OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

Not The Same Man

"Harrison?" Persephone's voice filled the shipping bay. She was needed elsewhere, but this could possibly be the last time they saw each other. Motherly instinct was trumping her pride and duties.

"Ma?" Harrison yelled from inside his ship, completely gobsmacked that she'd come at all.

He met Persephone at the top of the gangplank with a skeptical look. She ignored her son's stubborn streak to embrace him.

Harrison stiffened. I'm having far too many feelings these days, he thought to himself as she sighed.

Persephone did not break her tight hold, opting instead to memorize the smell of her boy's hair. It was a mixture of motor oil, grease, and musky sweat, but he was still her baby. She was only slightly taller than Harrison, and Persephone rested her head on his shoulder to bury her tears.

"I had to say I'm sorry." Her voice quivered. "We can't let our last words to each other be in anger, not again."

"Whoa, whoa! Who's fault was that?" Harrison asked, jerking his body away too soon.

Persephone could feel the crushing weight of his rejection in her heart and fought back a sob.

"I said ugly things out of anger," Persephone admitted. "I was hurting too."

"You think I chose to stay there because you hurt my feelings?" Harrison laughed to cover up the rupture in his chest. "I stayed with dad because you couldn't look me in the face. I let you walk away!"

"I'm sorry I left you with that man," Persephone apologized, holding his gaze. "I didn't know-"

"Say his name," Harrison growled.

"I'm sorry I left you with your father." She repeated her words, with a careful exception. The truth cut like a knife, opening up old wounds to bleed.

"I'm not." Harrison sniffed, turning away from the pain in his mother's eyes that threatened to undo him.

"I'm sorry I left you." She continued. "Things had gotten so bad between us, things I never wanted you to witness or hear and I had to get away. I wish I could have taken you with me."

"I wouldn't have gone." Harrison's voice was dangerously low. "I don't abandon people."

Harrison realized the error of his declaration the moment it escaped his lips and he hung his head in shame.

Persephone didn't need to point out the contradiction. She knew her son's heart was breaking and he was lashing out.

"You didn't even come back when he died." Harrison sniffed.

He'd idolized his father, the intrepid adventurer and Legionnaire captain that seemed larger than life when Harrison was growing up. He'd chosen to ignore the heated fights and terrible threats between his parents, retreating into his drawings for comfort.

After his mother left, Harrison's father had drowned his ignominy in alcohol, which quickly flourished into abuse. Be it verbal or physical; when Tyson was on a tear, you'd better be elsewhere.

"I didn't think you wanted me there," Persephone replied. "And, I was afraid to face him one last time."

"He was dead!" Harrison exploded, immediately feeling sorry for his misplaced aggression.

"I'm so sorry." She told him, pleading with her arms for some sort of affection from her son. "I'm just so sorry."

Persephone's face crumpled along with her body, making her appear smaller, or broken.