Abandonned Child
Melech jumped in the puddle in front of him, splashing the water on his mother's skirt. She held his arm, pulling him out of the muddy mess, and scolded him.
“You are going to mess up your school uniform.”
They arrived in front of the school building
She pulled him closer to straighten his collar.
“Now my love, remember to be a good boy at school. Listen to your teachers and don’t get up to mischief.”
Melech wasn’t paying attention to what his mother was saying, his eyes watched as the other children rushed into the school building, he was eager to join them and play with his friends.
“Ok mama can I go now ?” Replied Melech in his little mischievous voice.
“Wait my little prince, I love you very much,” said his mother as she planted the biggest kiss on his cheeks.
“Mama” yelled Melech impatient as he eagerly wanted to get to his class and see his friends
His mother smiled as she released him and watched him hurry into school. He stopped for a moment, smiled, and waved goodbye at her then continued into the school building. Tears fell from her eyes silently as she swallowed the sound that threatened to escape her throat. She turned around and walked home.
20 years later
“It was a pleasure meeting you sir, let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.” the bookstore clerk smiled, the look in her eyes a piercing invitation.
“Thank you” replied Melech, with his eyes fixed on her as she walked away. She was obviously flirting with him, old him would have pursued her further and gotten her number but he didn’t have time for such frivolous behavior. He was on a mission of great importance. He returned his attention to the book in his hand. He has been searching for this book for years. And now he finally found it. The book that ripped his mother from his life, now that he held it in his hands, he couldn’t quite understand what he had expected to feel once he got the book. Complicated emotions swept through his being, he was happy, sad, angry, and heartbroken. Now that his search was finally over, he expected to feel relief but he felt everything but relief. He broke out of the cascading thoughts and emotions that overwhelmed him and walked to the counter to pay for the book.
As he drove home, thoughts of his mother filled his mind with the book on the passenger’s seat. He remembered the nights she read chapters from the book to him, he was always so enchanted by the way his mother read to him. It was what he looked forward to the most, reading books and exploring the worlds in the stories in the books. Melech’s mother had disappeared 20 years ago, she dropped him off at school one morning and never returned to pick him up. He waited for hours outside the school until a teacher called his father to pick him up. For years he couldn’t understand why his mother was missing and why she never came back. His father told him when he turned 16 that his mother had abandoned them. His father opened up to him about the struggles in their relationship and how his mother had threatened to leave them several times, only he didn’t think she would do it. His father grew bitter, he got rid of everything that reminded him of her in the house. As far as his father was concerned she was as good as dead to them. His parents made enough money to not be homeless but not enough to live comfortably. For years Melech hated his mother for abandoning him, he couldn’t understand how a mother could do something like that to her own family.
His phone rang snapping him out of his thoughts.
“So, give me the good news Linda, did we secure the building?”
“Hi Melech, yes we did. I spoke to the agent and we just need you to sign the papers and it’s yours.”
“Yes!!! You Linda are my hero. Have the papers sent to my office tomorrow morning bright and early? Thank you so much for helping me, this means the world to me, Linda.”
“Oh don’t mention it, see you tomorrow bright and early. Have a nice day.”
The call ended
For the longest time, Melech had searched for the perfect building for his bookstore. It had always been his mother’s dream to own a bookstore but she didn’t have the funds. This was his way of being closer to her, he had fallen in love with books because of his mother and now that he had all the money in the world, he was going to own a bookstore. And this book he had just bought was going to be one of the first books he adds to his bookstore.
