Alberta

Chapter Forty Two: Observations

Willa and I had spent the weekend in a loved up daze, and we hadn't left the house. We ordered food in and spent every second in acts of discovery, whether it be our bodies, or our minds. We discussed life, love, the future and what it may look like, and we made plans so that we would always have another date in the diary to look forward to. I would come here whenever I could and be with her, and one day when Harper could be told...Willa could hopefully come to me too, and spend time with us both.

"There she is" I observe excitedly, as Willa's car pulls up to the reception and we both look out of the front windscreen. Some of the girls are waiting out front with their suitcases, and Harper is one of them. I am so eager to see her. My baby would be back with her mama finally. "She's grown a foot" I gasp, open mouthed.

Willa removes her shades and nods "I told you you wouldn't recognise her" she reminded me.

I look back to my fourteen year old, whose legs have become long, and her arms the same way. She is tanned from her summer outside and she looks so happy. I felt a little pang of guilt that I was about to perhaps change everything for her. She was coming home to something she wouldn't recognise, and her family structure would now be foreign to her. She would be returning to her dad in one home, and me in another. I had rented an apartment ten minutes away, and my brothers had helped me move there before I had arrived to Willa's. The apartment was built in the sixties, it is large and airy with two bedrooms and a large open living space. We had a view of the park behind us with its green foliage, and that was a welcomed sight before the backdrop of the mountains. I had only been there one night before taking the flight to Willa's, but it felt good. It felt like we could be happy there, until the time Harper left for college, and I left for Willa.

"She looks so grown" I confess, a little sad that she was growing so quickly.

"It's what they do Allie... they grow and fly the coop" Willa returns.

"I know .... I just wish it all went a little slower... she's my only one Willa... my only chick"

Willa pulls me into her arms and kisses my head "I know, and she's still your chick... plenty more time left with her mama" she reminds me.

I nod and smile "true... I need to suck it back up" I admit, opening the car door.

Harper spots me and runs over, flinging her arms around my shoulders "Oh Mom, I've missed you" she says eagerly.

"Mom" I ask "what happened to mama"

She smiled a little coyly. "Mom sounds a little more grown up"

I raise my eyebrows "Oh lord... Willa..." I call.

Willa rounds the car and looks to us both.

Harper looks sheepishly to her.

"What's wrong" Willa asks.

Harper shrugs her shoulders.

"She's outgrown her mama" I reveal sadly. My lip stuck out feigning heartache "I'm suddenly plain ole Mom..."

"I thought something awful had happened" Willa says, releasing a breath and shaking it off.

"How was the last weekend little bird" Willa asked her.

Harper grabbed her backpack as they both turned away from me and began to struggle putting the large case in the trunk. I stood there, unable to register for a moment that my child had entered her next season of life. A grown woman was slowly starting to blossom, and even though she had a while to go I could sense her girlhood was leaving her, before it had even begun. In slow movements she would walk further from me until she was but a world away, and out on her own. I knew though... as every mama did before me, that my baby would return one day and that she would realise...that she would always need her mama, no matter how grown she got, and I would be here, waiting.