Reconnect

She was nervous. Scared and nervous. Her mind was alternating between cursing herself for being home and picking up her phone that day and excitement because she could finally have the answers she'd been craving for over 20 years. The meeting was scheduled for three hours on the dot from this exact moment and there was a chance she was going to wear out her brand new super fluffy carpet before anyone worthy saw it. 

What of it went badly and they started screaming at each other? In public? 

"Oh God this couldn't end well!" she thought.

"Why did I accept to go? I haven't even told dad yet." 

Her father was the sweetest most loving father ever with so much patience it was a wonder how he had ended up with the woman who had birthed her. From the way he told his stories, he spoke like he was the luckiest man alive, his then wife was as crazy and outgoing as he was reserved and calm. There did not seem to have been anything that could have brought them together except that they had been at the same concert. A concert that he hadn't planned to go to in the first place and their coincidental meeting as he was rushing to the bathroom to wash off the beer someone had quite literally thrown on him when he accidentally stumbled into them. 

She was a girl he had seen around, with the wild crowd and actively avoided because they truthfully scared him. They lived such a fast paced life full of risks and jumping without looking. But of course, even he could not avoid seeing that she was beautiful and somehow managed to look put together even with the group she went around with. That night, with a heavy metal band whose name he honestly couldn't remember screeching in the background, he was pleasantly surprised when she stopped him with a hand on his arm as he maneuvered his way around her and saying his name. He hadn't thought he was the sort of person she would notice. And from then on, as he says, everything else was forgotten because that was the night that started a life for him that he would never exchange for anything. 

She managed to stay long enough to give birth to her and nursed for about 8 months then she was off. She left a letter, beseeching them to forgive her but she had lost sight of who she was, she wasn't meant for motherhood and couldn't take it. That was the last they ever heard of her, well, until now. 

And she hadn't told her father yet. 

As she completed another rotation in her endless journey across the carpet, she cast a glance at her watch. Two more hours to go. 

Maybe she should go early and wait for her from there. Way better than reaching late and flustered only for it to end badly. But there was so much time left, what was she going to be doing with herself. 

Before she allowed her mind to start another word war and her feet to wear out her carpet once more, she grabbed her bag, threw in a novel she had been reading for forever and stalked out of the apartment to the cafe around the corner where she had suggested they meet. 

The cafe was one of those hidden treasures you don't see for years then one day you just stumble upon them and any other place you knew makes no sense anymore. It was family owned and by the time you had your second cup of coffee and their homemade brownies with the secret ingredient no one dared asked about, you felt like you were part of the family too.

"Miss Ella, how nice to see you," a lovely woman with a shock of white hair and a surprisingly straight back, bright green eyes and a smile to heal all your troubles said as she ushered her to her favorite seat in the corner. 

"Lovely to see you to Ma'am," Ella replied as she slid into the rich coffee coloured seat. " How is the family?"

"Heh you know how the boys are, driving me up the wall all the time, Betsy's baby is almost here and Harry is beside himself." 

"Do we know the sex yet?"

"No, we all want to be surprised but I'm sure Harry knows. He's smiling too much lately." This was to be her 5th great grandchild and she got excited for each baby like it was the first. Ella had never had the chance to be an auntie given that she and her father were both the only children and all her friends seemed to be averse to the idea. 

"Look at me rumbling on, you must be hungry, what will it be today dear?"

" Just a cup of coffee for now. I'm waiting for someone."

"Ohh a young man perhaps?"

I wish. "Not all."

"Okay, Theo will be right out with it. You just get comfortable." And she went on to chat with the next customer.

What if she was already here, watching her? What if she left? Ella had only one picture of her mother, a small black and white square of a woman sitting in a plush sofa nursing a baby, her face was turned away from the camera and you could only see a small part of her face, only the side of her nose clearly visible. She might fail to recognize her own mother. 

"It seems I'm not the only one who wanted to be early," a voice said above her head. Ella turned her head and looked straight at herself a few decades from now. There's no way she could have failed to identify her, they had the same face, down to the frown line in between the eyebrows.

"Hello Ella", a smile, the same teeth.

She couldn't breathe, she hadn't lied, she was actually here.

"Hello Mother. Won't you sit down?" her voice sounded stronger than she felt. She was shaking all over. Not in anger, surprisingly, she was excited. She would have a lot of explaining to do to her father later for sure, but she was going to use this chance to find out all the she could and hopefully, get her mother back in any way possible.