By Chance In Oxford

19. Athena

 I opened the door to her crisp sapphire eyes staring back at me. She was beautiful. Almost effortlessly. Her long blonde hair fell to her waist, she was tall but not super tall, maybe 5'5. Before even saying a word to her I had felt a connection like she was my own mother, warmth came off of her like she was physically steaming in cold air. I wanted to hug her, and knowing that she had sacrificed most of everything she had to step in and raise a pure, innocent child made her even more lovable. I wanted to pour a glass of wine and sit on a couch with her, and just talk for hours. I wanted to know everything about her, her hardships, her secrets, her best moments, and her worst. Most of all, maybe she could help me further learn about this boy that I came to love so much, more than I had ever expected. So, wine on the couch we did. "You must be the jewel Lorezno keeps telling me about. You are even more beautiful than I had expected after he described you. I'm Ophelia, it is such a pleasure to meet you. I'm Lorenzo's mother, I raised him since he was a little boy, after his parents were out of the picture. I can't wait to get to know you.", she said, as she took me into her arms for a warm embrace. "Hi, I'm Athena. I have heard so much about you, for a while I had thought I would never get to meet the legend herself but here we are. It is in fact a pleasure, I couldn't agree more. I have so much to ask you, so much I want to say to you." She smiled again and walked to Lorenzo before kissing his forehead he said, "Hi Madre, I have missed you more than you know. Why don't you two go sit, I'll bring you some wine and you two can get to know each other while I cook some dinner. Mamma, I know you have to leave tomorrow, so I'll try not to keep you too late. But I want you guys to get to know each other, make a good friendship, I think you guys will get along well." She looked at me, smiled and then answered him, "That we will do." She interlocked arms with mine as we walked through the beautiful bright, modern living room in our home. We sat side by side and she instantly began talking, all I could do was stare mesmerized at the complexity of her voice and nodded in response to everything trying my hardest to let her have the spotlight to tell me everything she had to say. She cleared her throat after we sat, and spoke to me saying, "So, as I said I have heard so much about you and who you are, and of course how greatly you have impacted my son's life. I heard your mother passed as well, and I heard about your dad. I'm sorry, I personally know how it feels, I watched it all happen with Lorenzo, loss is the worst thing a child can experience, or any person of any age for that matter. I heard you play the cello, and that you are quite good as well! I also know you are going to college here in Oxford and that you are originally from the states! He talks about you all the time, it's as if every single time him and I talk, you come up, somehow. I tried to give him much advice about you, I even encouraged him to ask you to move in. I think it would be hard for you to understand but he is so different. Like this week he has become a truly different person. So, what do you think of him?" I smiled, awkwardly, "He's incredible. Like something you read about in books or watch in movies, but you think for so long that things like that don't exist and then when you find your person you finally get the feeling that they do infact exist and that they are standing right next to you. It's powerful. You know, I've never felt loved, my mom died, my dad became an abusive alcoholic who ended up practically stabbing me a short time before I came to England. I don't have any siblings, I barely have any friends. And for once in my life I feel like someone has acknowledged my presence. Like for once I feel important to someone. I can't tell you how happy I have been, no one could understand it or feel it for themselves, it would be too hard." She reached over and grabbed my hand, holding it there for a second as she began to tear up. "You know, you have changed him, I mean that. A big part of him has changed, and I'll tell you how. As soon as his mom died, and his dad left, as you know I had stepped in and have basically become his mother since then. My house was really just a shelter, it wasn't very big and I tried to provide for him as best as I could but it was nothing like the life he has created for himself. His bedroom was right next to mine and I found as he grew older he got worse. Once, he was around 6 when I first noticed the nightmares. I had put him to sleep while I went to shower one night. Coming out and walking into my room I had heard him screaming, yelling, saying things like please mommy don't go, daddy stop! You can't leave me here, please don't hurt me. It was terrible, having to hear him say such things like he didn't feel protected. That was my number one goal, protecting him from the dangers he had once experienced. He was a six year old going through things some people don't go through in their entire lifetime, let alone at six years old! I had run into the room and noticed that he was in fact still sleeping, I instantly knew as if he was my own child that he was having a terribly realistic nightmare. I shook him awake carefully trying to not make him anymore scared then he already was. He woke up sobbing, the bed wet from sweat and his whole body covered in sweat. I thought you know it happens maybe it was just a one time thing like anyone would have a nightmare some nights. However, then it started happening everyday, multiple times per night and I started getting worried. I took him to tons of doctors, therapists, and sleep specialists. They all had no explanations for it, like he was broken and they couldn't fix it. I tried everything, and as he grew older things just got worse. So for his entire life he has lived through hell with nightmares. Every single night living in fear because he knew what was coming for him. He knew what he was going to have to go through again, and waking up in the morning was just a moment of any hope he had left for sleeping peacefully being crushed as he had tears in his eyes from the pain of the nightmare. As his mother I was heart broken, like I couldn't provide a stable enough home, a stable enough lifestyle to protect him from the demons chasing after him. I blamed myself for years, but over time I had realized that it wasn't my fault, his nightmares were about the people he loved and missed, the people that left, that screwed him over. As long as I could be there for him to lean on, laugh with, love, provide for him, I knew I was doing something right and I knew that I was helping someone I cared so deeply for. As painful as it was I had to understand that there was nothing I could do, I just had to let him cry on me, hold him, and comfort him until the pain went away. I say you've changed him because the day after your first date he called me and told me to come over, he was ecstatic. I was shocked as he had never sounded so happy in all his years of living. It didn't make sense as I listened to him giggle, laugh, and speak passionately as if his entire life had just turned around. When I asked him why, what had happened that made him change he had told me he met a girl, and he thought she was his guardian angel, his person set on the world for him. He had told me that that night was the first night in his life that he didn't have a nightmare. The first night that he wasn't fighting with demons, sweating, crying, going to sleep in fear for what would come for him in his sleep. He had told me that he had slept peacefully through the night and had actually had a dream that he was sitting in a field of white flowers with his mother, and that the two of them lay side by side looking at the beautiful sunshine talking again. He said his mom told him how proud she was of everything he was doing and that someday he would be happy, and that she loved him. All things he never got to hear after she died, things he longed for all his life but always fell short on.", she stopped speaking for a moment as her eyes welled with liquid. I could tell this woman had so much passion and love in her heart for Lorenzo, that all of what she said she meant. I held her hand close to let her know that I was there for her to cry and that it was ok, sitting there for a moment without saying a word so she would know that I wanted her to continue and that I wasn't brushing off everything she had just said to me, words that were incredibly impactful and life changing, words that told me things I never knew. She took a deep breath and continued the mission she went on to tell me the story apprehensive but still having courage, "He had told me that for once he thought it was ok to love, he didn't feel like loving was a chore or something he had to fake, for once he had wanted to love. My point is, that he cares so much for you, and I know you two only met pretty recently but something about you drives him crazy and saves him all at the same time. You have helped him in a way that you'll never be able to understand that depth of. You saved him, you really really did. I'm not sure if he wanted me to tell you but I had to, I needed you to know. I urge you to be careful of course, he's dangerous, you have also probably have yet to see that side of him but part of it comes from his job and the trauma he carries with him from previous portions of his life. Just understand that he wouldn't hurt you but the danger comes with the job and for him he often has no choice but to be dangerous.", she attempted to continue but Lorenzo interrupted when he called us to the dinner table. I said, "Thank you, for everything, for telling me everything you did. My mom died when I was very young as you know, and today I felt connected with her, like I had an actual mother in my life. I appreciate you so much for that, and I'm so ready to connect with you further and form a relationship with you, I want you to be a part of our life and our relationship and if you ever need anything know that I am here for whatever. I really think I love him, like you said for once in my life I feel that it is ok to love, I never could love because no one ever showed me what love felt like, but now I have it sitting right in front of me. I mean I'm talking to my boyfriend's mother who knows much about me because he talked about me, in a clean, warm, homey house where I finally feel like I have a place, while the boy I love is cooking me dinner and pouring me wine. I mean what more could I ask for? A part of me feels like I may have found my person, like you know how they say everyone has a person made for them on this earth? I think I found my person." And just as I said that Lorenzo leaned against the door frame with a kitchen rag hung over his shoulder, looking more attractive every second my eyes met his body signaling that the food was getting cold and we needed to get to the table. We walked there together, Lorenzo pulled my chair out for me gently kissing my forehead after I had sat down. Looking across the table to find her face I had never felt so connected to someone I had just met, Ophelia.