Hop, Skip, Wed

Flashback

"I crave a love so deep the ocean would be jealous."

-Pablo Neruda 

***

The sound of the of my heel touching the concrete pavement was the only thing that could be heard in the quiet of the night. The eerie silence of the night disturbed by my actions. The freezing cold wind nipped at my already flushed cheeks, successfully reminding me that I had once again forgotten my coat at the office. In the pitch black night the light that escaped from between the curtain in my living room glimmered across my front lawn. Rushing towards the door, I quickly rang the bell and stuffed my hands back into my pockets as I regretted not taking my car to work today. I could hear shuffling coming from inside the house and it sounded like the kids were running down the stairs; even after I had explicitly told them not to, about a hundred times.

The door jerked open causing me to stumble back in surprise.

"How many times have I told you guys to not open the door so suddenly, and to not run down the stairs? You're gonna give me a heart attack one day." I said, shuffling into the house quickly to escape the bitter cold of the dark night.

"Mom, um... we have to um... tell you something..."

"Yes?"

"It's about Lilly"

"What about her? Wasn't her acceptance letter supposed to come in today?"

"Actually, that's what we wanted to talk about."

"She got accepted, didn't she?" The silence that accompanied my question was all the answer I needed. "Oh no, I hope she's okay. She really wanted to get into Stanford. Is she doing okay? Where is she? Lilly?"

Silence.

It would seem as if silence was my only companion today

"MUM! YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS. I GOT ACCEPTED! I'M GOING TO STANFORD!" Lilly screamed running down the stairs. All the kids started to giggle.The realization that I had just been pranked struck me.

"Congratulations, honey! I'm so proud of you!" I beamed. It truly was a privilege to get to experience this with them.

"Oh Mum, don't be sad. Just because I'm going to be 18 next week, doesn't mean I'll stop visiting you guys. I might not be able to live with you but I love you all very much."

"I know. We will miss you so much. You grew up so fast."

"GROUP HUG" screamed Sam.

"Okay. Okay. Enough with the crying. It's time for bed. You guys have to go to school tomorrow."

The sound of their collective groans could be heard for miles and miles.

❤️️

Knocks on my bedroom door woke me up in the middle of the night. Looking to my right side to check if it truly was the middle of the night or if I had just overslept again and the kids were trying to wake me up. Luckily, or maybe unluckily for me it was 3:30 in the morning. Slipping on my slippers, I sleepily walked toward the door of my bedroom. Opening the door to a crying Hope wasn't what I had envisioned.

"Hope, honey what's wrong? Why are you crying? Are you hurt? Is someone in your room? Is everything-"

"Why did they leave me?"

"What?"

"My parents. Why did they leave me? Was I not good enough? Was I not pretty enough? Was I not smart enough? Why?"