COMPLETE UNTIL SEASON FIVE
In 1980s Indiana, Judy Hopper and her group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, they unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries. In the midst, love and...
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Hopper did leave Judy alone. They were similar in the way that they had to handle their stress on their own, and had to figure it all out without anyone interfering. So he just went back inside for a bit, to let her cool off. El had sat down at the dining room table, if you could even call it that. Hopper sat down across from her, looking at the third empty seat he'd set up for Judy when he planned for this to go the right way.
"Angry," El said in her quiet voice.
"Yeah," he agreed. "But not at you. Understand? She's angry at me, because I kept a secret. Something we should never do, alright?"
El nodded her head, understanding each of Hopper's words. She was too nervous to say anything more. She'd been nervous since the night before when Hopper informed her that Judy would be coming to see everything. El didn't get to know her very well during that night in November, but she knew she was kind. Even just from the way she wanted to keep El warm, she knew she was kind. And upon seeing so many memories of Judy as a child, she wanted to know more.
Hopper never really spoke about Judy so she had to figure it out on her own. It helped pass the time anyways. Daydreaming about Judy and what she was really like didn't seem to pass the time waiting for her to come back to the cabin, though. With a groan and a forced push up from his chair, Hopper stood up and walked back out of the front door, back into the snow.
This entire time, Judy had just been thinking about everything and nothing all at the same time. She didn't cry, she didn't scream, she just thought. She'd found a log on the outside of what seemed to be an open field, not too far from the cabin.
Even through the wind she could hear the faint crunching of the snow behind her. "You've been out for two hours, kid. You're gonna freeze to death." Hopper yelled until he sat next to Judy on the other end of the log. "Talk to me," he whispered.
He waited and watched the side of Judy's face. He couldn't read the emotion in her eyes and it was almost peaceful to see her without any emotion. Without any guilt or fear. Something he saw in her everyday for the last six years.
"I called her one day," she finally spoke, still not looking at Hopper. "Mom." Judy picked at the frozen weeds next to her boot clad feet.
"She had no idea who I was. My own mother forgot the sound of my voice," she said, squinting as she looked into the sunset that seemed to shine brighter as it reflected off the falling snow. "Then I heard her baby crying. A little girl."
Hopper let out a heavy sigh next to Judy, dropping his head in shame. He forbade her from calling her mother for a reason. She'd remarried only two years after leaving Hopper and he wanted to keep Judy away from the betrayal he knew she would feel. This betrayal he was seeing in her right now.
"Everyone's getting a second chance but me. Mom can try again. Maybe she won't let this one down. You... you get to try again. And what do I get? I get no mother, a dead sister, and six years of emotional neglect from my father. But I'm just supposed to be okay with it all, right? Cause that's all I do... I just roll with the punches no matter what life brings my way. I'm always the one that doesn't break."
