“Mr. Caleb.
I just got back, and I’m looking for my mother,” Joey said stiffly in the most composed tone he could muster, trying to steel himself for whatever the neighbor was about to tell him.
“For your mother? Are you Flora’s son…the boy who ran away thirteen years ago?” Mr. Caleb stared intensely at Joey.
“Yes, I’m Joey.
Where’s my mother? She’s not home. Did she tell you anything?”
Joey was so guilty and ashamed of himself for being so brutally direct.
He didn’t ask Mr. Caleb why the house and farm looked deserted. Instead, he just asked for his mother’s whereabouts.
“Oh boy…your mother missed you so much,” Mr.
Caleb said, an unsettling worry in his eyes.
“She would visit the railway station and bus stand every day, hoping you would come back. She’d even run to the post office every other day to see if she got any mail from you. But in vain.
And then one day…everything fell apart…”
Joey’s heart started throbbing. “Wha-What do you mean by everything fell apart? What happened to my mother?
Where is she? Is she…?”
He could not bring himself together to ask more because he was not prepared to hear anything heartbreaking.
“Your mother, Mrs. Johnson, is at the local hospital right now, Joey,” Mr.
Caleb said. “You would have known if you—”
But Joey didn’t wait to hear him criticize him for running away. His heart raced as he bolted to his car and drove straight to the local hospital.
“Please…please be alright, Mom,” Joey muttered under his breath, not knowing what he would do if something terrible had happened to his mother.
He was not prepared for a life without her.
All his struggles, achievements, and, most of all, his promise to her would go in vain if something ever happened to her. And Joey was not ready to endure that heartbreak.
Joey got to the small hospital and showed his ID card, asking to be directed to his mother’s ward.
“I’m a doctor. Which ward is Mrs.
Johnson in? Take me there.”
Before getting there, in his mind, Joey planned to transfer Flora out of the small hospital to a better one if needed.
“MOM!” Joey cried out, running into the room to Flora’s side, shocked to see her lying on the bed with her eyes closed and medical devices attached to her body.
Tears clouded Joey’s vision. “What happened to my mother?” Joey demanded an explanation from a doctor nearby, and suddenly, the room fell gravely silent when he watched his mother’s eyes twitch open.
“Mom!
It’s me…your Joey!” Joey cried, gently squeezing Flora’s hand as she slowly opened her eyes, which almost instantly grew moist as soon as her vision adjusted to Joey’s mature face staring at her.
“Jo-Joey? Is that you, sweetie?” Flora cupped Joey’s face and cried. She was beyond shocked, and her mouth fell open in astonishment.
She tossed away the blanket over her and enveloped him in a tight hug.
“JOEY…my boy!”
For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence.
Both their eyes were filled with tears of joy, and neither of them could stop crying until a couple of minutes later when Flora began to talk.
“Are you still crying? You’re a grown-ass man now! You weren’t a crybaby when you were younger.
What happened to you? Remember how you used to brag that boys don’t cry…when you fell and bruised your knee while learning to ride your cycle?” Flora teased, patting Joey’s head.
“Mom, I’m so sorry…” Joey said, his voice low and remorseful. “I thought something terrible happened to you when I found our house empty…and heard you were in the hospital…
…I’m so…so sorry for not calling or visiting you earlier.
I tried. I did. But I wanted to face you confidently after achieving my dreams.
I didn’t want to let you down…and I knew you’d be angry with me for running away like that. I’m so sorry.”
Joey gently brushed his mother’s hair, kissing her head. Compared to thirteen years ago, she looked much older and even had little streaks of gray popping out of her messy bun.
“Tell me more, Joey,” Flora initiated, her tone desperate and longing.
“I want to hear you talk…Oh, your voice! How I missed hearing that voice…and laughter.”
“Mom, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you like that.
But I was scared…scared of spending the rest of my life on the farm.”
All those struggles Joey had endured after running away to the city flashed before his teary eyes. But now, he was a changed man…and a successful doctor.
“I went home and saw our house…which seemed abandoned for years. I thought that something…that you were—”
Joey stuttered through his tears, unable to find the right words to speak.
“After you left, it was lonely living there.
Haunting would be the right word to describe how painful it was to live within those empty walls…void of your laughter and presence…
..So I left that house and moved in with a friend. I’m only here because I sprained my ankle while cleaning the attic,” Flora replied, showing Joey the bandage on her ankle.”
“During my stay at our home, I wrote many letters I intended to send but later burnt. I didn’t have an address to post those letters to.
I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing. But I knew you’d be fine because my prayers were always with you. I decided to wait for you…because I knew you would return someday,” Flora said with a delicate smile.
“I’m glad you didn’t take too long,” she cried, unable to stop the tears that began to flow as she stared into Joey’s eyes.
She last saw him when he was still a sixteen-year-old teenager.
Now, he was a man.
“I’m sorry I put you through this, Mom,” Joey hugged his mother and cried.
He told her all that had happened to him in the city, his meeting with Mr. Clark, and his way to becoming a doctor. He also promised to rebuild the farm, which he knew she loved.
Right there and then, Joey insisted she move with him to the city and live with him in their new house until the reconstruction of the farmhouse was done, and Flora instantly agreed.
After many years of separation, neither wanted to be apart again, even for a second.
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