Chapter 74
Jojo:
It would be very safe for me to say that it was the happiest day of my life.
My towel was still tied firmly around my waist, my red hair dripped water all over the floor as I walked. When my phone rang, I rushed to the edge of my bed and picked it up. The doctor’s name was displayed on my screen. My heart instantly began to race in my chest. I always got this way whenever I saw a message or a call from the doctor. It was hard to keep both my mind and heart in check.
I found my hands shaking, and not even from the cold, as I swiped the icon to answer the call, and pressed the phone to my wet right ear. I swallowed hard before I spoke.
“Hello.” I started. There was a brief crackling noise at the other end of the line before the doctor’s voice was heard.
“Am I on to miss Jojo Wyatt?” He asked. I found myself shaking my head in faint annoyance. I wished he would not ask me that question anytime I picked up the call, but I knew he only did it because he was being cautious.
“Yes. Yes, you are.” I replied, my ears itching to hear what he had to say.
“I believe I have good news for you, miss Wyatt?”
I found my feet walking away from the desk as I walked slowly and steadily. He said it was good news, but it did not stop my heart from beating faster.
“Yes, doctor.”
“Your mother regained consciousness this morning…”
For the first thirty seconds, I could not think straight.
“… and I mean she is currently seated in her wheelchair. She has only responded to two questions we have asked, but I am very sure she would be delighted to see you. We are expecting you as soon as you can make it…”
Hold on a second! Did he just say he asked her questions? And she replied? To two of his questions?!
“My… my mother… she, she can talk?”
“Why, yes! Yes, she can. She is only weak now and unable to walk for now. But, we would consult our physiotherapist to work on her case. She would be up and running in to time, it is a promise.”
The room began to spin around me. This had to be a joke, it had to be some form of prank, or I was dreaming. It was only in my dreams that such a miracle was possible! After eight years, my mother was finally here! With me! With Valerie and I!
A drop of tear ran down my left cheek. I sniffed it back.
“Are you there, miss Wyatt?”NôvelDrama.Org owns © this.
I cleared my throat. I did not want the doctor to know that my tear glands had once again betrayed me.
“Yes, yes. I would be there as soon as possible. Thank you very much doctor.”
That was all I could say, but words were not enough to explain my gratitude. To him, to the universe, to the goddess.
I quickly put on my clothes and rushed out of Rush Empire. I took the first taxi I could find, back home. Mel and Valerie were in the sitting room when I had arrived. Both were equally surprised and alarmed that I had returned this early, as I normally returned late in the evening.
However, after I told them what had happened, Mel was overly excited. She jumped from couch to couch, almost scraping her head on the blade of the fan. While Valerie was so happy, she burst into tears as she embraced me.
I know what she was feeling, because I was feeling the same thing too. I was about Valerie’s age the last time my mother spoke to me; she was only just a little baby. And now? Now she would be seeing the woman who gave birth to her, touching her, holding her.
They got dressed almost immediately and we rushed to the hospital. It was a miracle Valerie and I didn’t stumble on the stairs. With the speed in which we ran, an accident was inevitable. We didn’t stop running until we pushed the doors of her ward open.
Two nurses were with her. One held out a spoon of something that looked like liquid vitamins, while the other patted her back gently.
All three women turned to us immediately we stepped into the room. And that was when I found her, Doris Wyatt, my mother.
She was seated on a wheelchair, heavy bags underneath her sunken green eyes. Her red lips were pale and dry, as though she had not had water for years. She was clad in an oversized white hospital gown, her red hair danced freely down her shoulders.
Tears welled up in my eyes. I could not contain my emotions. Flashes, violent ones of her being flung across the room, strangled, punched. I heard her cries, I heard her wailing.
“Run!” She had screamed.
Everything came flooding into my mind with an intensity I could not take control off. I found myself floating towards her, I allowed my stream of tears to flow. Before I knew it, I was across the room, kneeling on the ground with my arms wrapped around her.
I wept against her chest, waiting for her to hold me and tell me that she had missed me, tell me that she loved me and she was never going anywhere again.
But, she never did.
I continued to hold her, but my tears wouldn’t stop flowing. She didn’t embrace me, she only sat still.
Soon, my crying stopped. I wanted to know why she was not holding me. Didn’t she miss me? Didn’t she miss me like I missed her?
I raised my head up to look at her. The nurses had stepped to the side, it was just she and I now.
I blinked twice, but she continued to stare at me, an odd sense of unfamiliarity in her eyes.
“Mum?” The word slipped out of my mouth before I could do anything to take it back. I saw her eyes brighten with hope as she seized hold of both my wrists immediately.
I suddenly felt relaxed. She recognized me after all.
“You know my daughter?” She asked, her lips and hands quivered as she spoke.
Something in me tore into several tiny pieces. I stared at her.
Did I know her daughter? Of course I did! I was her daughter!
I nodded eagerly. She seemed not to see me for the first thirty seconds, before a smile slowly crept up to her face.
“Could you… could you bring her to me please? My darling Jo, and my darling Valerie? My husband too… I… I need to see him; it’s been so long.”
Okay. Now I was confused.
I looked up at one of the nurses who stared down at me.
“What the fuck is happening? Why can’t she see that I am here?!” I cried out. I did not understand the rage that had filled my stomach, but it was hard to contain it.
“I do not think she can’t see you. She just… she doesn’t know who you are.” The nurse replied with a calm tone. As though she had not just told me that my own mother did not recognize me.
I scoffed, a bitter chuckle escaped my throat.
“That’s not possible.”
I turned to Valerie, who was now holding on to the hem of Mel’s shirt.
“Come over here, Ley.”
She hesitated, I could see the doubt in her eyes. I know what the situation seemed like, but I was refusing to believe anything I was seeing.
“Come here!” I cried out. She moved over to me, I pulled her to my side and stood her in front of our mother.
“Mum, listen. This is Ley, she’s a big girl now and she’s been dying to see you. And I?” I pointed at myself with shaky fingers.
“I am Jo, your Jojo, remember?”
She sat blank for another ten seconds before she shook her head vehemently.
“No. Not my Jojo, and she’s not my Valerie. My Jo, my Jo baby is just eleven. And Valerie is still a baby, they are with my husband. Jesse, you know Jesse right? You are not my Jojo. Please, please bring my Jojo.”
She was crying now, while my heart was breaking into a million pieces in my chest.
“Mum, please understand. You’ve been sleeping for eight years. I am Jo! I’ve grown! And this is Valerie! Mom, please!”
“Miss Wyatt, I think it’s best you step outside for a minute.” One of the nurses spoke, but I was far too gone to understand or listen.
I held Valerie in my right hand, while I pressed my left on our mother’s lap. Suddenly, a strange look of fear clouded her gaze.
“She’s scaring me.” She said, turning to one of the nurses.
“Calling herself my daughter. What has she done to my daughter? Somebody, tell me what she’s done to my Jojo.”
For the goddess’s sake!
“Stop mum!” I couldn’t stop my tears from flowing. Valerie sniffed back her tears as she stood by me.
“It’s me! Jo!”
A nurse forcefully tapped my shoulders and pulled me up. I tried to wriggle free of her hold, but she gripped my waist firmly, pulling me away from my mother. I kicked and screamed and cried.
This couldn’t be happening to me. It just couldn’t.
“You need to be away for now. We would run some tests and let you know our results.” The nurse said, after locking me out of the room. Valerie held on to Mel’s shirt as she cried.
My anger knew no bounds.
She couldn’t do this to us again. How could she be so weak? She was weak enough to call my father’s abuse, correction. And now, she was too weak to remember us?
This was bullshit. Absolute bullshit.