I let mom sleep in late on Sunday. She’d had a busy weekend so far. She’d met my friends on Friday night, gotten a tour of Hannah’s Home on Saturday morning, and been reunited with Harry on Saturday evening. I felt that she needed a few hours to relax before I continued with her reintroduction to society. However, I couldn’t give her too much time. I still had a schedule to keep.
Dad woke mom up in time for the brunch that we’d prepared for her. Once all the bagels with lox and cream cheese, scrambled eggs, and pancakes had been polished off, I set about cleaning up the dishes while mom got ready to join me for my shift at the hospital.
“Who are these people that you’re so excited for me to meet?”, mom asked as she pulled the car out of the driveway. Her phone, one of the spare phones that I’d gotten from Howie, was opened to Waze and directions to the hospital were on display. Mom was in love with the app. It let her get around with confidence in a strange city.
“They’re people that dad and I met when we were out searching for you. Pierce Forman works at the hospital as the head surgical nurse and he’s kept your picture up on their bulletin board almost since your disappearance. Over the years, he’s become a good friend and he’s the one that got Eva and I to volunteer in the pediatric oncology center. The other person I want you to meet is Mary. She runs the local soup kitchen and she’s been showing your picture to every one of her clients in the hopes that they’d seen you. She was the one that taught me all about human trafficking and showed me how it continued to destroy the lives of its victims even after they escaped from it. Also, you met her once back in Raleigh, a few years before you disappeared.”
“I did?”
“Her son’s name is Robbie. She says that you helped him when you worked at the community center. She credits you with keeping him off of drugs and out of the gangs.”
“Robbie O’Reilly? Really big guy? Looks like a walking tank?”
“That’s him. I met him a few times when I was helping out at the kitchen. He’s married now and has two kids, a boy and a girl. Nine and seven years old. His daughter’s name is Emily Hannah O’Reilly. You made a big difference in his life.”
Mom wiped away a tear as it slipped from the corner of her eye and we drove on in silence. A few minutes later, mom broke that silence and asked, “Did you tell them I was coming or is this another surprise?”
“Of course it’s a surprise! I’m not going to waste an opportunity like this. How often does my mom come back after being gone for over a decade? I’m going to milk this for all the entertainment value I can squeeze out of it.”
Mom shook her head in resignation. “I think you enjoy shocking people a little too much. You definitely don’t get that from your father. I’m guessing that it’s Paul’s influence on you. He’s the same way.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”, I replied diffidently. “Uncle Paul has been an upstanding role model.”
“Uh huh. Try to remember that I’m his little sister. I know all about how upstanding he is. He used to tease me mercilessly whenever I brought a boy home. The only person he never teased me about was your father. Speaking of which, what can you tell me about his girlfriend, Margaret? He really wants me to meet her.”
“We call her Maggie. She’s very nice and you shouldn’t get any revenge on Paul by teasing him about her. She’s good for him. I’ve never seen him this happy. While you were away, he went out with a lot of women, but he never had a relationship last longer than six months. Most never made it to two. When you were taken, he rearranged his entire life to help dad and me. He deserves a chance at happiness and Maggie makes him happy.”
Mom nodded as she took in the information. I expected her to follow up on this and ask me how they met but I was caught off guard by her next question.
“Abby. Did Josh ever find anyone special like that while I was gone? I’d understand if he did. Thirteen years is a long time and everyone thought that I was dead. I…I just need to know and I…I’ve been too scared to ask him.”
There was a lot of pain and fear in mom’s voice. I answered her without any hesitation.
“No. There was never anyone else for him. He only went on a handful of dates in all those years and only when a colleague would set him up on a blind date. I can’t remember any of them getting a second date. I’m sure he only went along with it to stop our pestering him. He’s never wanted anyone but you to share his life with.”
Tears streaming down her face, mom whispers, “Thank you.” Mom wipes the tears from her face again, the second time in the past ten minutes, and slowly gets control of her emotions. “You know, I feel so confused. I’m relieved, hell I’m ecstatic, that your father loves me so much, but I’m also a little sad. I never wanted him to be alone for so long. If I had really died, I wouldn’t want him to spend the rest of his life holding on to only his memories of us. I’d want him to move on, eventually, and find someone to share his life with again. In this case though, his moving on would have killed me inside. He was alone for thirteen years, but from my perspective, I never left. I went shopping with you, we got kidnapped for ten minutes and then I was back with you both. The idea that he would have found someone else in an afternoon…I’m not sure that I could have handled it.”
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“I’m sorry, mom.” Now I was tearing up. This wasn’t good.
Mom reached out and held my hand. “It’s not your fault, Abby. You saved us both. If you hadn’t shifted us into one of those layers, we’d probably both be dead by now or wishing that we were. We’re alive and we’re together again. Yes, we lost some years, but those years would have been horrible years.”
“John and the police would have saved us, if I’d held on for a few more minutes.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think so. Lenny and Karl would have used at least one of us as a hostage to get away. If they couldn’t manage that, they’d have killed us. What you did, even if you had no control over it, was the only thing that could have gotten us out of there alive and free.”
I squeezed mom’s hand one more time before she takes it back to make the final turn to the hospital. Mom has to circle the block a few times before she finds a free space to park in and I was once again appreciating my ability to leave my car anywhere in L2 when I drove myself. Finding a parking spot really sucked.
Mom and I entered the hospital cafeteria and I looked around until I found Pierce and Mary sitting together at one of the tables by the window, talking animatedly. I’d called them and asked them to meet me here, without having given them a reason. Each of them had tried to get out of the meeting, saying that they were too busy, and tried to reschedule for another time. I’d simply told them that they’d be very upset if they failed to be there on time. Pierce sighed with resignation and rearranged his lunch schedule to fit the meeting in. Mary grumbled a lot and finally conceded when she saw that I wouldn’t budge. She was firm on the fact that she only had thirty minutes available, if she was going to make it back in time to get ready for her lunch crowd.
As per my stage directions, mom and I approached the table with mom coming in a few steps behind me. I made it to the table before either Pierce or Mary noticed me and I just stood there, waiting. Pierce noticed me first, getting up and giving me a quick hug in greeting.
“Abby. Finally. What’s so important that we had to upend our day to meet?”
I stood there and smiled, saying nothing. Mary rose from her seat as well and greeted me. “Out with it girl! I’ve got a lunchtime rush in less than an hour.”
I continued smiling at them.
Mom moved out from behind me and stood next to me and I watched Pierce and Mary intently, with a big ol’ goofy grin on my face.
The two of them stared at mom with uncertainty, trying to puzzle out her presence at my side. The resemblance between us couldn’t be denied and it only took Mary a few seconds to get it. Her eyes widened in astonishment and she put he hand to her mouth as she took in an involuntary gasp. She tiled her head and looked questioningly into my eyes. I gave her a slow, silent nod and Mary nearly knocked me over as she rushed in to give mom a bear hug.
I’d never seen Mary cry before, but she did now. “Thank God! Thank God!” was all she could get out. While mom tentatively hugged Mary back, I glanced over at Pierce, who was still standing there looking utterly lost.
I caught his attention and mouthed the word ‘mom’. It still took him a few more seconds for that to penetrate his brain. When it did, it was almost like watching a cartoon where a lightbulb suddenly appears over the characters head. Bing! Suddenly Pierce was trading place with Mary, as she turned to me and gave me a bear hug as well.
Once all the hugs were put away, the four of us sat down. Pierce, with Mary’s full support, demanded to know the who, what, where, when and how of mom’s return. Mom and I kept the rescue details short and focused the story on how mom had been fitting back into her life, including her new job at Hannah’s Home.
After they were brought up to date, Mary pulled out her phone and showed mom pictures of Robbie and his family. The proud grandmother brought special attention to her granddaughter, who bore mom’s name as her own. Emily Hannah looked nothing like mom, yet Mary managed to find a feature or two that she swore were the spitting image of mom, despite there being no DNA connection between the two, whatsoever.
For his part, Pierce told mom all about meeting dad and me all those years ago and of the few times that dad brought me in when I was sick. Hearing about how panicked and insistent dad had been forced a laugh out of mom, followed by a feeling of regret that she hadn’t been there for me. Seeming mom get quiet, he finished with the more recent and upbeat story of my fire rescue. Having already heard the story from Mark, along with a tense viewing of the video, Mom snapped out of her thoughts and enjoyed the fresh perspective that Pierce provided.
Before she had to leave, Mary made mom promise to come over to her house for dinner with Robbie and his family and she left mom a standing invitation to visit her at the soup kitchen.
“I can’t express how happy I am that you’re back, Hannah. Not just for you and Abby, though. Josh needs you. I was so worried for him. He never got over losing you and I feared that he’d never let anyone else into his heart. He’s a good man and I’m glad that he doesn’t have to be alone anymore.”
With Mary gone, Pierce let us back to his nursing station and over to the massive bulletin board that adorned the longest wall of the waiting area beside it. The board was covered with dozens of announcements of every sort. Hospital news, local businesses offering various services, tutoring sessions, blood drives, roommate ads, and lost pets.
At the center of it all, one poster had been pinned to the board for years, always having pride of place. It was mom’s poster. It read, “Missing’ along the top and below that was a picture of mom. “Have you seen this woman?” was written along the bottom, along with mom’s name and a number to call. The poster had been there for as long as I could remember. I passed by it before and after every shift. Hundreds of thousands of people, hospital patients, visitors and workers, had seen it over the years. Now, mom was seeing it for the first time and she reached out to touch the picture.
“I remember the day that your dad took that picture of me. It was in the spring and I was pregnant with you. We took a walk through the park near our house on the first nice day of the year.”
As mom reminisced, Pierce returned to his desk and rummaged around for few seconds. When he re-joined us, I expected him to take down the poster. Instead, he pulled off the cap of one of those thick red markers and wrote, “FOUND” over the word “Missing” in neat, bold print.