Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 42: Mommy’s Here

Chapter 42: Mommy’s Here

Mom stayed for about a week as I got my bearings and settled into my new routine.

I wouldn’t say that it had been easy. Many of my new colleagues had questioned the director’s sanity more than a few times, but I had managed to prove myself and my knowledge.

Now, it was just a matter of proving myself to the patients.

"Are you sure you are going to be fine?" asked Mom as she put the last few articles of clothing into her suitcase. "I can always stay longer. Just until you are really settled. How about this: I’ll call your Dad, and he can just move here. We’ll find a nice place to live, and everything will be fine!"

"Mom," I said, interrupting her at the beginning of her newest tangent. "You guys are not going to upend your whole life in City D for me. I will be fine here. You met the director, you love his wife... everything will be fine!"

"I am letting strangers raise my baby for three years," sniffled Mom. "How on Earth do you think that is fine? I might as well hand them my still-beating heart! It would hurt less!"

"I know, Mommy," I answered as I stroked her arm. I was sitting on the old comforter inside of her hotel room, trying to get her to calm down. "I am going to miss you too."

She spun around at my words and glared at me. "What is the point of missing me? It’s not like I asked you to leave. You could come back with me, and then there will be no missing each other. You don’t have to stay here!"

"But I do," I said, hoping that she would understand. "I want to be a doctor. Not in another six or seven years, but now. I should have to put my life on hold simply because people don’t understand or accept me. The director is giving me a chance. I am not about to disappoint him in order to sit on a couch for years, waiting for it to be my time."

"I know," said Mom tiredly as she plunked down beside me. Taking me into her arms, she held me close. "And I do understand. You have always done things your own way since the day you were born. I don’t expect that to change now. But I need you to understand. I am your mother. I am always going to be your mother, no matter how much time has passed. There is never going to be a day that I don’t worry about whether you have eaten or not, or if someone is bullying you. That is my job and my honor as your mother."

I rested my head on her shoulder and sniffled my tears. I might not have liked how I appeared in this world, but having my mom back in my life is everything I have dreamed of.

"I will call you every day and twice on the days I’m not working," I promised her, threading my fingers through hers. It always amazed me how strong of a woman she was, even though her hands were so small and delicate.

"Make sure that you do," she said, giving me a kiss on my temple. "If you so much as miss one call, I am taking your father and moving here the next day. Do you understand?"

"Of course," I agreed, squeezing her hand in mine. "I would expect nothing less."

With a sigh, she let me go and stood up. "Well then, you need to get back to the director’s house. I am off to the airport where I can cry my eyes out with only a few thousand people watching."

I laughed at her statement and wiped the tears forming in my eyes.

"Okay," I answered with a nod, my voice breaking. "But you have to call when you get home, okay? I don’t care what time it is."

She looked at me as she grabbed her luggage. "You are not the parent. I will call as soon as I get off the plane when I pick up my luggage when I am in the car, and when I get home. In that order."

"Yes, Mommy."

With one last hug and kiss, I watched Mom get into the taxi. Waving frantically, I didn’t look away until it was completely out of sight.

----

"The plane has just landed. We are waiting to disembark," said Mom, and I laughed.

I was lying down on my bed in the director’s house, listening to the voice texts that Mom had sent me. True to her word, she was documenting everything on her way home.

"I love you, mom," I replied. Sending the voice message back to her, I went back to the anatomy textbook on the bed beside me. I hadn’t been lying when I said that I owed the director for taking a chance on me. And I wouldn’t disappoint him.

----

"Mom! Dad! You came too!" said Song Xiu Lan as she got into the passenger seat of the car. She quickly brushed the tears off of her face and turned around to look at her parents.

"Did everything go okay?" asked her mom. She nodded but couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat. "It went well. Director Zong is very capable and it is a relief that she will be living with him and his wife while she is there."

Wang Yong Zhen pulled away from the curb and out into traffic, gripping his wife’s hand. There was nothing harder than having your daughter go to another city. "Maybe we can go live there for a few years," he said, almost absentmindedly.

"I told her that already," replied his wife as she turned around in her seat and smiled at him. "In fact, I have already contacted a real estate agent and found the prefect house for us.

All of a sudden, there was the sound of squealing tires and the crunch of metal hitting metal.

Soung Xiu Lan looked around, trying to find out what was going on, but she couldn’t move her neck... she couldn’t feel anything.

"Honey?" she screamed, but the words barely passed her lips. "Mommy? Daddy?"

"Mommy’s here, Xiu Lan. Hold on... Mommy’s here."

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