Quest (unedited)

9

Nyema

I told Daxon not to worry about picking me up after work, that I was going over my mother's. I was used to spending a lot of time with my mom after the accident and me not seeing her for 3 days wasn't me.

I opened the door and smelt her cooking. I went into the kitchen and wrapped my arms around her. I must've scared her, I ended up getting attacked with a wooden spoon.

She turned around looking at me "Oh girl you scared me"

I started laughing "Sorry mom"

"How was work?" She raised an eyebrow at me "Mia told me you started at a new job" she said looking at me waiting for me to fess up everything I had been up to lately.

"Yeah I um, I sorta started messing around with my bosses," I said awkwardly "Both of them"

She turned around putting her hand on her hip "Girl I told you to watch out for them and you go around sleeping with them" she looked pissed

I looked at her confused "Mom are you racist?"

I saw her shoulders shake "Racist isn't the right word for it, I'm just aware. That's all" she turned around back to the stove

"Wow, mom." I shook my head "I'm sure if you met them you would like them, Greyson is such a sweetheart and Daxon is mean on the outside, but just a big ole teddy bear" I smiled thinking about them.

She threw the spoon on the stove and turned around facing me crossing her arms "Are they forcing you?"

"What?"

"Nyema, are they forcing you. To be with them"

"Mom of course not. Why would you say something like that?" I asked genuinely confused.

She shook her head saying something quickly so I couldn't read her lips. It pissed me off when she did that. She knew I was deaf. Funny ass.

"Anyway, racist or not I'm gonna tell you about our date today, it was amazing."

She turned back around rolling her eyes and crossing her arms "With which one?"

"Daxon," I said. I started telling her about the lunch.

I was going to make it my mission to unracist her. Even though I've only known them for a short amount of time, but I liked them.

"And then this guy came up. I could tell Daxon didn't want me reading what he was saying cause of the way he was talking but they weren't saying anything pleasant I can tell you that" I scoffed and took a roll

My mom snatched it from me putting it back on the plate "Wait until the food is done, girl." She turned around stirring something then turned back around facing me "Sounds like he's keeping secrets already. Not a good start to this relationship yall having"

I shook my head and ignored her little jab "No it wasn't like that. I think Daxon didn't want me talking to him. The guy was really weird and I got this weird energy from him"

"What was it?"

I shook my head "it was just weird, but he kinda felt familiar" I chuckled "I think I'm going crazy, I've been feeling familiar with a lot of things lately"

"Why haven't you talked to me about it?"

"I don't know. I didn't really want to make a big deal out of it, it's probably nothing anyway." I shrugged "But that Emmanuel guy was really-"

"Emmanuel?"

I slowly nodded "Yeah?"

She turned back around turning the stove off and making our plates. I was looking at her weirdly and she smiled "Maybe I should meet those boys of yours, I'm probably being too hard, but that's what mothers do" She kissed my cheek.

I hugged her "Thank you, momma"

"You welcome baby"

I nodded my head smiling at her "Can you tell me about grandma? I love when you talk about her"

She wasn't dead obviously, I just loved When my mom talked about her.

She put her fork down and sat her hands under her chin smiling "She was beautiful. Had the most powerful men at her feet" we both chuckled "You act just like her. That confidence and boldness"

"Mom you're confident too and bold"

"Don't get bitter confused with confidence. Anyway, she was loyal and only had eyes for my father. Every day he would bring her a bouquet of white carnations-"

"Were Those her favorite?"

"No. My father always thought of her as the strongest woman he'd ever met" she smiled "he said he needed to remind her every day. Nyema promise me something?"

"Yeah, mom?"

"Promise me you'll only give yourself fully to the love of your life" I looked at her confused but nodded "men can be very... persuasive in misleading a woman. I just don't want that to happen to you. Everyone has a soulmate. I don't know if those boys are yours but, if they are you'll know"

"You can have more than one soulmate?"

"Of course you can. Sometimes people choose one over the other and sometimes it just works out"

I looked at her weirdly again. My mom was acting really unusual tonight. "Was dad your soulmate?"

She looked down and wiped a few tears away then looked at me "he was my soulmate, my everything, my world" she smiled

"I miss him," I said lowly then looked down at my food. I didn't want to read what my mom had to say. I hated seeing her sad, but we barely ever talk about him anymore.

It was this aching gap in our lives that only my dad could fill. He was our everything, aside from the few pictures we have around the house, we don't really acknowledge him. which is sad. it's just too painful to bring up.

I felt her pull my chin up "I miss him too baby" she pulled me into a hug. I started crying and I felt her chest hiccuping and knew she was crying too. I held on to her and we sat there crying holding each other.

We needed this.