I’d gone to midnight mass with my gran, who, despite her age and horrible joint pain, still adored the tradition.
As we walked into the church, I spotted my mother waiting by the door. My mother’s face lit up, and she rushed forward like we’d seen each other yesterday.
“Melody!” she exclaimed, reaching for a hug. “It’s been so long!
You’re so beautiful.”
Now, I knew exactly who she was. I knew exactly who my father, who was walking toward us, was. But I wanted to hurt them.
“Sorry, do I know you?” I asked.
My mother’s face crumpled like tissue paper, but my father stepped in, red-faced and indignant.
“Excuse me, young lady?
What kind of tone is that? What kind of question is that? You know that we’re your parents!”
I tilted my head, pretending to think.
My parents? That’s funny, because my parents are at home, rushing to wrap the last-minute Christmas presents they got me. You must be Anthony and Carmen?
The people who gave me up?”
Then I walked to sit with Gran, leaving them gaping.
They sat behind us, and I could feel their eyes boring into the back of my head the entire service. On the way out, they stopped me again.
“You really don’t recognize us?” my mother asked.
I stared at them for a moment.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said.
“Serves them right, my love,” she said. “As you can see, I don’t exist to them.
I haven’t since you were eleven years old and I shouted at them for how they treated you.”
A few days later, they must have done some digging because they called me out of the blue.
“Melody, sweetie,” my mother began. “Now that you’re doing so well for yourself, wouldn’t it make sense to help the family out a little? You know, after all we’ve done for you.”
I almost laughed out loud.
“What you’ve done for me?
You mean abandoning me?”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” she snapped. “We gave you the space to grow into the independent woman you are today. If it weren’t for our sacrifices, you would be nothing.”
I couldn’t believe her audacity.
“You did no such thing,” I argued.
“You didn’t want me around while you chased Olympic dreams with Chloe.”
“Family is family,” my father said through the phone. “We’re all in this together now. Don’t you think you owe us a little for raising you?”
“You didn’t raise me.
Aunt Lisa and Uncle Rob did. If I owe anyone, it’s them.”
I hung up before they could reply.
I suppose I could have checked on Chloe, but she had cut me off, too. Just as our parents had.
I had nothing left to give them.Continue reading…
