Mums are the best

I reached my mum's place around evening time and went straight to bed. The long train journey was exhaustive and excruciating. This was my vacation after a long time and this one is special as tomorrow is my birthday. I woke up around 11 pm to the faint noise of the TV in the living room. I got up to drink water when I saw my mum half asleep with her favourite series on TV and a big box which was my birthday gift in her hand. Mums are amazing, aren’t they? 

I silently went back to my room as I did not want to ruin the experience she had for me. She woke me up at midnight and wished me with gifts lying beside my bed. 

“Ma, wishing me at 12 in midnight isn’t necessary. I am not a kid anymore. You can also wish me tomorrow morning”, I said.

“Nah, that won’t be any good or surprising you Sweetie.” She replied with a smile on her face and weariness in her eyes. 

I was awake for a while waiting for my friend’s wishes like an attentive-seeking idiot. Texts and calls were flowing into my phone for a while. One among the texts was a bizarre one. 

‘Happy bday Sweetie. May the Lord save you from all troubles love you millions *heart emoji*- Love Mum’ 

The message came from an unknown number. I was confused after seeing this message. My mum just wished me and went to bed. Then who could this be? I only have one mum. I chuckled at the thought of two mums. I went to her room just in case to check but she was already asleep. I have become more curious now because mum is not the one who likes to prank. I checked her phone and her last WhatsApp message to me was 3 days back. My curiosity now has changed to a weird strange feeling within me. I went back to my room and I traced the unknown number through an app. The name read  ‘Sara’ which was different from my mum’s name Sophie. I knew that someone was playing a prank on me. Hence I decided to play along to know their intent. I  replied to the text.   

Me: ‘Mum?’ 

Sara: How are you Sweetie? You lost a lot of weight! Aren’t you eating properly?

Me: Yeah I am okay. It’s just that I am a little stressed in the office’

Sara: No job is more important than your health Sweetie!

I could not believe this was an imposter as this person talks exactly like my mum. 

Me: I know mum, what do I do? 

Sara: Talk to your manager and let him know that you are being pressured at work. He will give you an alternative method to cut down or ease the pressure. Or if he is the one giving pressure then go to his boss and convey the same. 

Me: Yeah, I should have done that. Thanks!

What started as a chat to know about the person continued for an hour. I forgot that it was a stranger I was talking to and not my mother. It was time to confront her. 

Sara: How are your girl Gia and your friends Barron and Austin?

I was taken aback when I heard those names.  Even my real mum does not know my girlfriends and my friends’ name. Could this be one of my friends who is pranking? I decided to stop beating around the bush. 

Me: Ok 10/10 for the prank now can you tell me who you are?

Sara: This is your mother.

Me: My mum is sleeping in the next room!

Sara: Yea, that’s correct. I never said she is not your mother. I only said I am also your mother. 

I was drinking water when I read the message and I almost choked myself. 

Me: Okay enough of this bullshit. Tell me who this is!

Sara: The time has come for you to learn the truth Sweetie

I blocked the phone number and kept my phone aside. My heart was racing as I forced myself to fall asleep.

I woke up the next day and found my mum washing yesterday night’s utensils. Mum not cleaning utensils on the same day was not common and I knew she was really tired to care less about the utensils. I decided to help her. 

“Hey mum!”

“Hey Sweetie. Had a good night's sleep?”

“Yeah, I did.  What’s for breakfast today?”

“Anything you want Sweetie!”

When she addressed me by my pet name ‘Sweetie’ the events of yesterday night flashed in my mind. 

“Who was that person who was pranking me?” I thought. 

“You know Sweetie even when you were young you used to help your mother to wash utensils. You would often get upset that you are not able to reach the kitchen top and cry in a corner until I hand you over a cloth and tell you to dry the utensil which I cleaned and you would continue to sit in the corner and happily dry all the utensils.”

I smiled when I heard the story of my silly self. 

“Those were good times. Life was simple and easy. I wish… if only your dad was there so that you could have bonded with him too. Too bad. Tooooo bad. Tooooooo bad.”

I suddenly noticed that my mum’s voice started to sound a little unnatural. I get a feel of a robotic tone. I turned towards her. 

“Toooooooooooo bad, even I did not get to bond with you.” 

I realised it was a stranger in my mum’s clothes. I almost peed myself and my throat became dry. I reached for the fridge for a bottle of water. When I opened it swallowed me like a venus fly trap swallowing its prey. The fridge spits me out immediately and I fell back into the kitchen. Trembling with fear I looked towards the stranger’s face. I was about to speak when I saw a young kid crying at the corner of the kitchen. The stranger gave the kid a towel and some utensils. I realised that the kid was my younger self. The stranger turned towards me and whispered “Seek the truth”

I shouted and found myself back in bed. My mum came from the next room to comfort me. She combed my hair with her fingers and put me back to bed. After she left the room I again heard someone whisper from my window. 

“Seek the truth”

The following days I had a similar nightmare when I went to bed. I could not sleep anymore and I wanted to confront my mum. However, I know even if dad had an affair she would try to hide it from me because she was always keen on me respecting my unknown late father. She would also become sad if I confront which I don’t want to see. I knew I had to rely on the information on someone who was with the family when dad was alive. I can ask my relatives but that won’t do the trick. Asking whether dad had a second affair will only make mum look bad. I went through my baby pictures to get some clues. Everything looked normal. However, I don’t recognise a lot of people in the pictures with me. 

“Mum, who are these people in the pictures I don’t recognize half of them. Are they our distant relative?”

“Oh no Sweetie, these were our helpers of the house. All of them were very sweet!”

“We were rich enough to have servants?”, I screamed

“Sshhh lower your voice and mind your words, young man. They are neither our servants nor below us. They were our helpers.”

“YES MAM!”

“We had 3-4 helpers at that time”.

“But mum, what the hell? You never said these things to me! How rich were we?”

“This house right here had four bedrooms. You tell me”, she smiled.

“Dayyyummm! What else did we have?”

“We had two cars and a bike. We also invested in stocks of a big company at that time.”

“Where did all the money go?”

“Your dad was a good man. Too good that he is vulnerable and believes everyone. People took advantage of that and put him in a bad scheme and the debt only got bigger from then.”, she said in a sad tone. 

“Alright cool, I am going to freshen up and go see my friends.”

Lying to my mother was always a tough thing to do for me. But this time, I need to know the truth. I recognised one of the helpers I saw in the album. I wanted to know for sure if Sophie was my mum, if so then who is Sara. I had a million questions in my mind. The helper used to be with us until a year back. She was a caring lady and helped my mum back to her feet when she was down with a high fever. I knew if anyone could know the truth it would be her. 

I found out the shocking discovery when the helper told me the truth. The truth was more complicated than I expected. As I suspected Dad had affairs when he was young and I was born to Sophie but she told me there was something mysterious about her pregnancy which she promised Sophie not to tell me. I asked her where Sara was. She said she didn’t see Sara after the divorce. I knew that to get to the end of this I had to confront my mum. I got home that day drunk and I ran fast to the bedroom without my mum noticing. I woke up the next day fresh and ready to confront her.

Me: So mum what’s new?

Mum: Hey Sweetie, did you enjoy your time with friends? 

Me: Yeah I did. So, you tell me what’s new?

Mum: Nothing much. Just folding clothes. 

Me: oh so nothing new now, okay! So, what’s old then?

Sophie looked at his son with a question mark on her face.

Me: tell me mum! What’s old?

Mum: What do you mean what’s old?

Me: You know, what are the older things which went without my knowledge

Mum: What? I am not following you Sweetie.

Me: I meant anything you wanted to say to me or anything you are keeping away from me like secrets perhaps?

Sophie’s face turned pale.

“Is this a way to talk to your mother? Where are your manners young man?”, she pushed him away from the room in guilt disguised as anger.  

She came out after a while from the room realising that she can’t keep secrets anymore from her baby boy who is all grown up.

She made me sit on a chair and started to recite the story. 

“Your dad was a smart man, smart when it comes to business but not smart enough to handle people. He often made poor choices in relationships too. We were not always happy. In between our marriage, we broke up and he wanted another girl. I refused a divorce as I did not want to give my most precious treasure in the world to another person. He knew I would not take the case to the court hence he went ahead and married. Her name was Sara and she is your real mother. However, your dad could not live with her as they were not compatible and left her for me. I was only taught to love and my naïve mind accepted the second he asked me. I knew that he got her pregnant after some time but I chose not to react to it. The reason was simple yet complicated. The pain I suffered through the years I spent without him was far worse than the thought of a child who was his and not mine. Since your dad technically did not divorce me, their marriage was nullified. This psychologically affected Sara and was admitted to an asylum hospital. We got to know after a few months that Sara was pregnant with your dad. However, doctors informed us that it would most likely be a miscarriage because of her heavy medication. Sara was an orphan and an introvert. She did not have any friends or close relatives to make decisions for her. Hence, all the power to make any decisions related to her illegitimate husband and I took the decision on his behalf and decided for a complicated ovum transplant, which would transplant her entire ovum and the baby onto my body. Even though some of the factors for my decision was to seek redemption for your dad’s sin, the other part was because I did not want an innocent child to suffer because of the sins caused by us adults.

The transplant was successful and I had you. You may feel that I was lying to you but as a surrogate mother or an adopted son, this would not have changed the way I love you and I did my best to raise you!”

My mum wiped her tears while I was on the floor lying in a pool of tears. 

“I never doubted your love mum. I wanted to know the truth that’s all”, I said. 

She took out an old newspaper from her cupboard and placed it on the table. My mum’s story was the news headlines for that date. 

October 13, 2067

We live in a world where a breakthrough in medicine and science are made often. Even though the breakthroughs are roughly decades apart, a complex procedure was executed successfully yesterday night at 11:11. Body transplants are often heard in the news but for the first time, a transplant was done based on pregnancy. Yes, our doctors have done multiple ovum transplants over the years but this procedure was never heard until now. Yes, you heard it right folks! Sara is a pregnant mother who also happened to be admitted to Alphosine’s Asylum Institution for her psychological condition. Her doctors mentioned due to her heavy medication there is a chance of miscarriage. Doctors were uncertain about their decision as Sara is an orphan. The choices were down to leave the baby in the hands of fate or find a transplant recipient before it’s too late. Sara’s ex-husband’s wife Sophie requested the baby to be transplanted onto her and thus the doctors were able to create history yesterday.

“Where is Sara now?”, I asked. 

“You must have figured some of the anomalies around you by now. A soul lingers in the house. I've certainly felt it at times. Sara is now a wandering soul amongst mortals. After the operation, Sara became more violent. She often touches her stomach and screams for hours. Even though she was ill mentally she still recognised the change in her body and knew the life growing inside her. The doctors had to increase the dosage as her body eventually became resistant to the medications. Soon, she went into a cardiac arrest due to an overdose of medication and passed away. Sara is a soul who lingers around you and protects you from any harm physically or mentally. You must have wondered why I never hit you when you came home with mischievous things done at school or for bad scores. That’s because Sara never let me hit or scold you. That’s the reason I gave away our dog as he was not properly trained. Any animal which tried to confront or even show aggression towards you she tends to knock them away. This scar on my elbow was when Sara knocked me so hard that I literally bounced off her force wave and I hit the fence outside the house. Her soul intercepts with reality and becomes aggressive to others when you are at harm.”

I stood there with my jaws dropped. Suddenly my mum burst into laughter which confused me. I saw the date and it was April 1^st. My mum’s hatred towards prank made me believe everything she said. She explained how she prepared this prank for a year with the fake newspaper and fake man made anomalies Etc. She found it hilarious that my own imagination helped with her prank. Our helper came out of the other room and started to make fun of me. This was the best and most scary prank anyone has made on me. I wanted sweet revenge on my mum for the next April fool prank and started to plan.