When Paths Cross Again (Prof./Student)

Chapter 2 - Mom

"Alright, class dismissed", Professor Harrison's voice made my head snap up, having been lost in thought, going through the tasks I still had to get done today. 

Quickly, I grabbed my stuff and stood up. Turning my head for a last glance in his direction, I was startled as I met his eyes that were on no one else but on me. 

My face must have turned into a big question mark. Why was he looking at me? Had he said something about talking to him after the lecture that I had missed? No, I didn't think so...
But then why was he still staring? Even as our eyes met, did he not look away. 

But while my expression was full of questions and confusion, his face revealed nothing. He just looked at me like he was expecting me to do a move. Like he was expecting me to say something, words I didn't know I should say. Because as hard as I thought about it, I couldn't find the missing piece that would have explained from where I knew him.

I shook my head slightly, finally breaking the eye contact. I did not have time for that! I had things to do. Almost being the last one left in the room, I made my way through the rows and left, still feeling a pair of green eyes following each of my movements with care before they were finally out of sight.  

As I had arrived at my car and slid into the seat, I breathed out in relief. But only a second later I sighed in frustration, the remaining tasks of the day coming back into my mind. 

Shaking my head, I got a grip on myself, turned the engine on and rolled out of the parking lot and to my first destination: the post office. 

Through the last few years I became a regular guest there as my mother couldn't refrain from ordering package after package. After our father had died, my mother fell into a depression pretty quickly and, ever since, she did not put any effort into crawling out of that hole again. My dad had left us with a big house and some money, of which now almost everything was gone, spent on clothes or beauty products, or other useless items with which my mom tried to fill an invisible void within herself. 

Of course as the shopping didn't stop, without any success. 

So, there she was with no money, but also no sign of stopping to order things. And it was my fantastic job to keep an eye on her expenses, transferring some money whenever her account transformed into a dusty-dry desert. And of course, I also had to pick up her packages for her, because during all these hours spent online, searching for the perfect dress that she would never wear, she had simply no time for that... 

But I had, as her daughter. 

There had already been many times that I had tried to convince her to seek some professional help but every attempt failed. And after the hundreth miserable try, I let her be, realising that, at least for now, it would be easier for me to just try and glue the broken pieces together than constantly cutting myself on them.

That's at least what I told myself when I asked myself from time to time why I was trying to keep a house of cards with no stable framework standing. My strategies to keep the walls up with my own hands were pretty vain and I just prayed that there wouldn't come any sort of wind by. Because even the lightest breeze would have caused a complete breakdown. 

I was already standing on the edge, my hands weak and my knees shaky. I didn't know how I did it, but I kept going. I approached every day as a new one, reminding myself of the tasks that needed to get done and the problems that I had to find a solution for. And then I did just that. Or at least I tried to. 

With the new five packages in my car, I drove from the post office directly to my mother's house. After the third ringing, she opened the door with a tired smile.