Much to Paul’s relief, mom chose to re-enter society as Hannah. It was a good long-term decision but presented all sorts of problems for us right now. For make-up, I got on the phone with Howie and asked him to check with his network to see if they had make-up artist who could make someone look older. He grumbled for a few minutes, but I explained that he wasn’t running a recruitment agency as this was a one-shot deal and so he was in fact running a professional services firm.
While we waited for Howie to get back to me, we came up with mom’s rescue story. It was pretty simple and relied on my old standby, ‘Roger did it!’ I started to say how we could get Roger to go with our story, but dad just looked at me and said, “You’re Roger, Abby, so you can drop the act. We’ll be having a long discussion about ‘Roger’ later.” Mom and Paul were confused by this byplay but let it go as I continued explaining that we’d tell everyone how Roger was going over the servers from this mornings raid and found a clue to finding mom. He followed up on it immediately, not even calling me to tell me about it and get my hopes up, and freed her. Roger wouldn’t say where he found her and mom had been locked up underground and never knew where she was being kept. Mom had never seen Roger and she simply woke up at home, in my bed, where he’d left her. It was essentially the same story that Shauna’s brother ,Samuel, had told. The main difference was that mom would refuse to say anything about her time away. If anyone insisted on knowing more about her captors, we’d just explain that there was no point in pursuing them, since Roger had taken care of them.
“Is there any death benefit payment that we’d need to return to an insurance company?”, I asked dad.
“No. At the time, we couldn’t afford the premiums and few people that young think about insurance.”
“Hey! I’m still that young.”, mom protested. Dad just kissed her and kept cleaning up from lunch.
We continued to make our plans. Once mom’s new look was all set, dad would call John Buckler and tell him about mom’s rescue. That would start the ball rolling on getting mom declared un-dead, which would mean a trip to the DMV for a new driver’s license and to the nearest Social Security Administration office.
Mom and dad wanted to keep her return as low key as possible. This wasn’t an issue, since we were only still in touch with a handful of people that knew her from before. Harry Kronin, her old boss from the community center and my grandparents. Even Mary O’reilly only knew of her because mom had helped her son Robbie. Everyone else only knew mom by her absence. Pierce, Eva and James, Bobby, Shauna and the team, Mark and Jake. None of them had ever met her and they’d have no previous memories to compare her to. We decided that we’d tell them all quietly, after she’d settled in a bit.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
After lunch, Paul and I went to Target for some clothes for mom. I was going to go myself, but dad and Paul hadn’t caught on yet to the fact that I’d driven myself to Raleigh and they assumed that I needed someone to drive me. I didn’t really mind. Mom and dad needed some alone time. With mom’s sizes in hand, I piled up on essentials for mom, while Paul browsed the movie section bargain bins to see if there were any worthy movies that mom needed to catch up on immediately. Besides the essential clothing, we also picked up some slippers, a bathrobe, hair products, and toiletries. Eventually, mom would have to come back herself and chose other things like make-up and other pharmaceuticals that I’d seen in Eva’s room. I just didn’t know anything about all that stuff and Paul was just as clueless. He was one of the people who raised me after all.
Paul’s exaggerated knocking at the door wasn’t necessary, but it did let dad know that we’d returned and he called out to us from the yard. Mom and dad were sitting outside in the yard beside the firepit that dad and I had built last Christmas. Mom had already fallen in love with it. She sat curled up next to dad in the two-seater we’d set up and I paused a few moments to watch them together. Despite the extra age difference between them, they looked so comfortable with each other that it seemed like they’d never been apart.
Paul and I grabbed a few more chairs and joined them by the fire.
“I should have known that you’d be out here enjoying your Christmas present”, Paul said as he settled comfortably into his chair.
“Christmas present?”
“Yeah, Abby and Josh made this firepit together for your Christmas present this year. Didn’t he tell you? No, of course he didn’t. Never use two words when none will do. I swear, Josh takes the strong silent type thing to a whole new level. Anyways, every year Abby and Josh would make you a Christmas present. They’d spend all their free time in December working on it. This year it was the firepit.”
Mom sat up and looked at dad and me. “Every year?”
“Abby, can you get the box from the back room please?”, dad asked. I was back in two minutes and soon we were showing her all of her presents. The wind chimes from last year, metal flowers and vase from the year before, the set of frames with pictures of our family, the jewelry and the videos. Dad had digitized our videos for mom and had them loaded up and ready to watch on an iPad. We watched every single one and in a small way mom got to see me growing up. Each one ended with dad and I telling her how much we missed her and loved her and hoped to see her soon. Mom cried through most of it. Silent tears running down her face, often while smiling.
“I can’t believe you guys did all this for me. These gifts are amazing. I love every one of them. Thank you. I’ve missed so much and wish I’d have been there to watch you grow up Abby.”
“Well, at least you’ll get a chance to watch my brother or sister grow up. I’m kinda hoping it’s a brother, though.”
They were all staring at me like I’d just grown another set of eyes on my forehead, and I realized what I’d just said. I’d forgotten to tell anyone about the baby.
“Abby? Would you mind explaining your last statement, please.” Dad was back to his normal serious self.
“Uhm…Mom’s three or four weeks pregnant. I can’t tell the sex of the baby until it’s at least two months old so we’ll have to wait a bit longer for that. So…Congratulations!”