My Mother Came Back

I first noticed him on warm but cloudy Monday afternoon, I was sitting on the old, creaky park swing. Waiting for my sister to finally of going up and down the "Kiddy Slide". She was like a pattern that wouldn't stop. Every time we came here she only went on one thing, the Kiddy Slide. I wondered how she never got bored of it. I would have but I was boring Rain who barely ever got her nose out of a book and she was adorable missis Chloe who was energetic, bouncy, and ALWAYS full of energy no matter what.
It was then that I first noticed him. He was just standing there right behind the huge oak that was slightly tilted at an 80 angel. He looked normal, he seemed normal. But as I kept looking closely, as if I wanted to see something special about him I couldn't help but notice that something was off, something was odd. Was it by the way he just stared at my sister, was it the fact that he was wearing a huge green jumper that looked like it had been in the wash to many times? No, it couldn't be any of those reasons but I still had a feeling. I tried to focus my attention on something else. In the end, I decided to read all the ice-cream flavours that the ice-cream van parked nearby had to offer.
By the time, Chloe came up to me and said she was ready to go home I had memorised all the ice-cream vans ice-cream flavours and their prices. I was only to glad to go home and get back to Moby Dick. Although, as I was closing the park gate behind us I couldn't help to through one last glance at him. He was still there, still looking at us. When he saw me, staring at him, a smile appeared on his face and he waved. I didn't wave back, all I did was turn around grab my sisters hand and walk out of there as quickly as I could without running.
The next day at school, I decided not to tell any of my friends about yesterdays encounter. I thought keeping it to myself would be the best thing, I was convinced that it had been a one-time thing, that I would never see him again. I couldn't have been more wrong. Because later that day...
I was helping at my dad's coffee shop, La Coffee. Everything was ordinary, we had run out of caramel for our caramel toffee coffee surprise so now it was simply the toffee coffee surprise.
That was until he came in. He was wearing the same washed out green jumper as the day before. I collected my nerves and confidence and went to take his order. "Welcome to La Coffee, what may I get you?". "I've heard your Caramel toffee coffee surprise is wonderful, so ill take that." All while he was saying that he kept staring at me like I was a shooting star, his eyes glowing in the dim afternoon light. "I'm sorry we ran out of Caramel so it will have to be just Toffee Coffee surprise will that do?" I try to say this with as much coolness in my voice as I can manage. He answers in a cool tone, one like a guy that was "to cool" for school would use. "Yes, that would be fine." As I turn away to make his order I can't help but feel like he's watching me. When I get a glance of him in the huge mirror which is hung on the wall my suspicion is confirmed he is watching me, but so is the whole coffee shop, its like their hypnotised, he moment he walked in everything changed. Weird. I decided to start a mini investigation and try to find out as much about him as possible. After all he had been following me around for the past 2 days, at least I would know something about him.
I finished off making his coffee, making sure to add extra toffee to make so that it would make up for the fact that we had run out of caramel, finally I rang him up. That would be $3.45, please. "Do you take linocolos?" he asked. I had no clue what they were but at least they had given me a clue to understand from where he might come from. "Err, no sorry" What were linocolos? Were they come sort of currency? To be honest they sounded more like some sort of pills you wold take when you had a sore thought.
His "to cool for school" snapped me out of my daydream, "Oh, ok well then here." He hands me a 200-dollar bill while saying, "Sorry, that's the smallest amount of dollars I have." Ok, he wasn't just weird, he was beyond weird. What kind of 13-year-old has 200-dollars. He either had some super rich parents, or like I believed came from some planet in another galaxy. I quickly gave him his change, which took a while to gather as we don't usually have to give change for a 200-dollar bill. "Here's $196.55, we hope you enjoy our coffee and make sure to come back for more!" I said this while thinking, please don't come back for more! "Of course." he replied. While leaving he added, "See you around Rain!" in the loudest voice ever then quickly closed the door behind him and left.
I could practically feel my ears and face burning. To make it worse I could also feel the whole coffee shop's eyes on me. How had he known my name? How could it be possible? I was the only 13-year-old in my school that didn't have a social media account. There was no way he could have known my name. Unless, no it wasn't possible, what had she done wrong? In all her 13-years the only thing she had done wrong was that one time she had forgotten to give back a library book on time- She ended up having to pay $1, because she gave it back 2 days late. It couldn't be because of that that a stalker was following her around, could it? She was so caught up in her thoughts that she accidentally dropped the jar containing the toffee. Just as she was kneeling to clean up she heard the cool kids snicker.
Could this day get any worse? I quickly cleaned up the mess that the toffee had made. Trying my very hardest to ignore the fact that the whole coffee shop and probably everyone who was standing outside was staring at me.
Biology, tick. English, tick. Math, double tick. French, not tick. As hard as I tried I couldn't focus. Even when my French teacher appeared in my head after the last French test and said, "Rain, you have to up your grades or I'm going to have to contact your parents." There was just no way for me to get this assignment done. After another 30min trying I gave up trying. I'm going to fail anyway so me trying won't make a difference.
I decided not to waste my time but to continue my reading with Moby dick.
It was probably around 6pm when I heard a quiet tapping on my window. At first, I thought I was to into my book, but the tapping kept getting louder and louder until I heard my name being called. At that point, I knew I wasn't daydreaming. I quietly stood up and tiptoed to my window. I peered through the window. I jumped back, there was no way, it couldn't be.
My heart was thumping, my mind was racing. I could hear my pulse beating like a tambourine through my ears. All my life I thought I was safe, safe from her but I suppose not any more. All my life, my father had told me what she had done, done to him, to me but most importantly to our family. Or what it once was. She had destroyed it.
My mother, although I was only 6 when she left, but I remember the damage it had done to us. My father never said a word to me for the following 3 months, I was left alone, all alone, no one to turn to, no one to ask for help, I and had to take care of Chloe, who was only 1 at the time. And now?! Our family wasn't a family, Chloe had just started school and was doing great. I, apart from my French work was doing great in school. Now, things were going to be ruined. For, the sight that I saw when I looked through the window was a sight that was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
Standing near our front door was my mother. Dressed in a black leather jacket, black leggings and she even had on black converse. In short, she looked like she was ready to rob a bank. But what shocked me more than the fact that my long-lost mother was standing by our front door was who was with her. At first, I was not certain but my opinion soon became a fact as her companion slowly but steadily turned towards our door. Not completely towards me but enough that I could make out his face. And it was none the less but the suspicious washed-out green sweater wearing guy. The same one that was at the park yesterday and the same one that payed with a $200 bill earlier today. Now no way was this a coincidence. How could 2 people at the same place, same time and same weirdness be planning to get into our house. There was only one explanation, they were working together.
Even though I was on the verge of screaming I couldn't help but wonder why they were here. Why was my mum working with some weird 13-year-old guy? We had never done anything to hurt my mum and we never even saw the guy. There was no explanation as to why they were trying to break into our house.
Were it a normal day I would have called my dad and asked him for help but today he was taking my sister to her theater practice. As if it had to be today that my sister had her silly theater practice. "Well, look's like I'm on my own, Bailey." I said to my chubby 1-year-old cat. Ginger cat. No matter how hard we tried to hide all the food in our house she would still eat everything that she came across. Even if that was our shoes. One time we had to pay $100 to get my favorite fluffy blue socks, removed from her stomach, they soon became my least favorite. But that's beside the subject. Right now, I needed to focus on how to get my mother and the freaky guy from opening my front door.
I gathered up my nerves and peered out my window. My mother was now examining the building next to ours, and then out of nowhere she grabbed a long, thick tough looking stick and busted our front door open. She nodded to the guy and taking one last look down the street ran into our home.
My heart was beating, my pulse racing, my forehead was sweaty but most of all I couldn't believe my own mother had just broken into a house, MY house the house she had left us in for 7 years. I couldn't let this happen, first she leaves us and doesn't show any sign of coming back for 7 years and suddenly, she breaks into our house with a 13-year-old boy as her sidekick.
Our house was a century old so if anything, so if anyone moved you could hear it all throughout the house. At times, it was extremely disturbing but today I couldn't be more grateful for I could hear all their moves. As well as hearing where they were going I could also hear their conversation. "This is it, this is the place", I could hear my mother say. "What do you want here?" The all-to familiar voice said. "I want my daughters. I want to see them, I want to get to know them." The next thing that she said shocked me. I almost couldn't believe it. "I want to take them. And hopefully buy the end of the week that will be the case."
"No!!!! You won't take us. We're happy here and you just showing up and kidnapping us isn't going to happen!" I shouted. I covered my mouth with my hands, I couldn't believe I had just said that a loud. I wanted to run away, hide but it was to late, my mother was already in my room, she had heard me. "Rain! my goodness What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at your sister's theater practice?" my mother had asked me. "No. I'm not." I replied in a cold tone of voice. "And shouldn't I be asking you what you're doing here? This is MY house after all." "Rain..." she began. I didn't let her say another word. "No! Don't even start talking. First you leave us without a trace and no communication for 7 years and now you're breaking in to our house without even a good reason! How am I supposed to explain this to my father when he get's home!"
By this time, the guy had joined us in my room. "Rain please, keep your voice down I'll explain everything as soon as I can. But please, I beg you don't tell your father about our encounter.". "No way! That is definitely not happening!" I said this while reaching for my phone which lag next to Bailey. "Please! I have never asked anything of you, have I, ever?!" I thought about it. She was right. It wouldn't hurt to do her one favour. After all she still was my mother. "Ok... But this all better have an amazing explanation!" I shouted. She said goodbye and left. Just like that. As soon as she had come in she had left. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked, and. I was still in shock when a few minutes later my father and sister pulled in to our driveway. In that moment, there was only one thing I knew for sure I had no idea how I was going to keep this a secret from my father and sister.