Hold My Hand

Chapter Twenty-Three

From three to four o'clock in the afternoon, we practiced as hard as possible every day. Nino always treated me to delicious homemade sweets. My mother was also not against these one-hour lessons, as I was under the control of an adult. All this indeed seemed a little too much to her, but she was trying not to say anything.

Five days after our "lessons" started my mother asked me to tell her about my "new friend" in detail. Even though I asked her to trust me, I still had to tell her the whole story, which, to be honest, I didn't like at all. Her doubts were unreasonable, but even if I had told her, the direction of her thoughts wouldn't change, so I decided to forget it. Although, she seemed to act kind of strangely the whole day. 

-Mary!- my mother sitting in the kitchen suddenly called me.

- What? 

- Come here. 

- What's wrong? I'm reading.

- I'm not gonna call again! - the anger was clear in her tone, so I got up.

- What do you need? 

- Sit down, - she pointed to the chair.

Oh, how much I hated those "Mother-daughter" talks, pretending like we were "best friends", trying to hide my expression full of boredom.

- Mary, - she began, - You know, I love you so much...

I immediately understood everything. You can't imagine how cliche this scene was!.. 

- I know. I love you too. 

- I love you more than anything and anyone... So... I want you to know something. - her voice was shaking. 

- I'm listening. 

- You've grown up... You're already a teenager...

- So?..

- I don't know where to start...

- And? 

- You're a big girl and you have the right to know it, Mary. It's quite a long story... we tried for a long time to get pregnant... but... - she almost started sobbing.

It wasn't hard to guess, what she was trying to tell me.

- I'm adopted.

- Did you know?!

- Come on, it's obvious! The date?

- December 3, 2008.

- Well...

- Don't get angry with me... I just couldn't tell you until now... I didn't know how to... I thought you would get emotional...

And she stopped me as if she was waiting for me to cry.

- Why would I?! 

- I don't know... 'cause I didn't tell you earlier? - tears fell from her swollen eyes.

- My God, you don't know me at all! I'm grateful, mother!

- Come! - she felt such a relief after hearing my words.

She wrapped her arms around me and wouldn't let go. I could feel the scent of her skin, the scent of mother. 

I didn't start sobbing, of course. I was just a little surprised. So what if so? I never understood why people break the dishes, wreck the house, and tear the hair, instead of simply continuing to live. Such nonsense is probably only in Turkish TV series. In reality, the same would probably make me laugh. I wasn't even interested in extra information. Nor with the identity of the biological parents or their location. The known information was already more than enough for me. I wouldn't be "me" if this hadn't happened in my life. 

The mood of the new year was already gone. Why are we waiting for this day anyways?

How could I know, that the January wind could bring so much at once?..