8 Chapter 8
My mother had cried so much that she was now completely blind.
Behind her, my parents and Daniel approached, their steps slow and heavy.
The three of them, struck by her words, bowed their heads in silence.
I sat quietly under the tree.
The son Victoria gave birth to was left in Daniel’s care.
“Sarah, you’re here early.”
She propped her head on her arms and spoke with dripping sarcasm. “I can’t believe you actually remembered Emily’s birthday. I thought your brains only had room for files on Victoria.”
She told me about the little things in her life, funny stories from work, and news about my family.
“Em, Victoria got what she deserved. She actually got the leukemia she faked. She doesn’t have much time left. She’s on chemo all the time, lost all her hair. And Em, Jake was beaten to death in prison,” Sarah told me on another visit.
Gradually, fine lines etched themselves on her face, but she never married.
The day after the child was taken, Daniel took an overdose of sleeping pills in his apartment and died.
Sarah told me she was moving far away and might not be able to visit every week anymore.
But a paternity test revealed the child wasn’t his.
Sarah came to the tree early today. She wore the white dress I always loved and brought a slice of cheesecake. We sat together on the grass.
Spring had arrived.
Through her, I learned that Victoria and Jake had received their punishment: long prison sentences.
8 Chapter 8
My family quickly arranged the food in front of my gravestone and began to pour out their regrets.
As she spoke, my mother began to sob uncontrollably again. The two men could only support her as they staggered away.
and tender green shoots
The weather was warm and sunny. The world was awakening, and tender sprouted from the tree branches.
I floated up to a branch and shook a blooming flower loose. It landed right in her palm.
I don’t know how long I stayed under that oak tree, only that Sarah visited me almost every week.
Then, one day, Sarah didn’t come alone. A man–her husband–was with her.
I leaned against her gently, closed my eyes, and quietly took in her presence.
The girl who was once locked in a tower was finally living a full life, wanting for nothing.
I felt content and relieved.
Sarah looked at the flower in her hand and smiled through her tears.
Daniel’s company went bankrupt. He was now living a miserable, broken life.
“Oh, look at that! Pigs must be flying,” Sarah said, a blade of grass dangling from her lips as she lay back on the ground.
She seemed to feel me there and began talking to herself.
The weekly visits became yearly. The once–lonely Sarah now had a warm companion, and eventually, even a toddler stumbling along behind them.
So, my parents had known what I liked and wanted as a child. They had known a child’s heart could break. But they had chosen to ignore it, to procrastinate. They had pretended to be deaf, dumb, and blind.
When the wind blew, I would drift with it. It was my only pastime.
Now they offered them to me, but I felt nothing. Not a flicker of surprise or gratitude.
The child Victoria had left for Daniel was eventually taken in by Jake’s parents.
8 Chapter 8
Sarah smiled, as if she was finally emerging from the shadow of my death.
Even Daniel, once so full of life, now had a head full of white hair. Eroded by time and regret, he was no longer the man I had once loved so deeply.
Later, Sarah told me that Victoria had died from her illness. My parents, consumed by grief and sickness, passed away one after the other.
A mango popsicle, a beautiful dress, a photoshopped picture of me on a beach in Hawaii, and the silver bracelet were all neatly arranged before my gravestone.
I couldn’t help but smile. When it came to verbal sparring, Sarah was undefeated. Every word was a poison–tipped dart.
With my blessing and her hopes for the future, she turned and walked away.
Seeing them arrive, Sarah packed up her things and left.
They brought the cakes and expensive treats they used to secretly buy for Victoria
when we were children.
Their backs were hunched, their bodies trembling.
Sarah always had a clean, fresh scent, like laundry detergent.
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