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She grabs her mug and pours a cup for herself. “Saving the world again, son?”
I roll my eyes. “Something like that.”
“Don’t let him downplay it,” Mia interjects. “Last night, he and the team saved sixteen girls that had been kidnapped.”
“That’s my boy.” Ma beams at me, making my cheeks warm. “His father was a different kind of hero.”
“Firefighter, right?” Mia asks.
Ma sighs wistfully. “Twenty-five years.”
I rack my brain to remember if I told Mia my father’s profession or if she found that out on her own.
Not sure whether that matters, but it doesn’t sit well. She knows everything about me, and I know next to nothing about her.
“And what do you do at Redleg, Mia? Are you a guard too?”
“Oh, no ma’am. I work in the office on the intel team along with Cal.”
Confusion clouds my mother’s expression as her gaze sweeps to mine. “But I. The intel team? I thought… oh no.” Her face melts into a pool of sadness and something else. Fear, perhaps.
Posture sagging, she turns from us and staggers to the sink. With her hands braced on the edge of the counter, she keeps her back to us and hangs her head low.
Mia’s worried eyes catch on mine, slow-blinking and remorseful. “I’m sorry,” she mouths, barely above a whisper. “She didn’t know?”
“She knew.”
But she forgot.
Even on her good days, like today, little things slip through the sieve of her mind. Names. Dates. Details.
Sometimes, it’s better when she’s blissfully ignorant of her confusion.
In moments like this, however, she remembers she’s powerless to win the battle waging in her mind.
The same way I witness her slipping away, a little more each day, she sees it too.
I wonder if she asks herself the questions I do.
How long until the person in the mirror doesn’t recognize me?
Moving quickly to my mother’s side, I pull her close for a comforting embrace. I wish I could fix this for her.
Be her hero.
“I forgot again, didn’t I?” she murmurs into my chest. “I promise I’m trying, Cal. I don’t want to forget.”
Pain lances my chest, aiming right for my heart. Somehow, I manage to squash it and focus on soothing her.
“It’s okay, Ma. It’s like I told you before. Every time you forget something, I’ll remind you. I’ll keep track of important things for you. And the little things too. When you can’t make a rhubarb pie, I’ll show you. If you get lost, I’ll bring you home. I’ll be by your side to remind you of everything that matters. When you don’t know where to turn, just look for me.”
Moisture soaks into the front of my shirt from her tears, searing my skin like a hot branding iron.
Her pain is my own.
After a few long moments, she speaks quietly, like she’s telling me a secret. “This is embarrassing in front of your girlfriend the first time I meet her.” She tries to nudge me backward, but I hold her tighter. “It is the first time I’ve met her, right?”
My voice threatens to wobble. “Yeah, Ma. It is. And she’s fine. Don’t be embarrassed.” I peek over my shoulder, but Mia’s not there. “In fact, she gave us some privacy.”
