We hold each other for what feels like forever, and when the cries finally subside, I pull away,
“I’m so sorry,” I say, wiping my eyes with my fingers, drying them as best I can. “That’s not how I wanted to start our conversation, I just… That hug has been a long time coming, and I didn’t even know it.”
“Why don’t we take a seat,” she says, gesturing to the couch I was waiting on.
I nod, and we take a seat next to each other.
I wait for her to speak, not knowing where I should go from here. Is it possible she remembers me? Is this the reconnection I was hoping we’d get?
She takes a deep breath, swallowing roughly, then says, “You’ll have to forgive me, but I don’t know who you are.”
My heart drops at her words, but I nod.
“But I did have an interesting dream last night. One that’s brought up some feelings and emotions I’m not sure how to process.”
My eyes light up. “What was the dream?”
“Well, that’s the thing, I had it while I was sleeping, but it felt more like a memory. But when I woke up, I couldn’t place that memory in my head properly.”
She pauses, then continues. “I believe you were in it. At least a little girl who looks like you, but much younger. Her name was Liana. There was also a man. My husband, but not the husband I have now.”
I scramble to take out my phone, completely forgetting Massi’s listening on the other line. Thankfully, I’m still able to pull up my photos and find the last one me and my parents took over ten years ago.
Showing her the screen, I say, “Is this him? The man from your dream?”
Her eyes widen when she looks at the photo. “It was, and that little girl, thatwasyou. This looks more like her.”
I nod. “Yes, that’s my dad. Your husband.”
Tears form in my mom’s eyes, and now it’s her turn to break down. I scoot closer to her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, and hold her.
“I just, I don’t understand. Did you make me an emerald-green dress when you were younger?”
“I did. It was for a gala you and Dad had to attend. It was the first big piece I ever made.”
“How is this happening?” she cries out.
“I have to ask first, what is the furthest thing in your past that you remember?”
“I…” She stares straight ahead while she thinks about that. As she shakes her head and crinkles her brow, I can tell the strain this is putting on her.
“It’s okay. Don’t strain yourself trying to remember.”
“I just wish I knew, but every time I try, there’s a wall there and I get stuck in this thick, heavy fog that I can’t seem to get out of.”
“Do you recall anything that happened to you? Anything traumatic? Maybe over a decade ago?”
She nods, then looks at me. “I was in a plane crash that caused memory loss.”
“A plane crash. Yes, that’s correct.”
“You know about that?”
“Yes, that plane crash involved you and my dad, but he… he didn’t make it.”
It hurts saying those words, because finding out my mom was alive gave me a glimmer of hope that my dad might be too. So when I found out he wasn’t, it was like I had lost him all over again.
“I remember some things from when I was younger, but then I’m missing a large gap of my life. I woke up in a private care facility where I met Ignazio, then the rest was history.”
