Portal: Euphoria

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Once she was sure Caroline had left the facility, GLaDOS shook the envelope once, to make sure the paper inside was settled at the bottom. Then she carefully tore up the top of the envelope so that she could remove the letter without damaging it using a second maintenance arm. Once she'd done that, she dropped the envelope and unfolded the paper with another shake, then placed it on the platform beneath her with the two arms of her claw holding the top and bottom halves of the paper flat. She glanced over it, but was not able to absorb the contents instantly as she usually could. The letter was written by hand in what must have been eight point cursive script. The woman could not have made it more difficult for GLaDOS to read if she had tried. She had never seen anything so far from font in her entire life. She made a noise in irritation and bent as close to it as she was able. When she had figured out what the second line read, she just stared at it for a long time. Then she mentally shook herself and moved on with her task.

January 9, 1992

Dear Gladys

I am writing this letter to inform you of my thanks.

It has recently come to my attention that you have become quite close with my daughter Caroline. You have been a tremendously positive influence on her, and have led to a reconciliation thirty years in the making. Previously our relationship was, to put it lightly, extremely strained. I have barely heard from her since she left to pursue a career as a secretary at the company she has seen fit to employ you in, and when I did see her we did not want anything to do with each other. I always tried to instill in my girls the importance of making a good marriage and being a positive influence on society through properly raised children and community work, but Caroline would have none of it. Ever since she had reason to take that inappropriate class in high school, she has been determined to go in the complete opposite direction. It still irritates me to this day. I would like nothing more than for her to leave the company in more capable hands and settle down, but given her nature I highly doubt she will do so anytime soon. And until last week, I was content to wait for her to come to her senses.

Caroline has increasingly seen fit to disregard family functions, to the point of not participating in any of them in more recent years. So you might imagine my surprise when she made an appearance on New Year's Eve, singlehandedly corralling all of the children in the house and keeping them occupied until midnight, upon which time she decided to take them outside and relive her youth. For someone who has no experience with children whatsoever, this is quite an achievement. Once the aftermath of that was over and Caroline was about to return home, I called her back and inquired as to why she'd finally decided to grace us with her presence. Initially, she ignored me and continued her exit. When I questioned this behaviour, she replied that I was not likely to listen and she was just going to take her leave and avoid any unpleasantness. I again asked her why she had come and she finally told me that a friend had sent her. I knew that this friend must be extremely important to her to have convinced her to do something she had not done in years, and as I watched her walk out to her car, I realised that I'd been a fool.

I had put my own standards and my own stubbornness ahead of my daughter, and I had lost thirty years of her life. I had placed more value in tradition than in the importance of allowing her to live her life as she wanted to, and I no longer knew who she was. Caroline may not have been a mother at all, but how much better was I, if I had not even seen her since she was barely out of her teens? So I asked her to return the next day, because to allow any more time to go by like that was intolerable. She agreed to do so after she had given someone a visit, and then she left.

Her return was still fairly strained, but at least we were no longer estranged. I imparted to her my revelation that it didn't matter whether or not she settled down or became a proper woman, as long as she was happy with her life. And while I would prefer to see her in either of those situations, I meant it. But I could see that she didn't believe me, and thought I had lifted my words from some sort of relationship book. We had made up, so to speak, but there was still a wedge between us, and I didn't know how to change that. Caroline returned that same night, more frightened than I'd ever seen her, and she told me it was because of you.