Seret

Chapter 3

Seret strolled through the street. By then, many houses were already empty and driveways had been cleared. She walked with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket. The weather had been warped compared to earlier. Thunder clouds were creeping in from the north as the wind began to fill the street with its howling. The sun had vanished into hiding, just like how her feelings of contentment had gone. With each aching step she thought of a million possibilities of what would happen when she reached home. Should she confront her mum head on or should she just disown herself from mum immediately. No, what was she thinking! What if she was wrong. Even if so, what will it mean to her then? Could she still keep calm enough to smoothly talk, or would she have another outburst like earlier? Up until today she would have never even imagined that she could feel so much of suspicion about mum. If her theories were true, she wondered, would she even be able to forgive mum? She felt extremely overwhelmed by her own line of thinking. She reached into her backpack which she had picked up after Riley left and grabbed her phone. Unexpectedly, there were only missed calls and texts from Riley, and sadly, there were none from mum. Somehow after seeing that, it just made her feel more eager to run away and leave everything behind. After fifteen minutes of twisting through neighbourhoods and avoiding people at all costs, Seret finally cleared her head enough to make her way onto the actual route home. Just as she turned onto her street, the rain had finally begun to show itself by showering the world with it's pureness and serenity. She thought of how contradicted it made her feel. One happy thought came to her mind while she hauled herself along the pathway. It was raining, her hair was wet, which meant it should look a little darker and a whole lot more normal. But then she was reminded of how much hardship could be laying ahead for her. Seret eventually stood in front of her home. She closed her eyes and deeply concentrated, hoping with all her might that she was wrong this time, just as every other. As she gazed at the house, she thought back to her assumption and wonder how many lies had these walls heard. She approached the white pine front door and suddenly felt like a stranger visiting this house for the first time. She contemplated on whether she should knock or ring the doorbell, but then she just took a deep breath, tugged the doorhandle and walked straight in. She made a great deal of noise with her soaked shoes squishing onto the floor as she warily steered herself into the living room. Emily was curled up in a frozen ball on the couch, her eyes fixed on the blank tv, a blanket comforting her and a cold cup of tea was set on the coffee table. Seret figured out that was probably Riley's doing. In a tiny, yet twisted way, she almost felt glad to know that if she had run away mum would still be cared for by the many other people in their lives. They never had a lot of family, come to think of it, Seret never once met any family members. This thought only fuelled her theory more so she snapped out of it and came back to reality. She dropped her bag onto the floor, making a thump sound which snapped Emily out of her shock. She turned her head towards Seret who stood in the doorway with a face of emptiness. Emily pursed her lips and managed a smile as if to say, 'I'm glad you came back.' Seret walked to the couch adjacent to Emily leaving behind a trail of water. She sat down, held Emily's hand, said 'I'm sorry mum.' and pulled together a sincere look as if it would be the last time she ever felt any gratitude towards her mum. She then plucked the necklace out of her pocket and placed it in front of Emily. The look in Emily's eyes was enough for Seret to tell that things wouldn't go so well. At long last, Seret asked the question that had been burning in her mind for what felt like ages, 'Are you really my mum?'