“I hate you, Mom! I hate you!”
Max slammed the door as hard as he could at his mother’s face. From outside, she could hear her son crying and thrashing about in the room. She sighed and hung her head low for a few minutes before walking away to her study room.
It was the fifth time that she had forgotten her son’s birthday. She did promise to take him out for dinner a few weeks before that, but when she heard about a fantastic fossil discovery by her colleague in South America, she quickly booked a ticket and flew off, only to come back three days after Max’s birthday. She tried to coax her son and apologize, promising that she will buy him a special present later tomorrow, but Max just yelled at her and slammed the door.
She could not blame him. He was hard-headed, like his father, Blake, whom she divorced six years ago. And ever since the divorce, she was busier than usual, trying to make ends meet and support both her and Max’s living. It was no wonder that she could be so forgetful at times. The guilty feeling hung over her like a metal bar tied on her neck as she heard Max storming downstairs and slamming the front door before the whole house became quiet, like a deserted island.
Virginia tried to remember Max’s age for this year. Then she realized that she was so worked up and engrossed in her archeological researches that she had actually forgotten how old Max was. She had to calculate the year he was born before she could get the answer; twelve years old. She knew that at this age, Max still needed his father, so every time he flies in a temper with her, she never forbid him to see Blake, which he always did even before they divorced.
She knew that just by meeting every whim and fancy of Max is just not enough to patch things up between their relationship. She knew that Max hated her tearing him apart from Blake because he loves him very much, and her neglecting him often made him hate her even more. But what else can she do? It was not very easy being an archeologist because it is not always that she can discover new artifacts and sometimes she had to take several other odd jobs to keep on the family survival. And she had no one else to turn to but herself because Max is still too young to understand her problem and Blake is not there with her. Sometimes she even regretted ever making that divorce.
But then she shook that thought away. It was her decision and she chose it herself. She was the one who could not put up with Blake’s attitude and she would have to live with this situation. Tonight, she thought, when Max comes home, I am going to take him out to dinner and watch the movie that he was dying to watch for a long time. She smiled at that thought and continued on with her work, studying the fossilized bones she brought home.
That night, she waited. She was all dressed up in her best going-out clothes and she was anxious to take her son out, just to show how sorry she was before and how she really wanted to make it up, whether he likes it or not. The clock ticked. An hour had passed. Two hours. Three hours. Max’s footsteps were still unheard. The grandfather clock she got from her late father when she was sixteen, chimed twelve times signaling that it was midnight, but still Max did not come home.
When the clock chimed one in the morning, it was the last straw. She dialed the numbers of her mobile phone to her old house before she was divorced and waited for Blake to pick up the phone. As soon as she heard her ex-husband on the phone, she barked, “Where is my son?”
“Virginia? Don’t you know what time is?” Blake replied in astonishment.
“Blake, where is my son?” Virginia repeated her question.
“Isn’t he supposed to be with you?”
“No, he isn’t. He went out this evening and did not come back until now. I thought he was with you.”
“Me? No, he wasn’t! He didn’t even come over to my place today! We promised to go fishing before that!”
Blake’s surprised tone told her he was not lying. She hurriedly said goodbye to him and dashed up to Max’s room. She found his room messy with all his belongings thrashed onto the ground. She noticed a note on his table that said ‘Left this horrible house for good. Don’t come looking for me’.
Virginia started to panic. Her son has run away from home, and it is all her fault! She broke into tears when she heard her ex-husband’s voice downstairs. Blake has taken the matter seriously and drove to Virginia’s to check out what was going on. When he read the note, he hugged Virginia and promised that he will look every nook and cranny of the city for him. Virginia made a police report and slept restlessly on the sofa all through the night, with Blake by her side.
The next morning, she asked for a few days’ leave, which she had never done before in her life, and started surveying the city, carrying Max’s picture and asking everyone about Max’s whereabouts. She went to game centers, cinemas, bookstores; all the places that she thought Max might go and asked about Max, but none of them were relevant. She tried to call Max’s friends and even went to his school to ask if max was there, but unfortunately no one had seen him and she heard from his class teacher that he had not been to school for a week.
Every night, she sat by the phone, waiting for a call about news of Max. She printed copies of Max’s pictures and stuck them on walls, only to get prank calls or false information from people who just wanted the reward. Although her health deteriorated and sleep became a stranger to her, she never gave up hope that Max was still around.
Her efforts finally took fruit when she saw one of Max’s older friends, Felix, strolling around in the dark side of the city. She knew Felix is involved with a gang and that Max really admired him as a tough and strong idol. She went up to him and asked the same question she asked everyone else, “Hello, Felix, have you seen my son?”
“No, of course not,” Felix replied. She could see that he was lying because he looked away every time he denied it and he started stammering when she went on questioning him. Finally, when she threatened to take him to the police, he told her everything.
“Alright, Mrs. Dean, alright! The last time I saw him was a few weeks ago. He came to me and said how terrible you are. My boss invited him to join in our gang, and I never heard of him since. That’s all I know, I swear!”
“Can you take me to this gang?” she asked. Felix, of course, refused, saying that it was too dangerous and his boss disliked outsiders. After much persuasion, Felix finally agreed to take her only to the front door and not more than that.
When she got there, she was disgusted by the dirtiness of the place; cobwebs, overturned trash cans and rats and cockroaches scurrying away at the sight of humans. But still she went in anyway. She was shaking when she came face to face with the mob but she held firm, determined to get her son back. She saw Max behind the mob that surrounded her, torn and tattered and bruised at every corner. The leader of the gang, Bones, sneered and signaled his boys to ‘welcome’ her.
“Give me back my son,” she said, shaking.
“Why? I thought he came here because you didn’t care. Max has been a bad boy lately, but don’t mind the bruises, it will go away.”
Virginia picked up all her strength to fight off the mob to get to her son. She never hit her son before and she hated people who hurt him. The mob was stronger, cornering her and hurting her at every way a gangster would do. Max tried to stop them but was shoved aside and given a black eye. Virginia did not give up. She continued to thrash them away, which was in vain, and was about to be hit to death when she heard a loud bang of a gun and someone shouted, “Freeze! Police!”
The mob spread, running away at every direction. Blake came to her, asking if she was alright. Blake had actually heard from Felix about her attempt and rang to the police to tell them about it. Max ran towards his mother and hugged her tight, crying and wailing and apologizing for all the trouble he had caused her.
“It’s okay, Max. Mom’s right here, don’t worry,” she said, bursting into tears herself, feeling thankful that she had finally got her son back.
“Mom, I’m sorry I said I hated you.”
“It’s alright. For your information, your Dad and I have decided to try and patch things up between us, right Blake?” she turned to her ex-husband.
Blake just smiled.
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