The rose garden

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same -just in a slightly smaller format, as she was not that seven-year-old girl anymore. The garden grew smaller overtime, though the roses did not alter in looks. The white porch of her grandfather’s house still held plants in various sizes and a reading corner that was placed next to the swing she loved so much. She used to sit on it while her grandfather would read her something from Harry Potter.

   When she looked in this direction now, it looked as if her grandfather could come out of the house with two glasses of lemonade at any second. But of course, she knew that that was impossible; he had died just over twenty-one years ago, and she still regrets the fact that she has never seen him after the day she was taken.

It was just another Tuesday in the suburbs of Barcelona when Kate left for school. Her mother laid on the floor next to the couch with a bottle of whiskey. Two glasses were emptied next to the stains in the white carpet.

   It had been like this for a while now; Kate’s mom paid more attention to drinking than to her. Especially after her stepfather came into the picture a little over half a year ago, while her real dad had started a new life in Greece when she was four.

   Her mother let her call him every year on her birthday, but the last call had been months ago. She missed him dearly and wanted to see him. Certainly, after the last communication between the two, when he reassured her that he would get her out of there if she could stay strong for now. And that was what she did.

   That is why Kate had learned to take care of herself. She could make herself some sandwiches for the day after she got dressed and took them to school. And because she looked so put-together, no one had noticed anything. But still, she did not have many friends.

   On this particular Tuesday, she got on her bike and went in the same direction for school as she normally does. However, this day evolved in a very different direction overall. She rode her bike until she got to the small forest path she liked to take, so she could hear the birds sing and see the ducks play in the pond, while she parked her bike and sat on a wooden bench with her sandwich, overlooking the water.

   It normally was a very quiet part of the town, where it was only her and some animals, but on this day, there were a man and a woman at the other side of the pond, standing next to a red car, looking at her. It looked like they were talking about her, but she didn’t know it for sure. She grabbed a book out of her bag and started to read, not paying attention to the pair across the water. They would leave, soon, wouldn’t they?

   A few sentences later, she was startled when she heard a familiar voice say: “Hi, Kate.” She immediately turned around and saw her dad and aunt smile at her.

   “Daddy!” The two embraced each other as Kate fell a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. It was so nice and unreal to actually see the man she could only speak briefly over the phone once a year, although she must admit to herself, she had seen him come into her dreams every now and then. She wondered if she had already been in Greece in his dreams. A tear rolled down her face.

   The reunion did not last long; the three of them knew that Kate’s mom wouldn’t let her speak to her dad, let alone meet him in person after so many years, and to add to that equation the fact that her mother did not know about this real-life reunion at all!

   They walked to the other side of the pond to step into the red car she had already seen. Kate’s aunt drove it to the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport while she and her dad sat on the back seat together.

She got used to her new life on Crete in no time. Her aunt took care of her while her dad worked in his restaurant on the seaside. They played board games in the evenings until Kate got a little bit older and started to go out with friends. Beach parties were accompanied by a glass of red wine and a reflection of the moon glittering on the sea.

   The adventures she experienced in this new country always made her wonder how her life in Spain would have been if her dad would not have taken her out of that country. The three of them had spoken about it a little during dinners, but she never understood why her mother did not take care of her, why she could not speak to her father more than the times she did and whether her mother knew she was here in Crete, now.

   “We will discuss this when you are a bit older, honey,” he used to say, but this day never came. When she was seventeen years old, she noticed an increasing lack of interest in her life in Spain; she did not miss her classmates or her mother, and she had lots of friends and a loving family in Crete.

   But after she met Nikolas at the age of 29, and things began to feel serious between the two, he asked to marry her. She immediately said “yes”, but ever since that day, Kate could not help but feel a void inside her. “What would mom think of me now? Would she be proud of the life I am living here in Crete? Would she like Nikolas?” she asked herself when she sat on the rocks overlooking the sea, which made her think of the pond in Spain she used to eat her sandwiches before school. A soft breeze blew her hair out of her face and brought an even more important thought: “How was her mother doing? Is she missing me?”

   After she exchanged the seaside for her home that day, she started to think to make a trip back to the country she was born in; to find her mom and to see her one more time before she would marry the man of her dreams and start chapter three of her life.

   So, she told Nikolas that this trip would be very important to her, and since he understood it, he let her go, just for two weeks to sort things out.

And that is how she found herself in Spain again. After so many years. One taxi ride brought an infinite number of memories she thought she left behind, only to remind herself of them when she drove through them.

   It was strange to be back in the town where her grandfather lived. Especially now she knew that he was not here anymore. She decided to go there first, before she would visit her mom, so she could take a breath and read the letter she wrote to her mom in the plane once more.

   But a feeling of disbelief arose when she saw her mom step out of her grandfather’s house, into the rose garden. She walked with a tray of sandwiches and tea out into the sunlight to a garden house in the corner of the garden.

   Kate, who planned on entering the gate quietly, failed in this aspect and made her mother’s eyes immediately direct towards her, as the gate also grew older and made a creaking sound. Both of them were shocked, but it was followed by a big smile on both faces.

   They walked into each other’s direction and held each other after twenty-four years. The two immediately started to cry. After they calmed down a bit, they walked to the garden house together and started to talk. Kate told her mother about her life in Crete and her mother told her about the battle of her addiction.

   Those missed moments have always been felt by Kate, yet now they only thing she could feel was the love of her mother, who had conquered her own battle of life. Even though they could never retrieve those missed memories, Kate was proud of the mother she saw standing in front of her. They had this moment now. And that was all that mattered.