confusifying | wicked | book 3/3

Nessa

She's there.
Right there on the floor, my mother.
Completely and utterly alive.
She batts her eyelids and tears stream down my cheeks, I grip my hands as tight as I can on the sides of my chair.
"M...Mother?" Elphaba croaks, still in shock.
Our mother looks around her and strokes her hands against the cold wooden floor, she closes her eyes again and sighs, then her eyes widen in shock.
"It's cold!" She splutters, Elphaba and I jerk backwards "the floor is so cold, why can I feel the floor?"
Mother coughs and coughs violently, Elphaba rushes over to help her, she rests our mother with her back against the sofa.
"You... you can touch me?" Mother utters, "I'm alive?"
Elphaba nods excitedly, then turns to me and looks horrified.
"Mother do you need to lie down?"
Our mother looks around then begins to crawl her way onto my sofa.
Elphaba makes sure she's comfortable then opens the blinds.

Mother looks up at the ceiling, she's surprisingly calm for someone who's just come back from being dead over ten years.
"Oh Elphaba, can you hold my hand?" Mother whispers airily, Obliged Elphaba exitends her hand out and mother grasps hold of it tightly.
"I don't understand how am I alive?" Mother says suddenly.
Elphaba ponders for a moment on how to tell this.
"Nessarose said something wrong and, here you are." Elphaba says looking at me awkwardly.
"Nessarose, my baby!" Mother cries, "my beautiful baby, where are you?"
I feel myself begin to cry,
"Right here," I say shakily.
"Don't cry!" Mother exclaims "mother's here."
I watch her and Elphaba carefully, mother lays delicately on the sofa staring up at the roof, she looks dazed.

After a while mother swings her legs around and stands up, she sways from side to side a bit, but she remains upright.
Elphaba stands up frantically too.
"Oh my baby girl," mother cries, she looks me up and down sympathetically.
"Elphie can you... can you open the door?" I ask carefully, my eyes not leaving our mother.
Elphaba scampers over and props the door open with my doorstop.
Mother peers out into my office.
"Where am I?" She asks confused "this isn't munchkinland."
I shake my head.
"This is work," I say smugly, about to prove to this doubting woman that I'm more than this chair, "my work."
Mother walks out aimlessly into the office.
"What do you do?" She asks, analysing the room, Elphaba and I follow her closely behind.
"I'm a principal." I say proudly, Elphaba smiles at me.
"If you go in there," I say pointing to my room "you can change your clothes into anything in my wardrobe."
Mother nods and disappears into my room, Elphaba looks at me, a perplexed look strewn across her face.
"What do we do? How do we tell Albert?"
"We show him." I say calmly "we show them all."
Elphaba nods but looks doubtful,
"She should feel better once she gets some sleep," I say reassuringly, "let her get changed and then let her sleep for a bit in my bed, it will give us some time to talk about things."

A few moments later mother appears back in the office, wearing a navy blue dress of mine, long sleeves and a long flower skirt.
It looks odd seeing my clothing pared without tights.
"Mother you look wonderful," Elphaba exclaims excitedly, "Nessa thought that you may want to have a lie down in her bed for a little while, then we are all going to head back to Munchkin Land together."
Mother nods but she looks disconcerted.
"Get a good rest," I say calmly "there's some people we'd like you to meet."
Mother nods slowly, she looks so tired, so confused.
She slowly retreats back into my room and I hear my bed creak.

I silently regret letting mother have my bed as I long for a lie down,
"Elphie, are you okay?" I ask, pushing myself to be by her side.
She nods unconvincingly.
"I suppose this isn't the first time someone's been brought back like this." She laughs emptily.
The only difference being, I had a body, I just created life from a candle.
"Once mother has woken up properly, we're going to have to explain about Frex." Elphaba whispers, looking tearful.
I reach my hand out and take hold of hers.
"We tell her that he passed away peacefully in his sleep." I mumble softly. Elphaba looks cautiously at my bedroom door.
"How's Albert going to react..." I say suddenly, "oh god I've messed this all up."
Elphaba lets go of my hand and crouches down to meet my level.
"Nessa, that's our mother, your brought her back, that's incredible!" She beams "and nows your chance to get to know her."
I nod slowly taking in everything.

I head into the lounge with Elphaba right behind me.
I gaze longingly at the sofa, I don't want to lie down but I feel that I need to.
"Elphie," I call hesitantly "could you lay me on the sofa, I really just need to lie down for a moment."
Elphaba smiles lovingly at me and scoops me up, placing me down gently, on the sofa, she sits on the floor next to me, holding my hand and stroking the side of it with her thumb.
"Better?" She asks carefully,
"Definitely."

We sit in silence for a while until Elphaba can't stand it anymore.
"Ness you know she loves you right?"
"Of course I do."
To tell the truth, I'm unsure, the way she looked at me all those nights ago, it was pure disappointment, she called me broken, it didn't really scream love to me.
"Nessa she was thrilled when she found out she was pregnant, your became her number one priority, that's why she even ate the Milk Flower..." Elphaba stops, I'm crying, I can't imagine the pain that Mother whent through, and all to end up with me.
I was perfectly content with being disabled, I wasn't upset about it when I started to get into my job because I had a purpose that didn't have anything to do with my ailments.
But speaking with mother brought everything up again.
And it hurts, it really really hurts.