Mama

We were crowded in a small space, and there were bare furnishings and bare walls. Mum and dad were there, as were brother and his wife. Somehow there was tension in the room, as of tbere had been an argument...

Dad sat and sulked and ignored the rest of us. Mum sat on a bench and looked down and sad. I paced around, tiptoeing around but inside I was thinking of ways to bring everyone together again... I don't know why I had flowers with me, white cornations with pink rims. There were for mothers day, I knew this much.

I plucked a stem and held it in my hand. I walked around with it. I was nervous and cautious. I didndt want to upset anyone with anything, not with all the tensions in the room.

I offered it to mum. The one thing I heard myself say out loud before I woke myself was "Mama..." It was a sound of longing and mellow pain. It was the sound of a child calling for his mother yet knowing the call will not be answered.