Across the Globe [COMPLETE]

Stop The World, What?! PART 1

6 MINUTES EARLIER

-Samantha-

As mum has a sip of tea, my thoughts are rushing all over the place; she's not making any sense. She's talking about my grandparents, and a story... And then she says the word that shakes my entire world.

Father..

Your father...

My father?

Dad?

I can tell mum is looking at me, waiting for a reaction, but every single muscle in my body feels like a rock, and at the same time, like jelly... I'm unable to move, I can barely breathe, and I'm scared that if I do move, my body will shatter into a million pieces. So I just stare.

Mum is saying something about an inheritance, my grandad being dead... but no emotion sparks in me, I don't know this person, I don't even know his name... Mum is looking at me again, so I nod a bit hoping that will be enough of a reaction.

"You know, when I was young, I always had a burning desire to travel the whole world," she says. "And after doing so for a bit, I ended up in New Zealand. I had only just turned 19, I was still a naive girl." She wraps my hands in hers before she keeps talking.

"That's when I met Morris, your father." I know my eyes are full of emotion as I hear my father's name for the first time in my life. I can feel the tears burning there, but I don't say a single word, still too shocked, but mostly scared that the spell might break if I say anything. Scared that mum might stop talking if I so much as open my mouth. "We met in Christchurch, a city in the South Island when I was working as a housekeeper. I was trying to save some money to keep traveling, and your father was the head of security at the hotel... And I'm not gonna lie, there was a huge spark between us as soon as we laid eyes on each other."

Barely daring to interrupt, but really needing to know the answer to the question that has been burning in my chest since I have memory, I let my lips part tentatively.

"What was he like?" I ask in a voice that is barely more than a murmur.

"He had a cheeky smile," says mum as she chuckles, "beautiful chestnut-brown skin, just a bit darker than yours, and deep green eyes." She pronounces the last three words slowly, like it's hard to say them out loud, and I can see mum's thoughts as clear as day as our eyes meet in understandment: I have my father's eyes.

"I'm a bit ashamed to admit, we got together within a couple of days of meeting each other." Mum looks down to our entwined hands as she says these words, but then she looks back at me, resolution shining in her expression. "Morris was a good man. He cared about me, looked after me, and he always tried to provide and be understanding." She pauses for a moment, giving me enough time to picture what dad might have been like... all the images in my brain from the fake-make-believe-dads I created as a child seem to turn to dust and fly away, banishing into oblivion.

"But I had such a free and wild spirit," mum says, getting my attention back.

"You, mum? A wild spirit?" The words slip off my lips before I even realise I'm speaking. Mum laughs brightly, surely due to the confused expression on my face.

"I was a completely different person back then," she says, and she sounds sad all of a sudden. "Morris couldn't understand that. He wanted me to stay with him, but I wanted to travel. I wanted him to travel with me, but he couldn't picture that life for himself... He couldn't leave his home. He didn't want to."

Silence settles in as we both think about these words, as I try to imagine my mother as a wild spirit, and as I wish I could be one.

"When I found out I was pregnant, we had only been together for 6 months," mum adds in a constricted voice. Then she stands up, startling me, and walks over to the kitchen as she mutters an apology.