Carlisle's Diary

A Nerve Racking Welcome Home

Dear Diary:                                                                     July 18, 2013

          It has been almost 2 weeks since Esme left. For me they have been the most miserable I can remember. I've been walking around like a zombie. My whole family has been feeling the void. It's not that they haven't been able to do things for themselves that Esme used to do for them, but all of them said they have missed her warm presence. Today, Esme is finally returning home and she is being flown in by Rogue.

          In lieu of formal gifts, what the family has decided to do is write down their thoughts and what Esme meant to them. They figured that true honesty and words from the heart would be a lot more meaningful then a bunch of gifts. Amazingly, this was Jacob's idea. He missed Esme a lot. Sometimes I think more than anyone else—except me, of course.

        As we waited anxiously for Rogue to bring Esme back, we knew this was a very nerve racking welcome home; probably for everyone involved, Esme not excluded. As we stood in our living room like statues, we didn't even know what we were expecting. It's not like she was going to look different, but we had no idea what conclusions and epiphanies she'd had on her journey.

          We heard them approaching. There was more than one gulp heard in the room. Then they landed and walked up the stairs. It was now or never. The door opened and first Rogue walked in, and Esme followed her slowly into the house. Rogue left us alone after giving a reassuring squeeze to Esme's hand. Esme took a deep breath and then faced us. Even though physically she hadn't changed at all, I could tell there was a huge difference in her face and her eyes. It wasn't that they were hard, but there was a new determination in them that I had never seen before.

          We realized we were standing around awkwardly so everyone kind of started breathing and even giggled a bit to let the stress and tension empty out of the room. I also felt Jasper try to regulate the room a bit.

        I walked up to my wife first, looked deep into her eyes, kissed her, hugged her and said, "I have missed you so much. It hasn't been easy for me. When I first found out you were gone, I nearly had a heart attack. I felt it was entirely my fault that you left, especially after Rogue read us the letter. I hope it never has to come to such extremes again."

        She looked at me and touched my face; how I'd missed that touch. I felt like I was going to melt. I knew the whole family had a lot to say, but before we could begin, it was Esme who spoke after producing some papers from her pocket.

"Before any of you say anything, I want you to read what I did on my journey and understand my realizations. I think it'll make what you have to say make more sense. So please read this."

        She handed the papers to me and everyone crowded around me to read what they said; they were basically the last entry in here, my dear diary. As we read, we were amazed by the sheer volume of it all. There were some giggles regarding the hay bale incident, and I won't deny that I gasped when I read about the volcano-hopping journey. I looked over at my wife, who was sitting on a chair very content with herself. She'd been inside a volcano! I'm glad I'm not human; I would have passed out at that point. After reading all of it, it was Jacob who volunteered to speak up first. He was going to speak on behalf of himself and the wolves.

"Welcome home Esme." He hugged her. He had a paper out which he was reading from, and you could tell his hands were shaking. He continued, "I wanted to start off by saying that, since I have met you, you have replaced that nurturing figure in my life. And not just because your cooking rocks. Though Seth and Leah are still lucky to have their mother, I am not as fortunate. But I have you. You have become sorta like an adoptive mom to me. You make me feel wanted and warm. The other two also appreciate everything you have done for them. Leah being the last to finally wake up to how much you mean to us. We want to thank you for being you. I wanted to thank you for being a mother to me . . . my mother to me."