daniel had not visited the company for years. He hadn’t done anything to develop the business, but the smart managers and workforce wanted the company to survive. Their business plan worked well, and that’s how the company was running nowadays. Daniel dependably took as much as he could take and spent on drugs and for his associates. Antony and Jacqueline stood noiselessly as Ellen did years ago, with the dread of losing their child.

Ellen told Jacqueline she wanted to leave the very next day from New York to Maple Valley. Ellen thought she would avoid the chance of getting tossed out from Aileach by her drug-addicted ruthless brother.

Jacqueline felt Ellen still despised her like before. The old mother cursed herself for making Ellen feel separate from family. Antony heard everything, and he was unable to express anything with his incapacitated face, but still, tears fell from his eyes. Antony didn’t have any words for Ellen. Johnny looked at the paralyzed old man holding his hand. He didn’t see the adoration or grin on Antony’s incapacitated face.

Johnny saw the tears streaming down from the old man’s eyes, and his eyes, likewise, became noticeably watery. He ran toward Ellen when Antony tried to caress Johnny’s hair. Antony called Ellen toward him with his broken vocal cords. Ellen felt his tears on her feet. She held his hands tight in her grip, kept her face on it, and cried.

Johnny could not watch his mom crying; he started to cry loudly. Jacqueline took him inside to divert the neighbor’s attention. Ellen pushed the wheelchair inside the home. There was a silence for quite a long time; their minds were conversing during those hours. Jacqueline didn’t force Ellen to remain there for a few more days even after she heard guiltless Johnny asking Ellen about the one-week trip. Jacqueline knew why Ellen said she was leaving tomorrow.

At Jacqueline’s wish, they went for a walk through the streets. Ellen was carrying Johnny on her waist, and Jacqueline was pushing Antony in the wheelchair. No one could tell little Johnny was not Ellen’s Son. Jacqueline was worried about Ellen’s future as a single mother. It was hard for her to process the stories Ellen told about Johnny. Jacqueline looked at her and Ellen as a mother in her mind and bowed before Ellen thousand times for the cruel things she did to her. They strolled into a shopping center, and Jacqueline obtained many garments for little Johnny and couple of expensive toys too for her grandson.

As expected, Daniel didn’t return home the night. Ellen overlooked her dream to travel the distance to New York in the wake of seeing the family’s condition. Her fantasy was something else. She welcomed them to Maple Valley to remain with her for whatever was left of their life. However, Jacqueline expressed her worries at allowing Daniel alone in New York. While walking out from Aileach, Ellen felt the pain in her heart at leaving her parents in a helpless situation. She saw two wailing souls in front of Aileach while closing the massive steel gate. Jacqueline still believed Ellen left them because of her attitude after Daniel’s birth. Antony was crying inside with the inclination; he couldn’t apologize to Ellen even a single time.

It was hard for Ellen to carry the heavy brown bag and Johnny together. Johnny was about to cry when they stood in the street to grab a cab. Ellen directed the driver toward the school she had studied in. She intended to get the address of her companions and to meet them before going back to Maple Valley.

Ellen walked to the inquiry desk of the school office. The girl at the inquiry mixed up the mother and son who had come and told them to go upstairs to pay the cash before Ellen asked anything.

“Ma’am, I am a former student of this school. I want to find out my classmate’s address, can you please help me with that?”

“I am afraid I cannot help you, Ma’am. School records are confidential, but I can help you with one thing. Our principal is a teacher from this school from the beginning; I hope you studied here within the last fifteen years.”

“You can go and meet her now. She is back from her vacation, walk straight through this corridor, and you would find her office on your left side.” The young lady in the inquiry said everything with a smile. Ellen forgot to express her gratitude toward the girl while strolling from her office to the principal’s office. Ellen’s psyche was baffled by numerous things.

Ellen saw Beth Heddes’ name board on the wall and recalled her repulsive maths classes. Beth called Johnny toward her thinking Ellen was a parent of some child in the school. Ellen disclosed to her what she had come for. The old teacher was happy to see the student with a kid. She called someone on her telephone with an intercom number after hearing Ellen came for Lyndsey and Daisy.

An average-sized woman entered the room. She took a gander at the mother and son with longing eyes and still failed to recognize them. Some images matched in her mind, but she was also confused to be able to determine if it was Ellen.

“This is our science instructor Miss Lyndsey.”

Ellen was amazed to see her old companion as an instructor, and Lyndsey was still confounded and taking a gander at Ellen. She was trying to conjure the images of her students to figure out whose parent was before her.

“Do you know her?” Beth asked Lyndsey.

“No, Ma’am. I can’t remember,” Lyndsey said with a little dread at hurting a parent.

“Do you remember your batch mate named Ellen?” Beth asked her again.

Lyndsey forgot she was in school. She was in Principal Beth’s office for a minute. Beth heard a slapping sound and saw those companions crying together. Lyndsey slapped Ellen on her face. She couldn’t stop them. Ellen had not expected that from Lyndsey. Beth was grinning at them. Johnny was befuddled about whether cry or not after seeing his mother crying and laughing.

Lyndsey took the mother and child to the school cafeteria for refreshments, and Ellen told her stories of ten years in her life. They had many things to share. Lyndsey and Ellen walked toward their favorite pear tree, where they sat for hours during their school time. Still, there were a lot of flowers in it. They sat under the shade of the tree like they did during their childhood. Johnny started picking up flowers from the ground. Ellen was amazed to hear their Daisy became a scientist in NASA, and Ellen didn’t hesitate to ask Lyndsey how an above-average student became a scientist.

Lyndsey had joined the school three years ago. She availed half-day leave and took Ellen and Johnny to her home.

Lyndsey stayed on the ninth floor of the private skyscraper loft. Ellen heard children playing inside before opening Lyndsey’s door. One baby girl of about Johnny’s age drew close to the door when she heard somebody opening the door. Lyndsey’s parents were with her to help her with the kids. Her better half was serving in the US armed force. She had decorated the home very nicely. They both stood on the balcony and watched New York with the taste of hot espresso.

Ellen hid several parts of her stories and presented it like it was her heartfelt wish to go to Maple Valley. Lyndsey was not a fool to believe it. Still, she didn’t cross-examine what Ellen said to her. She knew Ellen had faced something, which annihilated her fantasies in New York, and she didn’t need to hurt Ellen by asking her about them again. Johnny blended easily with his new companions. His fundamental fascination was Lindsey’s second tyke, a one-year-old infant. Johnny missed his infant companion back in Maple Valley.

Lyndsey helped Ellen book her return ticket in railway after Ellen declined to stay there for a day, and Lyndsey took Ellen and Johnny to Ababa’s place in the evening. Ellen didn’t find the street where Abeba lived. Tall structures secured the whole region. She got some information about the colony from a black security guard standing in front of an office there. The vast majority of the general population in the province had moved to many places after the city development, and many had gone back to their natives.

 It was difficult for Ellen to process. Her imagination fell like a glass pot and shattered on the floor after hearing that from security fellow. She had envisioned a cheerful and significant visit to New York. Ellen didn’t have time to search and find Abeba. They rushed to the railway station to catch her train. She buried her dream of having all her friends and family for Johnny’s fifth birthday deep inside her mind. She accepted Lyndsey’s limits to travel such a long distance with two kids and asked her to come to Maple Valley for a vacation in future. Lyndsey stood with them till their train reached the station.

Ellen sat inside the Amtrak business class seat, which Lyndsey had reserved for Ellen. She looked at the blue cover with the Amtrak logo kept for her in the rack. She remembered the cover wrapped “Johnny” in the bloom wicker bin was the same.

Ellen closed her eyes. Johnny was playing with his new toys near the window seats. Ellen recalled that day she left ten years back from New York. She felt relaxed. She was thinking about what she felt before coming and what she had now. She wished to stay for more time in Aileach with Antony and Jacqueline but feared the reaction of her brother.

A young guy with a handsome physique drew near them and sat in the single seat parallel to them. Johnny was looking at the person. The guy grinned at Johnny; he smiled back showing his milk teeth. Ellen turned toward him seeing Johnny grinning at somebody, and she smiled back at the co-traveler.

The train began to move; Ellen didn’t feel the tides of emotions like the last time. She was sitting peacefully. She yelled at herself in her mind for wasting money on air travel. The guy sitting next to the aisle was watching Ellen without her noticing it. When she turned toward him, he made a better-than-average endeavor to present himself. In the eleven hours of the journey, they began to talk. Ellen didn’t feel like sleeping that night. Ellen covered her body with the sky-blue cover of Amtrak, disillusioning the hungry eyes of the co-passenger.

Ellen was impressed with the talks and topics Doc. Tom had shared with her the night. Their tittle-tattles definitely irritated the passengers sleeping peacefully in the next seats.

Tom Anderson was a specialist from New York. He was heading out toward Maple Valley to join St. Shepherd hospital. Perhaps that influenced Ellen to converse with him. He was setting off to a place from where she got this life. Tom was a gentle person with a good physique and knowledge about everything under the sun, very talkative. He told her about his boring life in New York after his girlfriend got married to someone. That was his delicate endeavor to express he was single to Ellen. He depicted his girlfriend with marvelous stars in her eyes, and Tom attempted to say he was missing his girlfriend after seeing Ellen. Ellen stayed silent and acted like she was dozing to keep away from his flirtatious talk.

During the transfer in the border, Tom helped Ellen to carry her bag. It was tough for Ellen to take sleeping Johnny and the big brown bag at the same time. Ellen expressed profound gratitude for his assistance, and they started to discuss new topics. Tom comprehended his target was a single parent running a cafeteria in Maple Valley.

Early in the morning, they reached Maple Valley Railway Station. Doc. Tom offered Ellen a drop at her place on the taxi arranged for him by the hospital. She refused it, took another cab, and went to her house. Isabella and Abraham were astonished to see Ellen back so soon from New York. Isabella followed Ellen toward the house carrying the dark-colored pack and asked her the news.

 Ellen was not in a state of mind to relate what she felt after going to New York. She shortly clarified the details of her fizzled trip and lay next to dozing Johnny. She was pondering about getting a phone connection in the home. Presently, she recognized the requirement for correspondence, which keeps relationships dynamic and refreshed. She went to the cafeteria with lazy steps and told Isabella about her plan to get a new telephone connection.

Brownie was howling from the moment he saw Ellen walking home. Johnny woke up with Brownie’s barking and howling. Johnny strolled to the enclosure and freed him from it. Brownie began circling Johnny and licking his feet and hands. Johnny held him close and kissed his head, his best friend. Ellen yelled at Johnny to go and brush himself before breakfast so she could take him to Merlyn’s home. He raced to brush quickly; he missed his baby Annie and Merlyn Aunt awfully in three days. After breakfast, they went to the Merlyn’s home. Baby Annie was inside a thick white cover; she had gotten a cold the previous day. Merlyn asked for Ellen’s help to take her to the hospital in the afternoon, and Ellen agreed to that.

Ellen was also planning to visit the hospital because of Johnny’s regular complaints about a mild stomachache after eating. Anyway, Ellen decided it would be easy to go together with Merlyn and examine Johnny in the hospital.

They reached hospital after the lunch break. Ellen felt tired with the previous evening’s tiring travel. She enlightened Merlyn concerning the awful experience she had in New York while on the way to the hospital. They both met Doc Susan to check the kids. Doc Susan told Ellen it was little Johnny’s tricks not to eat and there was no compelling reason to stress over it, and she gave prescriptions for little Annie. While they were exiting, Ellen saw Doc Tom was strolling toward them. In the meantime, Merlyn hurried and pulled Ellen to another hallway and left the hospital.

Ellen didn’t have any idea why Merlyn pulled her. Merlyn told Ellen she had to leave to Toronto soon, to where her husband worked. Ellen felt some unusual behavioral changes in Merlyn’s face until they reached her home. Merlyn was disturbed. Something she saw in the hospital had confused her severely.

Ellen came back home with Johnny, and she was thinking about Merlyn. She saw Merlyn going out through the narrow road in a taxi after some time. Ellen was anxious about Merlyn. She began to think about Merlyn. Ellen forgot about her trip in her thoughts.

Merlyn had worked as a medical caretaker in New York years back. She had got married to a person working as a technician in some hospital in Toronto. After Annie’s birth, Merlyn came back to the home to get the assistance of her parents to take care of the baby. Consequently, there was nobody in her spouse’s family to help her. Ellen thought of Doc. Tom with Merlyn in her contemplation. Ellen imagined a new story. Doc might know some concealed stories of Merlyn, and that made Merlyn pull her and run—meaningless creative imaginations. Ellen chose to take Johnny to the playschool after Merlyn went out. Ellen sat tight for following morning to take Johnny to the school.

Doc. Tom discovered Ellen’s Cafeteria during his morning walk. He walked in there for an espresso and was anxious to know why she didn’t meet him in the hospital. Ellen gave him her explanations about the surge hours in the cafeteria.

The first day of play school was hard for Johnny; he didn’t have the patience to sit tight till evening without aggravating his mother. However, slowly he started enjoying that day in there. Morning and evening trips to school and back on the yellow school transport were most pleasant for Johnny with his new companions.

Brownie developed quickly with good sustenance and care. He resembled a grown-up pooch within a year. Ellen tagged a red lash with a metal pendant on Brownie’s neck. He kept his head high proud with Mom’s gift. Brownie waited for Johnny in the evening near the main road where school bus stopped for him. Brownie dependably demonstrated his adoration for Johnny from the minute he got down from the school transport.

Doc. Tom made regular way through the cafeteria as his typical course for his morning walks. He attempted to get to the cafeteria before the group to find some time to chat with Ellen. They progressed toward becoming companions in a month. Doc. Tom took Ellen and Johnny to the film theatre to watch Harry Potter. Ellen enjoyed Johnny’s bliss during the outing. She envisioned a family for some time in her psyche.

Doc. Tom succeeded in winning Ellen’s heart. He welcomed Ellen for supper at his home following three months of their companionship. Ellen accepted it and went to his home with Johnny. Doc. Tom didn’t expect Johnny with Ellen. He didn’t display his disappointment on his face and took them in. His servants decorated the dining table with candles before they left. Doc played some music and tried to get Ellen’s eye contact all the time. Ellen declined his offer of champagne. He didn’t force her.

Doctor hooked Johnny with some entertainment on his computer to get some an opportunity to converse with Ellen. She was still outside when he returned. Tom strolled beside her. Ellen was looking toward the valley holding the handrail of the balcony. He stayed next to her; they didn’t talk anything. He kept his palm over her hand on the handrail. Ellen didn’t feel like moving her hand. She was frozen by his touch.

He was squeezing her hand delicately. To some degree, Ellen felt something going all over her body. Her face turned red with her raised bloodstream and quick heartbeats. She felt his breath on her shoulder and his body on her back. He embraced her from behind, Ellen was frozen there. He turned her and took her inside. She followed him like she was strolling in a fantasy. The minute they came inside, he started to kiss her enthusiastically. The first kiss in Ellen’s life. She was in the middle of damnation and paradise. She was holding him tight.

Johnny didn’t find the computer game very attractive. He came to the room and saw his mom struggling at the man’s hands. He screamed at him and endeavored to free his mother. He pulled Tom’s leg. With the outrage of intrusion, Tom pushed the little boy. He didn’t mean to toss Johnny far, but it happened that Johnny fell on the floor. He started screaming noisily. Ellen came to her senses in a minute hearing her son’s boisterous scream. She didn’t even think Tom would push him so far. The minute Ellen felt the outrageous outrage in her spirit, she drove Tom and came out of his hard embrace. Her eyes began shedding tears; Tom was looking at her with his want and dissatisfaction. She slapped him hard and spluttered on his face with outrage. Tom was in damnation for a minute. He felt somebody is tearing his skin. He wiped his face and turned toward Ellen. He saw Ellen walking out toward her car with a tumultuously crying Johnny on her waist. Tom could not sleep that day.

Ellen reached home. Johnny was still crying. She saw the cafeteria closed while going inside. It was late night. Ellen made milk pudding for Johnny, and somehow, she diverted his tears toward stories and made him quiet. She was pondering over the monstrous faces of people and their want of sex. Ellen decided one thing in the night; there would not be a man in her life. She had liked Tom for a considerable length of time. She understood the affection and care he showed toward Johnny was only a trap for his mom. She cried noiselessly in the night. She was sad to see the red mark on Johnny’s forehead. She reviled the heartless brute over and over in her psyche for harming her infant.

Doc. Tom changed his jogging path. It was hard for him to forget that night. He didn’t even dare to go in front of Ellen. Soon, he may have found some better girls who were near him.

Ellen took her brown bag to take out Johnny’s new dress. She hadn’t touched the bag after her trip. She decided to remove all the garments from the pack to fold them. She took out everything from the bag; lastly, two bundles of dollars and a thick novel fell from it. She was stunned and looked at the sack to ensure she had not traded somebody else’s pack with hers. Two packs of US dollars with the mustard color band on it. Twenty grand. She took the bunches in her hand. There was a note on one of the band, With love, Mom and Dad, the two words Ellen’s eyes turned watery. She was astonished thinking how she got through the customs with this much money in the bag, which she didn’t know of. She thought Jacqueline might have kept the novel and dollars together deep inside the bag to fool the customs’ screening.

Ellen saw the rush in the cafeteria while walking toward the telephone booth. She called to Aileach, but no one picked up her call from the other end. She tried many times. Ellen came back to the cafeteria and engaged in her work. She went to the telephone office during a rush free time in between breakfast and lunch and filled her application for getting a telephone connection.

Merlyn came back that evening from Toronto. She had become lean in the three months. Ellen felt something was disturbing her mentally. However, she didn’t say anything frankly to Ellen. Merlyn was looking for Johnny out there, and Merlyn got to know Johnny became a day scholar in playschool after she left. Merlyn came for a few days’ visit to her home; she told Ellen she would be going back soon. Ellen didn’t try to get to know what she was hiding inside. Ellen didn’t ask what she was afraid of.

Merlyn again went back to Toronto in three days. Ellen was fully engaged in the cafeteria. She converted the US dollars her parents gave her and deposited them in the bank. Her savings made her dream about something that she had lost. Ellen started thinking about building a cake house near the cafeteria.

She disclosed it to Isabella and Abraham; they also felt it would be a smart thought to start a cake house. After shutting the cake house of Moses, no one had started any big plant like Moses in the valley. Ellen made her plans about it and counseled drafters to improve it. She initially planned to build a small cake house maybe half the size of the one at Moses, and later, she decided to fabricate a greater one in a similar level of Moses. She didn’t complete her dreams in Moses’ cake house. Father Gabriel’s demise and change in conditions happened all of a sudden demolishing her fantasies. Now again, she started dreaming from where she left. Ellen was confident enough to start the cake business again.